Implementation and Usage of an Online Environment in a Chemical Engineering Curriculum

Abstract

Kyle Branch is a third-year graduate student at the University of Utah Department of Chemical Engineering. He has helped develop and teach two freshman courses, using the materials and methods described in this paper. His main research interest is in engineering education, focusing on the creation and analysis of interactive simulations for undergraduate chemical engineering courses. Prof. Anthony Butterfield, University of UtahAnthony Butterfield is an Assistant Professor (Lecturing) in the Chemical Engineering Department of the University of Utah. He received his B. S. and Ph. D. from the University of Utah and a M. S. from the University of California, San Diego. His teaching responsibilities include the senior unit operations laboratory and freshman design laboratory. His research interests focus on undergraduate education, targeted drug delivery, photobioreactor design, and instrumentation.c American Society for Engineering Education, 2016 Implementation and Usage of an Online Environment in a Chemical Engineering Curriculum AbstractWe have developed an online system to serve as a hub for student activities in our chemical engineering courses. In addition to generating and grading textbook-style homework problems, it provides interactive simulations of laboratory experiments, and it administers surveys, pre-and post-tests, and quizzes for training on laboratory equipment. The system randomizes the numbers and units in homework problems and allows multiple attempts, which discourages cheating, removes the burden of manual grading for instructors, and provides students with instantaneous feedback. Students complete assignments using simulated laboratory experiments, which model corresponding hands-on projects that they will later work on in class. This is done to familiarize students with the project and core chemical engineering theory ahead of time, saving lab resources and time and enabling students to work at their own pace.In order for students to become certified to use particular laboratory equipment, they must pass an online quiz on the safety and operating procedures of the equipment before training with an instructor. This saves instructor time and allows students to go back and review the material at any time. Students are able to print out their name badge from the site, which includes a list of all of the equipment they have been certified to use. This feature helps instructors learn the students' names and allows instructors to easily check if students are certified to use specific equipment.In analyzing data collected by the online system, we discovered differences in behavior between higher-and lower-performing students. Based on this information, we have offered our students advice on study habits that are associated with better performance. We have also used this data to identify and address common student misunderstandings.

Modeling Student Performance in an Introductory Chemical Engineering Course

“…We have developed an online user hub, which provides students and instructors with a variety of course resources, including homework problems, lab equipment safety quizzes, and student peer evaluations [3]. The homework system administers and grades traditional homework style problems with randomized variable values and units; it also includes open-ended homework problems using interactive simulations, which are designed to mimic the laboratory experiment which the students complete in the lab later in the week.…”