Digital technologies have become central to higher education teaching and learning practices. This paper presents the results of a qualitative study of students’ experiences within a resource-rich and digitally-driven pedagogical system in a second year engineering dynamics course. Course instructors created an Active, Blended, and Collaborative (ABC) learning environment providing students with multiple learning resources. The resources included a hybrid Lecturebook (a combination of textbook and workbook), an online discussion forum, a large repository of online videos, and a tutorial room staffed by teaching assistants. A thematic analysis of semi-structured interview transcripts characterized how students perceived the utility of the available resources, especially given the complex integration of pedagogies and resources available in person and across the technology platform. The findings revealed that students valued the blended structure because it provided them with both immediate and asynchronous access to the learning resources. Students used the resources to help them solve homework problems, study for exams, and improve their conceptual understanding in the course. The students reported engaging with their peers to receive feedback constantly throughout out the course. The results highlight how the learning resources were aligned with each other and in-class pedagogies, and they worked in tandem to support students’ academic success. The results from this paper contribute to the literature on student perceptions of technology-mediated learning environments in core engineering courses.
One of the most challenging tasks for faculty in their role as a teacher is to design, administrate, and evaluate formative assessments. This results in a lot of faculty not utilizing the formative assessments as a form of student feedback and make regular changes to the course. In this study, we explore the role of technology in helping faculty implement and analyze formative assessments. We believe the advancement of technology and its increasing applications in education may result in development of novel solutions to this impediment through learning analytics. This paper explores the use of such data analytics to address the challenges impeding the capacity of instructors to provide personalized feedback at scale.The study was implementing in the Computer Science and Engineering Department where a group of faculties who teach undergraduate engineering students. The faculty designed and administered a set of formative assessments in multiple courses through the learning management system. The data collected from the formative assessments was analyzed using learning analytics and the results were used to provide actionable recommendations that could better support students to achieve the learning outcomes of the course. The data was analyzed to understand and optimize the learning process of the students in the course. The results of the paper will provide insights to engineering educators on how they could take a data driven approach and harness the power of technology to better support their students. This approach will also help direct students towards deeper and self-regulated learning.
is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. He has his bachelors and masters in Electrical Engineering from India. He currently serves as the Chair-elect of the ASEE Student Division as has been an active member of the international engineering education community while serving as the President of Student Platform for Engineering Education Development (SPEED) and as the Vice-President of Student Engagement for the International Federation for Engineering Education Societies (IFEES). His research interests include education policy, faculty development in higher education, integration of technology and entrepreneurship in engineering education, and service learning.
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