Topic
Engineering education
About: Engineering education is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 24293 publications have been published within this topic receiving 234621 citations.
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TL;DR: In this article, U.S. engineering department chairs were surveyed regarding their awareness and department use of seven engineering education innovations and the importance of disciplinary networks was evident during survey administration and in the results.
Abstract: Background
Despite decades of effort focused on improvement of engineering education, many recent advances have not resulted in systemic change. Diffusion of innovations theory is used to better understand this phenomenon.
Purpose (Hypothesis)
Research questions include: How widespread is awareness and adoption of established engineering education innovations? Are there differences by discipline or institutional type? How do engineering department chairs find out about engineering education innovations? What factors do engineering department chairs cite as important in adoption decisions?
Design/Method
U.S. engineering department chairs were surveyed regarding their awareness and department use of seven engineering education innovations. One hundred ninety-seven usable responses are presented primarily as categorical data with Chi square tests where relevant.
Results
Overall, the awareness rate was 82 percent, while the adoption rate was 47 percent. Eighty-two percent of engineering departments employ student-active pedagogies (the highest). Mechanical and civil engineering had the highest rates, in part due to many design-related innovations in the survey. Few differences by institution type were evident. In the past, word of mouth and presentations were far more effective than publications in alerting department chairs to the innovations. Department chairs cited financial resources, faculty time and attitudes, and student satisfaction and learning as major considerations in adoption decisions.
Conclusions
The importance of disciplinary networks was evident during survey administration and in the results. Specific recommendations are offered to employ these networks and the engineering professional societies for future engineering education improvement efforts.
360 citations
TL;DR: A remote laboratory called NetLab is presented, developed at the University of South Australia, with its specially designed graphical user interface it offers students all the advantages of a real laboratory environment.
Abstract: During the last decade the exponential expansion of the Internet has had an enormous impact on the tertiary education sector. The new technology has brought a significant improvement in communication within the academic community and has improved students' learning experiences. However, one of the most important factors in forming the engineering graduate qualities is the practical component of the engineering curriculum. Many software packages have been developed for the simulation of real experiments and although very useful, none of them are as effective as learning from undertaking real experimental work. Remote laboratories offer all the advantages of the new technology, but are often a poor replacement for real laboratory work. In this paper we present a remote laboratory called NetLab, developed at the University of South Australia. With its specially designed graphical user interface it offers students all the advantages of a real laboratory environment.
358 citations
01 Jan 2008
TL;DR: The New-Century Engineer: A Foundation for Professional Practice as discussed by the authors is a model for engineering education in the 21st century, which is based on the idea of "Project-Centered Learning".
Abstract: Foreword. Acknowledgments. About the Authors. Introduction. PART ONE Preparing the New-Century Engineer. Chapter 1: The New-Century Engineer. Chapter 2: Technical Knowledge and Linear Components. Chapter 3: A Historical Curriculum in a New Era. PART TWO A Foundation to Build On. Chapter 4: "Knowing That" and "Knowing How". Chapter 5: Listening, Seeing, Doing. Chapter 6: Learning for Problem Solving. PART THREE A Place to Explore. Chapter 7: Theory and Skills. Chapter 8: Lab in the Curriculum. Chapter 9: Learning in the Lab. Chapter 10: Lab Reports. Chapter 11: Making a Place to Explore Professional Practice. PART FOUR A Way to Create. Chapter 12: "Knowing To". Chapter 13: Project-Centered Learning. Chapter 14: Assessing Design. Chapter 15: Making a Place to Create. PART FIVE Affecting the World. Chapter 16: A Foundation for Professional Practice. Chapter 17: Findings from the Study: An Uneven Base. Chapter 18: Preparing for New-Century Professional Practice. PART SIX Bringing Professional Practice Forward. Chapter 19: A Design for Action. Chapter 20: Usable Knowledge. Chapter 21: Toward a New Model for Engineering Education. Chapter 22: Getting from Here to There. Appendix: About the Study. References. Index.
356 citations
TL;DR: The current trends and key issues in virtual laboratories‐simulation environment laboratories and remote laboratories via the Internet are discussed.
Abstract: Computing and communication technology has had a significant impact on the engineering education system. This technology has improved online and collaborative learning. Besides that, it improves the students learning experiences. One of the distinguishing elements of engineering education is the laboratory requirement. In this paper, we discuss the current trends and key issues in virtual laboratories-simulation environment laboratories and remote laboratories via the Internet. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 17: 108–118, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com); DOI 10.1002/cae20186
347 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present perceptions and attitudes of freshmen students that have participated in an introductory Project-Based Learning (PBL) course in engineering, where teams of students carry out mini-projects that require the design and construction of devices that perform predefined tasks.
Abstract: This paper presents perceptions and attitudes of freshmen students that have participated in an introductory Project-Based Learning (PBL) course in engineering. The course, `A creative introduction to mechanical engineering', was developed and is taught in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Technion. In this course, teams of students carry out mini-projects that require the design and construction of devices that perform pre-defined tasks. The qualitative paradigm was found to be suitable for studying the process undergone by the students, mainly because the study focused on the human aspect — the students' emotions, thoughts, behavior, and difficulties. Data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews with the students, the teacher, and the teaching-assistant, by observations in the classroom, and by analyzing students' reports. The paper presents the students' perceptions of: the aim of the course; the instructor's role in a PBL environment; characteristics of PBL course; advantages of the PBL from the students' point of view; PBL as a learning environment for future engineers, and implications of learning in teams.
344 citations