Engineering Education Commons^™

The Immersive Placement Experience: Sink Or Swim?, Mohammed Shaikh, Abed Alaswad, Sarah Junaid

Practice Papers

To excel in their respective engineering fields, engineering students need to be equipped with a combination of technical and interpersonal skills. Central to excellent interpersonal skills is good communication. The aim of the study is to evaluate how well-prepared mechanical and design engineering students felt entering into their industrial placements, using a UK university as a pilot case study. For the study interviews were carried out with final year students who had previously completed an industrial placement year, focussing on communication, workplace diversity, technical working methods and university teaching styles. Reponses were anonymised, coded and analysed using quantitative and qualitative …

A Scoping Review: Examples Of Mission-Driven And Mission-Oriented Innovation In Engineering Education Research, Svend Hauekrog Christiansen, Anna Overgaard Markman, Aida Guerra, Xiangyun Du

Practice Papers

Engineers of the future are being requested to become part of solutions for dealing with complexities in the world, exemplified by the adaptation of the 17 United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs). Ensuring that engineering students are introduced to these is of the utmost importance, if sustainable solutions to grand challenges shall be developed, whether being of technological, social and cultural, and/or economic character. This paper entails a scoping review of the concept of mission-driven or mission-oriented innovation, as defined by the European Commission (EC) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in engineering education research (EER). Seven …

A Three-Year Academic Track Towards Literacy In Sustainable Development - A Computer Science Study Program Case, Kamilla Klonowska, Marijana Teljega, Daniel Einarson

Practice Papers

The 3-year Bachelor Programme in Software Development study program at Kristianstad University, Sweden, aims to integrate not only academic competencies and skills in subject courses but also critical thinking skills on how Computer Science can contribute to achieving the sustainable development goals.

Starting from an understanding of the sustainable development goals, students begin a process of designing and implementing applications for some specific goals. Through participation in various activities, students exchange the ideas and perspectives, and are challenged to consider multiple solutions to complex problems. The students' critical thinking, communicative abilities, and the ability to solve problems both individually as …

Unlocking Complex Vector Calculus Concepts For Engineering Students Using Geogebra, Pragashni Padayachee, Thabiso Khemane

Practice Papers

There is an increasing drive to exploit the power of technology to improve students mathematical conceptual understanding. This work is motivated by the authors research presented at the SEFI 2022 conference which reported on students experienced difficulties with the double integral, a concept central to vector calculus. Some of the difficulties included visualising and sketching three dimensional surfaces and regions of integration and changing coordinate systems from rectangular to polar. Vector calculus is a crucial subject for engineering students, but its abstract concepts can be challenging to grasp. This curriculum proposal is a response to improve visualisation and conceptual understanding …

Lessons From Redefining Traditional Work Placements For University Students In Tu Dublin, Kevin Dominic Delaney, Norah Cussen, Deirdre Ryan

Practice Papers

There is strong support for ensuring all university students have an option to undertake relevant work placement. Work-placements enable students to engage with enterprise and develop experiential learning while linking their academic study and theory to real industrial practice. Such placements, or internships, offer students an opportunity to build their self-confidence while refining their transversal skills such as creativity, innovation, communication, team-working and problem solving. Furthermore, placements broaden students’ knowledge base and improve their employability upon graduation.

While student cohorts benefit from engaging with enterprise the enterprise also benefits, such as from the energy, new perspectives and ideas interns can …

The Use Of Peer Assessment And Group Peer Moderation To Develop ‘Soft’ Skills In Engineering Students Researching Sustainable Energy, Reena Cole

Practice Papers

Since the change to an outcomes-based approach in Engineers Ireland’s accreditation criteria almost 20 years ago there has been an emphasis placed on ‘soft’ skills such as teamwork and ensuring graduate engineers are not only well versed in their chosen discipline, but that they can communicate their knowledge – to other Engineers and also non-Engineers. Energy Management is a module taught to 4th year Mechanical Engineers, and the learning outcomes are best assessed by how students can communicate the energy topics they are researching. As an individual they will research an area that interests them and write a paper at …

Teamwork Satisfaction And Student Attitudes Towards Online Learning During An Engineering Problem And Project Based Learning (Pbl) Module, Sean O'Connor, Jason Richard Power, Nicolaas Blom, David A Tanner, Victoria De Brún

Practice Papers

Research has shown that students that report high levels of learner satisfaction and positive attitudes are more likely to succeed within the online environment. This is reflected in the considerable body of research that focuses on these factors across a range of academic disciplines. By assessing students' attitudes and satisfaction, educators gain a valuable affective perspective that allows for a more complete examination of strategy effectiveness. This paper examines teamwork satisfaction and student attitude towards online learning, while also highlighting elements of successful online collaboration as identified by students using the instruments developed by Hasler-Waters & Napier, Ku et al, …

Euniwell: Maximising Academic And Social Outcomes In Engineering Education, Neil Cooke, S Chung, Kim Hawwash, D Cottle, E Caporali, G Bartoli, J Forss, J Andersson, P Chargé

Practice Papers

The ERASMUS+ European University for Well-Being (EUniWell) alliance’s mission aims to resolve the paradox of Europeans’ relative prosperity against the global security and sustainability challenge. “Maximising Academic and Social Outcomes in Engineering Education” is a project which interprets this contradiction for engineering educators; how to best teach non-technical skills to ensure engineers make the utmost contribution to societal wellbeing? Appreciably, the social outcome for the person who becomes an engineer is positive because the profession is relatively well-paid. Therefore, engineering education is good for social mobility providing the learning environment narrows attainment gaps between disadvantaged and mainstream cohorts. Accordingly, our …

Using The Hero’S Journey Monomyth Framework To Understand Students’ Engineering Experiences, Shannon Chance, Inês Direito, Bill Williams

Conference Papers

The Hero’s Journey framework has been used by prior scholars to conduct research in engineering and science education. This framework, when used for motif coding, can help identify and organize crucial aspects of a student’s narrative about their trajectory in engineering education. Following this coding technique with narrative smoothing provides a way to convey the story meaningfully and memorably. Our research team recently used this method to study a longitudinal set of interviews conducted with an Irish woman, and we herein extend the value of that work by analyzing the interview of a Kuwaiti woman studying at the same institution …

Mentoring Programs For Engineering Students As A Way To Improve Their Skills And Competencies, Susana García-Cardo, Rebeca Jacqueline Murillo Ruiz, María José Díaz-López, Marián Queiruga-Dios

Practice Papers

Universidad Francisco de Vitoria (UFV) in Madrid (Spain) and Universidad Vasco de Quiroga (UVAQ) in Morelia (Mexico) seek the comprehensive academic training of students: not the mere development of technical skills, but also the personal and soft skills that enable them to face their professional reality.

Educational missions in both institutions aim for sustainable development oriented towards people and the societies in which they are immersed. Their substantial actions have been designed, in such a way that active methodologies and innovative proposals are included. Among them, it is worth highlighting the provision of a personalized support system for students, in …

Fy2022 Annual Report Of The Graduate School Of Engineering And Management, Air Force Institute Of Technology, Office Of The Dean Of The Graduate School Of Engineering And Management, Air Force Institute Of Technology, Adedeji B. Badiru

AFIT Documents

The annual report is published each year by AFIT’s Office of the Dean, Graduate School of Engineering and Management at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. It shares information about the activities of the Graduate School with the U.S. Department of the Air Force (DAF), Department of Defense (DoD), and wider public.

Tools To Reshape Engineering Education To Prepare Students And Professionals To Be Globally Responsible, Jonathan Truslove, Sarah Jayne Hitt, Emma Crichton, John Kraus, Juliet Upton

Practice Papers

This paper describes the development of two tools that support educators to prepare the engineers of today and tomorrow for the simultaneous, deeply interconnected challenges that the 2023 Global Risks Report emphasises as a ‘polycrisis’. This picture is worsened when considering the Institution of Engineering and Technology in 2021 found that only 7% of 1,000 UK engineering companies with a sustainability strategy had the staff with the skills to fulfil it. Against this backdrop, meeting our commitments with integrity, upskilling the current workforce urgently, and ensuring degree courses are future-fit are crucial. In response, these two new actionable tools aid …

A Theory-Based Teaching Concept To Embed Sustainability In The Engineering Curriculum, Brit-Maren Block, Marie Gillian Guerne

Practice Papers

The implementation of sustainable development and the responsible use of the resources available to us are among the key objectives of our time. To meet the challenges of global sustainable development, young professionals with a growing set of skills are needed. Higher education is crucial in fostering the skills graduates need to become agents of change for sustainable development. Therefore, new teaching and learning approaches are needed in engineering education that link technical and sustainability-oriented topics and integrate education for sustainable development (ESD). Studies show that there is a particular lack in the design and implementation of engineering courses that …

Unlocking Deeper Insights: A Qualitative Approach To Evaluating Stem Outreach In Engineering Education, Yiduo Wang, Lauren Schrock, Jane Andrews, Robin Clark

Practice Papers

Much previous research and evaluation has been conducted of STEM Outreach activities in schools using quantitative approaches. Surveys in particular are popular as they are low-cost and time-saving. However, quantitative methods are limited in that they do not generally generate deeper insights into students’ experiences in STEM; usually lacking rich detail about the context and complexity of the data being analysed. Hence, this paper proposes a different approach to evaluating STEM outreach: a unique multi-method, qualitative approach.

Starting with the Research Question “How to qualitatively evaluate STEM outreach in Engineering Education?”, this paper is grounded in ongoing doctoral research that …

Generation Z And Their Use Of Learning Management System In Programming Courses, Ole Schultz, Tomasz Blaszczyk

Practice Papers

Generation Z students have grown up with ICT (information and communication technology) and are therefore used to being online more or less simultaneously on different types of media. Universities have different kinds of Learning Management Systems (LMS) with different possibilities for engagement. In the Electrical Engineering B. Eng. program at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) we use a system called Learn. It has features for setting up individual study plans as well as common plans. Features such as surveys, quizzes, peer reviews are built in. We are interested in the students' use of the LMS, their engagement and the …

Teaching Applied Management Courses Online: Considerations For Good Practices, Albena Yordanova, Elizabeth Tofte, Byron G. Garry

ASEE North Midwest Section Annual Conference 2023 Publications

Background: As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, many Engineering, Engineering Technology, and Applied Management courses had to be quickly converted from face-to-face to online. Faculty used what experience they possessed to change their teaching procedures and style, in order that students would continue to learn the important facts, theories, and processes necessary to launch their professional careers.
Purpose: The demand for online courses decreased as the pandemic subsided, but there continues to be a growing need for flexibility in teaching, in order to best serve students in their educational pursuits.
Findings: Good online course practices include focusing …

Student Experiences With Active Learning Across Course Delivery Modalities, Devin Berg

ASEE North Midwest Section Annual Conference 2023 Publications

Background: Methods for the delivery of instruction in the engineering classroom have been shifting at an increased rate over the past few years due to several factors. Pedagogical approaches which have seen increased growth in adoption include the use of online delivery, for full courses or for portions of a course, pre-recorded preparatory material, and active-learning activities. According to the literature, students generally appreciate the use of active in-class experiences where there is ample time for asking questions and solving problems.
Method: In this paper, I examine student perceptions of the use of a flipped-classroom approach with high levels of …

Developing Global Engineers- A Comparison Between Scotland, Usa And Chile, Patricia Munoz-Escalona, Luis Medina, Mervyn Marquez, Homero Murzi, Christopher Smith, Colin Miligan

Practice Papers

Engineering-accredited programmes are reviewed every 4-5 years by professional bodies with the aim of assuring standards that guarantee that graduate engineers can fulfil the highest technical demands of the industry workforce in order to achieve a sustainable economy and society. The approaches to develop these require global engineering competences (GECs), such as international and intercultural teamwork, language skills, critical thinking, and ethical and human-centered problem solving, are proving insufficient to meet the emerging challenges that this century's society is facing. To develop these GECs, engineering programmes have been working on including physical and virtual mobility such as Collaborative Online International …

Engineering Faculty And Staff Inclusive Excellence Training: Broadening Engineering Pedagogy For All, Mohammad Moin Uddin, Keith Johnson

Practice Papers

As our classrooms become more and more diverse, the need for cultural competency in engineering faculty is more important than ever. Cross-cultural competency has been named among the 10 most important skills for the future workforce. Historically there is a lack of cultural diversity at East Tennessee State University. The university did not offer any formal training opportunity for faculty and staff in cultural competency. As such, faculty effort in cultural pedagogy is minimal resulting in persistent achievement gaps among culturally diverse students. In this project we have developed and implemented an inclusive excellence cultural competency training program primarily for …

The Bell Academy: A Bridge Semester Where Engineering Students Transform Into Student Engineers Who Thrive In Industry Placements, Darcie Christensen, Lauren Singelmann, Cody Mann, Bart Johnson, Ron Ulseth

Practice Papers

Iron Range Engineering is an innovative learning program using project-based and work-based pedagogies. The Bell Academy (BA) is a semester-long bridge experience between the first two years of STEM foundation and the final two years spent in full-time industry co-op placements. The curriculum within the academy is delivered within three domains: technical, design, and professional. The transformation to thriving as a student engineer in an industry placement is intentionally embedded in each stage of the program as students develop higher levels of self-awareness, professional responsibility, and self-directedness. Students not only gain technical engineering knowledge, but also apply that knowledge within …

Improving Teaching Quality In Higher Education: A Practitioner's Guide To Using Formative Teaching Analysis Poll, Thies Johannsen, Henning Meyer

Practice Papers

Teaching Analysis Poll (TAP) has become an increasingly popular tool for evaluating teaching quality and enhancing student learning outcomes in higher education. It requires, however, additional human resources. This paper presents a modified version for easy implementation: Formative Teaching Analysis Poll (FTAP). It can be used by an individual educator and is nonetheless an effective practical method for practitioners in higher education to improve their teaching quality and enhance the learning experience of their students.

Based on a review of literature and personal experience using FTAP, in this paper we provide an overview of the underlying methodology of FTAP, its …

Stem Education And Research At The University Of Aruba For Sustainable Development Of Small Island Developing States: Case Studies On Energy Efficiency And Waste Management., Alba De Agustin Camacho, Mieke De Droog, Wim Van Petegem

Practice Papers

SISSTEM “Sustainable Island Solutions through Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics” is a higher educational programme created in 2019 at the University of Aruba in response to the need for engineering education and research in Small Island Developing States (SIDS). In this contribution, the SISSTEM programme is introduced, and how SISSTEM equips engineering students with hard and soft skills while addressing local sustainability challenges is showcased through two case studies. The first case study presents a bachelor course that combines sustainability theory with a teamwork project in which students conduct an energy audit to a local institution. With this course, students …

Towards Building A Framework For Continuing Engineering Education In Higher Education Institutions: A Comparative Study, Sonia M. Gomez Puente, Christopher Smith, Matias Urenda Moris, Bente Nørgaard, Hans-Ulrich Heiss, Patricia Caratozzolo, Katriina Schrey, H-R Myllymäki, Rigas Hadzilacos

Practice Papers

Continuing engineering education (CEE) is becoming an attractive notion of continuously enhancing and upgrading the engineering skills required by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Current developments in science and technology and the challenges to address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda require updating theoretical knowledge, skills, and specific practical work. Even though higher education institutions (HEIs) can provide CEE or CPD (Continuing Professional Development) within or external to degree programs, CEE focuses on training engineers as lifelong learners to meet societal and industrial needs. A comparative study was conducted among eight universities to analyse the …

Digitalisation As An Opportunity For Women In Stem: Researching The Nexus Of School, University And Labour Market, Yves Jeanrenaud, Anna-Kathrin Wimmer

Practice Papers

In Germany, women are still dramatically underrepresented in the fields of STEM, especially in engineering: less than 25 percent of engineering students are female. Correspondingly underrepresented are women in engineering positions, too. Research has shown that diversity in the work force is crucial to develop successful solutions for a complex and sustainability-oriented world.

Therefore, our ongoing research project (01FP22M01), funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), focusses on the underrepresentation of women in STEM, especially in mechanical and plant engineering. Using mixed methods of qualitative interviews and quantitative online surveys with female pupils, students and employees, as …

Instructors' Expectations And Objectives For Integrating Sustainable Development And Ethical Issues Into The Curriculum, Tauno Aki Tepsa, Juhani Angelva, Maisa Tuulikki Mielikäinen

Practice Papers

The integration of sustainable development and ethical issues into the curriculum is increasingly important in higher education. The study surveyed 17 instructors in ICT engineering education at Lapland University of Applied Sciences who were involved in curriculum development to explore their expectations and objectives in integrating sustainable development and ethical issues into their courses. Although most instructors had a good understanding of sustainable development and ethical issues, not all saw them as relevant to their courses. Those who did incorporate these themes focused on topics such as energy conservation, social sustainability, and sustainability and ethics in solutions. However, almost half …

Engineering Curriculum Redesign: Is My School Ready For This?, Aikaterini Bagiati, Julia Reynolds-Cuéllar

Practice Papers

As humanity keeps facing grand challenges engineers are expected to be at the forefront and keep providing sustainable solutions to extremely complex problems. In the meantime, we have reached an era where technological advancement moves at a very rapid speed. That poses a big question to academia. “How should we educate engineers to ensure that they are best prepared for a complex world?” For an engineering curriculum to remain effective and relevant frequent redesign is critical. Despite this generally agreed upon understanding, universities sometimes operate under great pressure and move into initiating curricular change without having considered how multifactorial this …

Flash Observations For Improved Teaching Quality Among Graduate Teaching Assistants In Engineering Education, Sarah Plumb, Joanna Bates, Panos Lazari, Matteo Di Benedetti

Practice Papers

To maintain high quality, when teaching practical activities at scale, sufficient Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) must be employed. However, their pedagogical skills are inconsistent. This research is a pilot study to test the reliability and validity of research methods which will be scaled up in their application to the primary research to identify GTA pedagogical skills requiring further training. In the primary study, staff and GTA perspectives will be collected using surveys, and the emerging deficient skills will be further investigated using novel twenty-minute “flash” skills-based teaching observations of GTAs. Observation time will be split among the GTAs, and the …

Bachelor's Thesis Seminar In Computer Sciences And Information Technology, Matti Haavisto, Hannu-Matti Järvinen, Terhi Kilamo, Saila Ovaska, Timo Poranen

Practice Papers

A Bachelor’s thesis is typically an individually written literature review on a scientifically relevant topic. Additionally, some theses also describe empirical work or report an experiment. Firstly, we introduce how Bachelor’s theses are supervised in a joint thesis seminar for Computer Sciences and Information Technology at our university. The thesis seminar is organized three times a year. It consists of six small group meetings led by a supervisor and contains compulsory pre- and post-assignments and active peer discussions. In 2022, there were in total of 187 students participating in the spring, summer and autumn seminars. Secondly, we give an overview …

Amplifying New Voices And Making Space For Alternative Knowledge Systems In Engineering Curricula – The Example Of Ubuntu, Anita Occhio, Fiona Caroline Saunders, Gladson Chikwa, Dawn Theresa Nicholson

Practice Papers

Engineering projects are ubiquitous; from developing COVID-19 vaccines to building new cities and developing climate change solutions. An inclusive approach to teaching engineers how to master the complexities of engineering project management is vital to the deliverability of sustainability and net zero initiatives (Hockings 2010). Yet, our engineering curricula remain deeply rooted in Western epistemology (Winter et al. 2022, Mbembe 2015). Arguably, this is an opportune time to consider decolonising our curricula. At a fundamental level, ‘decolonising the curriculum’ means introducing previously ignored voices, images, authors, theories and arguments into our teaching (Rogers et al. 2022). This is a challenge …

Management Education In An Engineering Environment. The Case Of Bme, Mária Szalmáné Csete, Emma Lógó, Bence Bodrogi, Tamás Koltai

Practice Papers

Engineering higher education institutes need to integrate new skills and competences into their practice and curricula to accelerate the sustainability transition.

This paper introduces the interdisciplinary upskilling of engineering students enrolled in engineering programs at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) and which has been provided by the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences (GTK) since 1998. The BME GTK delivers an educational experience that fits into the environment defined by the engineering faculties at BME. The BME GTK has experience of more than a quarter of a century in engineering education related to socio-economic and management upskilling. …