Abstract The Engineering Department at the University of Denver has received a Sturm Program Development. Award for reform of its curricula. Specifically we ...
Session S1B ENABLING EFFECTIVE LEARNING, CURRICULUM DELIVERY REFORM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DENVER Ronald R. DeLyser1 , Jerry Edelstein1 , Corinne Lengsfeld1 , Albert J. Rosa1 , Paul Rullkoetter1 , Robert Whitman1 , Margaret Whitt2 , and Sheila Summers Thompson3 Abstract The Engineering Department at the University of Denver has received a Sturm Program Development Award for reform of its curricula. Specifically we shall (1) change the learning environment from predominately teacher centered to student centered, (2) implement a quality based grading method that allows students to know what is expected of them and to actually take part in the procedure, (3) create more studio type classrooms with current technology to facilitate learning and demonstrate state of the art engineering methods and procedures, and (4) blend engineering topics with English topics in an integrated freshman sequence. Index Terms Student centered learning, studio style classrooms, quality based assessment process.
THE PROPOSAL The Engineering Department at the University of Denver has undergraduate programs in Computer, Electrical, General, and Mechanical Engineering [1]. As the engineering programs are fundamentally sound, modern and forward looking, our current need is not to change the content or goals of the program, but rather develop a more effective means of delivery. For this purpose, we received a Sturm Program Development Award covering the period from June 2000 to June 2002. We have three basic types of courses in our curricula – lecture-based, lab-based and project-based. We have selected one or more courses from each delivery type to affect changes and improvements. These courses will serve as prototypes for curricula-wide reform followed by another group of selected courses in the second year of the grant, and finally for all of our courses (based upon the course instructor’s evaluation of the successes of this study) after the grant period.
PROGRESS TO DATE Progess to date includes: (1) The incorporation of the new grading method and active and cooperative learning in the prototype courses. (2) Creation of two new studio style classrooms and a new equipment interface design for the circuits laboratory to give the students and the faculty the advantages of using automated control and data acquisition using the students' laptop computers. (3) A Stratasys FDM 2000 rapid prototyping machine and three T-Tech circuit 1 2 3
prototyping machines have been purchased and are being used in our Engineering Integration project based course sequence. (4) Implementation of the course link between engineering’s Concepts I and the first year English course "Expository writing" [3].
LEARNING OUTCOMES AND ASSESSMENT The following student learning outcomes have been identified: (1) higher academic achievement, (2) better high level reasoning and critical thinking skills, (3) deaper understanding of learned material, (4) greater intrinsic motivation to learn and achieve, and (5) greater ability to view situations from others’ perspective. The assesment of these outcomes includes respectively: (1) comparing students’ grades in the pilot courses to students’ grades in these courses prior to the grant, (2) utilizing the Reasoning About Current Issues questionnaire, (3) keeping records of all student activities in the pilot courses and comparing these activities to those assigned prior to the grant thus providing judgments about the nature and depth of students’ understanding of course materials, (4) use of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, and (5) normal assessment activities within the deparment.
FUTURE WORK Future work includes: (1) use of the new grading method and active and cooperative learning in the second year courses, (2) use of the T-Tech circuit prototyping machines in Electronics, (3) combining Concepts II and the first year English course "Persuasive Voice" [3], (4) use of laptop PCMCIA data acquisition cards to perform automated data acquistion Engineering Applications III [4].
REFERENCES [1]
DeLyser, R., Rosa, A., Mirth J., and Kim, J., "Undergraduate Engineering Curricula Revision at the University of Denver," Proceedings: 1996 Frontiers in Education Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah, November 6 - 9, 1996. [2] McNeill, B., Bellamy, L., Burrows, V., "A Quality Based Assessment Process For Student Work Products", ASEE Journal of Engineering Education, Vol, No #., October 1999, pp. 485 – 500. [3] Lengsfeld, C., Black, J., and Root, M. “Engineering Concepts and Communications”, These Proceedings. [4] DeLyser, R., Wilson, J., and Quine, R. "A Novel Multidisciplinary Course: Measurement and Automated Data Acquisition," Proceedings: 1999 Frontiers in Education Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico, November 10-13.
Department of Engineering, University of Denver, Denver, CO 80208. Department of English, University of Denver, Denver, CO 80208. Director of Assessment, University of Denver, Denver, CO 80208.
0-7803-6669-7/01/$10.00 © 2001 IEEE October 10 - 13, 2001 Reno, NV 31 st ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference S1B-1
