Development Of Engineering Students Research Articles

Current Practices and Pitfalls of ELT Syllabi for Developing Engineering Students' Communicative English in Bangladesh*

The current practices and shortcomings of engineering students' English language teaching (ELT) syllabi were examined from the perspectives of learners and teachers in English as a foreign language (EFL) context. The syllabi included content that had little impact on students' communicative competence in English (CC-E). Students were generally concerned about their professional communication abilities. In this study, the researchers collected data from ten engineering-focused universities in Bangladesh. These universities' existing ELT syllabi (ELT-S) were examined, seeking the current practices and pitfalls. The study sampled 152 participants from the selected universities. The study followed a mixed-method approach. In the qualitative technique, content analysis, focus group discussion (FGD), and interviews were employed for data collection, while survey questions were used in the quantitative approach. The study's findings revealed that the existing English syllabi of those selected universities required updating and modification to meet the identified professional requirements regarding the type, credit allotment, content, classroom practices, class size, policies, etc. The improvements included redesigning English syllabi, material, and teaching methods to improve engineering students' communicative abilities. A uniform curriculum with at least one English language sessional course per semester in all engineering majors was strongly recommended.

Developing engineering students’ engagement in academic writing classes using corpus-based instruction

Engagement is a core issue in language teaching and learning. Without the students’ active involvement in the teaching–learning process, educational objectives could not be achieved. Accordingly, the concept of engagement has been the focus of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. This research examined the effects of corpus-based instruction on engineering students’ engagement in academic writing classes. The participants were 77 randomly selected fourth-year mechanical engineering students. The data were gathered through a self-reflective report and a journal and analyzed through an independent t-test, One-Way ANOVA, and narration techniques. The data showed that students who were instructed via corpus-based instruction improved their behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagements better than their counterparts; the experimental group enjoyed the activities and actively participated in different academic writing processes. The data also attested that there was a significant statistical difference between the experimental group and the control group engagements. This research implied that EFL teachers should consider genuine and real-life linguistic features and activities when they design academic writing instruction to enhance their engagement during the instruction.

The Development of Engineering Students' Analogical Reasoning

The Development of Engineering Students' Analogical Reasoning

Developing engineering students’ generic and professional skills through a consultative approach to project-based learning

ABSTRACT To respond to construction industry-specific requirements for civil engineers, university teachers need to provide opportunities for students to develop their generic and professional skills. This article describes the use of a novel intervention of project-based learning – PjBL with the consultative approach – to teach Lean Construction and the influence of this method on the development of students’ generic and professional skills. In this Lean course, teams of students carried out projects, in a consultative manner, to manage the real-life challenges that local companies were facing. Data on students’ perceptions were collected through reflection documents written by students. Findings indicated that introducing students to an intervention of PjBL did expose students, especially, to learning to express themselves verbally and in writing, working as a team and focusing on the current problem. Particularly, project work, team work, meetings, and seminars were perceived as effective methods for advancing these skills.

Implementing IT in engineering education

Nowadays in the multicultural workplace engineers need both hard skills and soft skills. They need to be good communicators, as they need to collaborate with others, convince their opponents when negotiating in order to gain benefit for a company and society. Students engineers could have difficulty in achieving success in the future professional field, as their communication skills, the most beneficial skills in the 21st century, are not being developed properly as hard skills development is a priority during the engineering education. In the modern world Information Technologies play an important role in education, including teaching and learning due to their didactic potential. They provide an opportunity to differentiate instruction and change classrooms into dynamic learning environments. The aim of research was to elaborate a technique for developing engineering students’ communication skills through radio podcasts. Research methods included a literature review, analysis and synthesis, experimental work, assessment of the development level of engineering students’ communication skills, analysis of the data obtained. As a result, a teaching technique was elaborated for the development of engineering students’ communication skills through radio podcasts that includes (1) organizing students’ individual, team and group work on podcasts; (2) filling a portfolio with analysis of the podcasts; (3) role-playing podcasts using the revealed speech and non-speech features; (4) creating own podcasts, focused on a specific thematic content. Experimental work was held in 2022 and 2023 at Higher Engineering School, Industrial university of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russia. It investigated the effectiveness of using the technique for developing communication skills through radio podcasts among engineering students. The results of pre-test and post-test confirmed the positive dynamics of the development of communication skills through radio podcasts among engineering students of the experimental group. The prospects for further research is that the technique presented in research can be employed in communication skills development among university students of different majors, and can complement engineering education.

Impacts on Teamwork Performance for an Engineering Capstone in Emergency Remote Teaching

Highlights Teamwork data from engineering capstone courses were analyzed to detect impacts of emergency remote teaching. The Comprehensive Assessment for Team-Member Effectiveness (CATME) data was analyzed via statistical modeling. Qualitative data attained from student responses were analyzed for patterns. Students found the lack of team camaraderie even more challenging than limitations on testing designs. This study offers avenues for developing engineering students’ teamwork skills in remote settings. Abstract. The onset of the global pandemic forced universities to rapidly shift to emergency remote teaching (ERT), which could cause even more perturbations for engineering courses with a hands-on, project-oriented focus. Thus, the purpose of this project was to gain a data-driven appreciation of how teamwork performance was impacted for engineering students in this environment and recommend focus areas for instructional designers. The Comprehensive Assessment for Team-Member Effectiveness (CATME) tool was used to assess different aspects of teamwork performance for 108 students in an undergraduate engineering capstone course during an in-person course offered in 2019-2020 (pre-pandemic) and an ERT course offered in 2020-2021 at a major Midwestern university. The classes were divided into teams for their capstone projects using the CATME Team-Maker tool. Students were asked to rate their teammates at the beginning, middle, and end of the course across five CATME dimensions: (1) Contribution to Team’s Work, (2) Interacting with Teammates, (3) Keeping the Team on Track, (4) Expecting Quality, and (5) Having Relevant Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs). Statistical modeling was implemented to decipher how ratings differed throughout the year in each course as well as to identify specific CATME areas that varied between the in-person and ERT courses. A qualitative assessment was also implemented for the ERT course based on student responses to a prompt that asked them to comment on how the pandemic impacted their personal and team performance. Results revealed that engineering students showed a significant reduction in three categories in the ERT course compared to in-person: Contributing to Team’s Work, Expecting Quality, and Having Relevant KSAs. Interestingly, these three categories deal largely with student motivation toward team efforts, which was echoed in the qualitative assessment. The majority of alarming comments made by students were regarding not being able to build camaraderie with their teammates in the ERT environment. It was surprising to find that engineering students found this lack of team camaraderie even more challenging than the limitations on testing their designs. Thus, more data-driven analyses are necessary to examine which methods and technologies are ideal for teleworking project-based courses in terms of facilitating team bonding, helping teams brainstorm, and fostering more engaging communication between team members. Future efforts should build upon this exploratory study and employ a larger sample size so that results can be generalized to all courses and also provide insight into disparities between subpopulations such as race, gender, or international status. Keywords: Capstone , CATME , Emergency Remote Teaching , Evidence-based , Pandemic , Pedagogy , Peer evaluation , Teamwork , Telework.

Development of Engineering Students’ Motivation and Independent Learning Skills

Development of Engineering Students’ Motivation and Independent Learning Skills

A funds of knowledge approach to developing engineering students' design problem framing skills

AbstractBackgroundEngineering programs have increasingly incorporated design challenges into courses. These design challenges vary in the degree to which they present complex, ill‐structured, and relevant problems, and therefore may vary in the degree to which they support students to learn to frame design problems.Purpose/HypothesisWe characterized how first‐year engineering students with little formal design training approach problem framing. We developed design challenges informed by funds of knowledge. We compared the development of problem framing skills in first‐year students who completed these challenges to students who completed more traditional challenges and to students in capstone design.Design/MethodStudents completed a pre/post performance‐based assessment of problem framing skills. We analyzed student responses in terms of design requirements, design practices, and design styles. We used descriptive statistics and correlations to characterize how students initially approached problem framing and repeated‐measures ANOVA to compare groups of students.ResultsFirst‐year students approached framing a design problem in one of four primary ways. Compared to students in the original course, they showed growth in attending to an underlying need, considering contexts of use, and depicting design function. Compared to capstone students, they also showed growth in considering stakeholder roles and planning the next steps.ConclusionsFunds of knowledge can provide a means to evaluate possible design challenges as authentic yet accessible for first‐year students, in turn, providing opportunities to support the development of the design problem framing ability.

Epistemology in Engineering Education: An Overview

Epistemology is a branch of philosophy, a study of how a person knows and knowing. Engineering epistemology is one of the new disciplines in engineering education research. Unfortunately, little research has been done on engineering education. In this paper, epistemology is discussed in the general context then, specifically for the engineering education context. Furthermore, the engineering epistemology framework and instrument to investigate engineering epistemology among engineering educators and students have been presented. Theory for knowledge development has been discussed in general and how that developmental model is important for higher education. Finally, epistemology in teaching and learning has been introduced in the context of engineering educators and engineering students. In summary, engineering educators’ epistemology will shape future engineers based on their class design. Therefore, developing engineering students from dualists to commitments of the relativist is very important. Finally, suggestions for engineering faculty management in developing engineering educators and engineering students for a better teaching and learning experience are provided.

Relationships between ICT competencies related to work, self-esteem, and self-regulated learning with engineering competencies.

The rapid development of advanced technology worldwide has promoted an increase in the need for highly skilled engineers who are adept at applying job-related technologies and have engineering competency (ENcom) to gain knowledge and introduce creative solutions. However, little is known about the underlying mechanism of the associations between ICT competencies related to work (ICT-Work) and the ENcom of engineering students. This study sought to examine the role of ICT-Work on ENcom. Based on the literature, self-esteem and self-regulated learning (SRL) were identified as factors that indicate the effect of ICT-Work on ENcom, while gender was identified as a moderator that conditioned these mediated relationships. The sample consisted of 1,313 undergraduate engineering students from eleven universities in Thailand. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) showed positive direct and indirect effects of ICT-Work on ENcom, self-esteem, and SRL and confirmed that self-esteem and SRL mediate the impact of ICT-Work on ENcom. Moreover, multigroup SEM revealed no gender differences in the factor loadings and structural path coefficients of ICT-Work on ENcom via self-esteem and SRL. To prepare students for their professional lives in the digital world, educational institutions should emphasize the importance of developing engineering students in ICT-Work and the use of advanced ICT involved in the job.

Developing engineering students' capabilities through game-based virtual reality technology for building utility inspection

PurposeThe construction site operates under a hazardous environment that requires a high level of understanding in building systems to minimise accidents. However, the current building education generally adopts paper-based learning approaches that lack hands-on experiences. Furthermore, to achieve Industrial Revolution 4.0 in line with any unforeseen pandemic, the most optimum solution is to transition from physical to technological-based building education. This paper aims to address the problems by proposing a game-based virtual reality (GBVR) for building utility inspection training.Design/methodology/approachThe feasibility of the GBVR for building the utility inspection training approach is validated on a sample of undergraduate engineering students through user experience (survey) and performance-based comparisons against traditional paper-based training method.FindingsThe results show that the developed GBVR training has higher system usability in terms of visual output and knowledge retention than paper-based training due to visualisation technologies. The GBVR training method has also higher user-friendliness because of the higher motivational and engagement factors through the adoption of virtual reality and game-based learning.Research limitations/implicationsGBVR training required a longer training duration and achieved a lower performance score (effectiveness) but can be improved by transitioning into hands-on tasks. This study has the potentials to be extended to vocational training platforms for competency development in the construction workforce by using cutting-edge extended reality technologies.Originality/valueThis paper portrays the benefits of integrating virtual reality technology in building education to overcome the low practicality and engagement of paper-based training.

Students’ perceptions of the project based on the potential of their region: A Project-based learning implementation

Developing engineering students whose ability to work and make a real contribution to the development of technology can be done not only after they have graduated from college but also when they are still in college. One of the strategies is by implementing project-based learning with the project based on the potential of the student's region. This study aims to reveal students’ perceptions of learning and soft skills acquisition toward the implementation of the strategy to answer whether the project is effective to implement. This study was conducted on fifty-one Indonesian college students who took Mechanical Drawing course. It belongs to a one-shot case study with mixed-method approach. The result shows that the project based on the potential of the student’s region is effective to raise their perception of motivation, interest, real-world, very beneficial, learning more lecture and enjoyable so that they learn more actively and provide more time to study. It also develops students’ soft skills, including teamwork, project management, communication, and interpersonal skills. The results may have pedagogical implications in improving learning quality in Mechanical Drawing course by enriching project references used in implementing project-based learning. Furthermore, the project given can be a solution in developing the potential of the students’ regions.

Exploring undergraduate engineering students’ mathematical problem-posing: the case of integral-area relationships in integral calculus

ABSTRACT Previous studies have suggested that problem-posing activities could be used to improve the teaching, learning, and assessment of mathematics. The purpose of this study is to explore undergraduate engineering students’ problem posing in relation to the integral-area relationship. The goal is to help fill a gap in tertiary level research about students’ mathematical problem posing, particularly of engineering students. The mathematical problem posing of 135 undergraduate engineering students was explored using four problem-posing tasks and semi-structured interviews. The findings indicate that many of the problems the students posed were solvable and in a pure mathematics context, while those problems students attempted to set in a real-world setting did not provide a realistic situation. In addition, students faced a number of difficulties when posing problems related to the integral-area relationship and mathematics in general, and several students had a limited understanding of the applications and uses of the integral-area relationship in the real-world. This study suggests that using problem-posing activities in teaching and assessment can help identify engineering students’ mathematical understanding and misunderstanding. Furthermore, using problem-posing tasks can help developing engineering students’ understanding of the applications of integral calculus. More broadly, the findings suggest that problem-posing tasks could be used more often, alongside problem-solving tasks, as part of the teaching and assessment of mathematics at the university level.

International Comparative Pilot Study of Spatial Skill Development in Engineering Students through Autonomous Augmented Reality-Based Training

Spatial ability is made up of several sub-components, such as the ability to perform mental rotation and object-based transformations. Together with each individual’s attitudes and general skill sets, this specific ability plays an important role in technical professions such as engineering. The components of spatial ability can be enhanced using targeted training or educational programs. This study analyses the levels of spatial skills in first-year engineering students at two universities, one in Spain and one in Peru. The purpose of the study is to establish the extent of symmetry between these study groups in terms of their spatial skills. Initial comparisons indicate that the Peruvian students have a lower level of spatial skill prior to training than their Spanish cohorts. AR-based training delivering representational system content was used with engineering students at both universities to boost spatial abilities. The results obtained indicate the training was effective, as both experimental groups made significant gains in their level of spatial ability. No difference was detected in either experimental group for the variable gender. The comparison of spatial ability gains between both countries is similar, although there is significant difference in the spatial ability component spatial visualization. In this instance, gains in this component were higher amongst the student population in Peru.

Corpus-based Study of Engineering Terms: Linguistic and Pedagogical Implications

The article discusses the corpus study of engineering terms for linguistic research — the extraction and classification of terms identified by the frequency of words in the corpus and pedagogical implications — the application of effective results to the teaching and learning of engineering terms in engineering universities of Uzbekistan. In the course of the study, computer programs AntGorGen were used to create the target corpus and AntConc for analyzing the lexis of research articles. This article offers further corpus-based studies with consideration of the acquiring and comprehension of engineering terms for developing engineering students’ research skills.

Developing engineering students’ willingness and ability to perform creative tasks

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore creativity and how it changes over time among engineering students in practice-based entrepreneurship in higher education. This change was examined in students over a one-semester course in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship courses that use creativity tools for practice-based learning are expected to develop creativity as a learning outcome. This study discusses the extent to which some learning outcomes are more easily developed than others.Design/methodology/approachThis research uses a longitudinal design by applying a pre- and post-test survey. The student population consists of engineering students enrolled in an entrepreneurship course with practice-based learning involving creativity tools. The course includes team-based idea generation and business model development. To measure actual changes in students’ creativity, two measures were used to reflect different aspects.FindingsThe results show that students’ ability to perform creative tasks increased, while students’ willingness to engage in and their enjoyment of creative tasks decreased as a result of the course. Non-significant differences in changes were found between the two measures, but a difference was found in how the two measures changed during the course. In line with the research question, the results suggest that education may influence ability to a greater extent than willingness.Originality/valueThe research used two different creativity measures to explore the extent to which engineering students experienced a change in creativity over a one-semester entrepreneurship course. In this way, the research contributes to the discussion on what could be learnt and by what means.

Developing Engineering Students’ Moral Reasoning Skills Using Problem-Based Learning

Problem-Based Learning has become an increasingly popular instructional method for a variety of disciplines at all levels. Many studies and meta-analyses of these studies have shown the efficacy of this method for developing knowledge and skills. I adopted this method for teaching Engineering Ethics at Carnegie Mellon University, which has as its main course objectives the development of moral reasoning skills, as well as collaboration and communication skills, with special attention given to ethical dilemmas that may arise in the normal course of an engineer’s professional career. In the most recent iteration of the course, I used the Engineering and Science Issues Test as a pretest and posttest to test the development of my students’ moral reasoning skills over the course of the semester. Based on the results of these tests, I argue that the students in my Engineering Ethics course did in fact significantly develop their moral reasoning skills.

Developing a Program-Based on Scientific Discourse Analysis to Enhance Engineering Students' Scientific Argumentative Writing Skills

The aim of this study was to introduce scientific discourse analysis (SDA) as a new research technique for enhancing scientific argumentative writing skills of engineering students through a suggested program based on this research technique. The participants were 30 sophomore students from civil engineering department at the Higher Institute of Engineering, El Shorouk Academy. The training was conducted during the academic year 2016-2017. To collect data, the researcher prepared an argumentative writing skills questionnaire, an argumentative writing test (pre-post) and an argumentative writing assessment rubric. The program consisted of two parts; the instructor's guide and the course material in which the participants practiced three levels of (SDA); textual analysis, contextual analysis and genre analysis as well as some argumentative writing activities. Data was processed by using the statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS). The findings revealed the suggested program based on SDA can be effective in developing engineering students' argumentative writing skills.

Project-Based Learning (PjBL) Framework in Developing Non-Technical Skills for Engineering Students

Lack of non-technical skills has become an issue among employers nowadays as they found the engineering graduates are unable to adapt in a new environment and communicate with other people. Although these graduates were equipped with sufficient technical skills, they were unable to survive in industry for a long time as they did not have sufficient non-technical skills. There are also a lot of reports that claimed university only emphasized on the development of technical skills and little focus on non-technical skills development. Thus, university must play their role in ensuring they are able to give a balanced focus on the development of both skills. Project-Based Learning (PjBL) is a well-known approach in engineering education and a lot of researchers have proved that PjBL is effective in improving engineering students’ learning. Therefore, this research is aimed to identify the additional elements for PjBL in developing engineering students’ non-technical skills and create a new framework for PjBL. This research used qualitative method, which is based on interviews and observations. The respondents for this research consist of lecturers and students involved in PjBL in three different universities in Malaysia. The findings of this research found that there are three main elements needed to develop engineering students’ non-technical skills namely coaching and supervision, continuous assessment and real world experience. These elements are included in the PjBL framework and this framework can be used by other researchers and universities as an approach to solve the problem regarding the lack of non-technical skills among engineering students.

Massive open online courses in professional development of Engineering students

The article considers the possibilities of using massive open online courses (MOOCs) to build professional competencies of engineering students. Engineering online courses delivered on international educational platforms are studied. The criteria for inclusion of MOOCs in the list of courses recommended for integration into the training of future engineers at university are given. The integration models of these courses are generalised. The positive aspects and difficulties of MOOCs integration are given. It is concluded that MOOCs are efficient for usage in teaching foreign language for specific purposes.