Lessons Learned from Changing Content Delivery Methods in Engineering Statics

Abstract

This work examines the impact different pedagogical approaches in an engineering statics course had on student learning, long-term retention of material, student interest in their field of study and how the impact differs with gender. During the 2015-2016 academic year, five sections of engineering statics were taught, for a total of approximately 130 students including all sophomore civil and mechanical engineering students along with junior and senior electrical engineering students and some bio-engineering students pursuing a minor in mechanical engineering. Four sections, each taught by different professors, implemented significant pedagogical changes. Course changes incorporated flipped classes, flipped-flipped classes and many hands on activities. One of the professors taught the fifth section as a control group using their normal teaching style that includes more traditional active learning methods like group work, questioning and demonstrationsTo assess the impact of the pedagogical approaches, the statics concept inventory developed by Paul Steif was used twice during the course to assess pre-then post-course knowledge. The concept inventory was also used to assess long-term retention of a cohort of students one to four months after they finished the course. Results between the control class and the students taught with the inverted model are compared. Students filled out a post-course survey asking for input on activities and videos and how they perceived the course helped them learn and engage in the subject and engineering.Results from this work indicate the specific active learning technique implemented is less important in student learning gains and student engagement than the experience and training of the faculty member in effectively implementing active learning methodologies. Students in all sections showed long-term retention of course topics and had similar preferences in contentdelivery methods. Gender differences were striking, with female students gaining significantly to their male counterparts. The results of this study provide insight for other researchers hoping to implement active learning approaches in introductory engineering courses. IntroductionEngineering statics is one of the first classes specific to the fields of civil and mechanical engineering and an important opportunity to engage engineering students in a challenging subject in their field of study. Extensive lecturing is still the most common form of instruction for engineering faculty at Santa Clara University, with over 70% of STEM faculty self-reporting lecturing "most" or "all" of the time.1 A recent meta-analysis by Freeman, et.al. 2 of over 225 studies in STEM education, indicates that students in STEM courses taught with extensive lecturing are 1.5 times more likely to fail, earn a D, or withdraw from the course than students taught with active-learning methods in the same STEM course subject. To facilitate other SCU faculty in adopting more active approaches in the statics course, the authors developed a...

Flipping the Classroom - Do Student Learning Gains and Perceptions Vary Based on Gender?

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This work expands previous work (Doyle and Nilsson, 2016) on the impact that pedagogical changes, including a hybrid flipped classroom, have on student engagement and retention of material in engineering statics. During two academic years (2015-2016 and 2017-2018), data were collected from eight total engineering statics sessions.

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“…Twelve lessons in the existing curriculum were modified to include additional pedagogies including flipped, flipped-flipped, and hands-on learning activities with minimal to no lecture content. Full details of these modifications are described in an earlier paper [9]. Fourteen of the remaining class meetings used the existing active-learning curriculum and five class meetings were for review and testing.…”

“…Results presented come from eight course offerings of engineering statics taught during fall 2015, winter 2016 and fall 2017. Section C was included in this study as the authors found the method of active-learning taught by the same instructor had no observable effect on student knowledge gain or self-perception [9]. From all students enrolled in the 8 sections, a total of 126 completed all 3 surveys (pre-and post-concept inventory and engagement survey) and gave permission for results to be included for research.…”

“…Early results of the application of the new statics curriculum showed promise specifically in terms of material retention [9]. In addition to taking a pre-and post-concept inventory [10] during the first and last week of the course, respectively, 67 students also completed a retention concept inventory.…”

“…This indicates durable learning occurred as the average retention of superficially learned material is typically 20 percent after four weeks [11]. Additionally, student self-reported interest in engineering increased as a result of the course in four out of five sections, with one section indicating their interest remained unchanged [9]. During the study the authors had hoped to also look for gender effects but the sample size was too small to observe an effect.…”