Enhancing Engineering Education Research Articles

Enhancing Engineering Education through Problem-based Learning

Problem-based learning is a dynamic teaching approach that empowers students to actively address real-world challenges while taking charge of their own learning process. This study focuses on how problem-based learning enhances the retention of engineering concepts and principles, evidenced by higher levels of engagement and satisfaction reported by students. Through rigorous analysis of student feedback and project outcomes, this research investigates the effectiveness of problem-based learning in the context of engineering education. The results highlight the substantial positive influence of problem-based learning on both student engagement and their grasp of engineering fundamentals.

Enhancing engineering education through mini project-based learning in computer integrated manufacturing laboratory: A student-centric approach

ABSTRACT In response to evolving engineering education, there is a growing focus on fostering students’ practical skills. This study implemented a Mini Project Based Learning (MPBL) approach within the Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) course. The tasks involved SOLIDWORKS modelling, writing CNC code using CADEM seeNC Turn software, and hands-on CNC machining by students. Quantifiable outcomes demonstrated the development of students’ CNC expertise. Numerical evidence showcased a significant increase in academic performance, with the percentage of students scoring over 80 marks rising from 33.33% in the previous academic year (CAY-M1) to an impressive 45.83% in the current academic year (CAY), highlighting the positive impact of MPBL. MPBL improved comprehension and enhanced critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication skills. Its integration in CIM sparked creative enthusiasm among students and educators. Effective evaluation tools played a pivotal role in elevating project results, ensuring a holistic learning experience that integrated theory and engineering design.

Enhancing engineering education: Investigating the impact of mobile devices on learning in a thermal-fluids course

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected learning at all levels; particularly, in higher education, where levels of independence and self-motivation are required during distance learning. In engineering, distance learning adds another degree of difficulty to an already complex field. Comprehension in engineering requires the repeated use of diagrams, high-level charts, and practice problems. Mobile devices, combined with a technology-enhanced curriculum, provide an excellent platform for learning in engineering as it allows for clear illustration and the transfer of complex ideas at any time and place. In alignment with the social-constructivist framework, these facets of mobile technology provide additional avenues for student engagement and the extension of learning goals. This study utilized the Triple E Framework and a mixed methods approach to investigate the impact of mobile devices on engineering students’ learning in a thermal-fluids course. The overall aim was to understand how mobile technology, combined with a technology-enhanced curriculum, impacts engineering students’ engagement, enhancement, and extension of learning. Findings reveal that students perceived increased levels of engagement when utilizing mobile devices in their learning practices. However, instructional methods were identified to be the key factor leading to engagement. A small effect size of 0.37 was noticed, and a post hoc power analysis resulted in a test power of 0.55. Though a significant difference between students who did and did not utilize mobile devices was not apparent, students with university loaned tablets (iPads) had a larger increase in learning than students without. This paper is based on the author's master's thesis titled “Affordances of Mobile Technology to Facilitate Learning in Undergraduate Thermal-Fluid Sciences,” the represented data reflects content from the same.

A comparative study of virtual and insite engineering service-learning implementations

The Smile project is an engineering service-learning initiative carried out through collaboration between Chouaib Doukkali University in Morocco and Pusan National University in South Korea. Since 2016, this project has been conducted annually for engineering students from both universities. Participants are selected through an oral interview, ensuring representation from different majors, years, and genders. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the project transitioned to an online mode starting from 2020. The objective of this article is to investigate the impact of the service-learning approach on learning and its potential for enhancing engineering education. This study aims to compare the face-to-face and online implementations of the Smile project as examples of this educational approach. The analysis demonstrates a strong positive effect of engineering service-learning as a learning approach, leading to the improvement of engineering students' skills and competencies. Notably, there is minimal difference between the two implementation modes of this learning approach.

The significance of Technology-Enhanced Learning towards Enhancing Engineering Education

Abstract— Engineering education must develop continuously to meet the demands of a technologically progressive world. Education institutions find it challenging to keep updated with the rapid technological enhancements. The technological environment has changed the way that students approach learning. This student's newfound learning approach may not be adequately addressed by traditional classroom teaching. As well traditional classroom instructions are not effectively developing students' problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Methods of assessment are limited and using typical examinations or tests to assess students' understanding of moral values and professional responsibilities might be difficult. All of this has an impact on students' Lifelong Learning. Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) is the incorporation of technology into the learning process in order to improve educational outcomes. By embracing TEL and utilizing different pedagogies, engineering education may successfully equip students with the skills and knowledge required to excel in the increasing technological landscape. TEL in engineering education can be improved using a variety of pedagogies. Different engineering education challenges can be addressed by using various technology-enhanced learning tools and activities in engineering courses teaching-learning process, and this paper provides insight on these tools and approaches. The paper then briefly covers their application and effectiveness. Moodle is an example of Learning Management Systems (LMS). The article discusses its application and effectiveness in the teaching-learning processes Further, problem-based learning methodologies for improving engineering education were reviewed. Puzzles, concept maps, and novel activities were adopted as active learning practices, their significance in promoting Technology-Enhanced Learning is explained in this study. Keywords—Crossword puzzle , Concept Map ,Flipped Classroom , Learning Management Systems , Moodle

Enhancing Engineering Education Through Pedagogical Change: “Application to Abstract

Students' understanding and capacity to apply and integrate principles from different units in each course are not being sufficed by the traditional teaching method, especially for the core courses. This research proposes a method, namely, “Application to Abstract” in which students learn the course by solving an application that draws on principles from various topics. The implementation of the same has been demonstrated with the help of a core course on Fluid Mechanics where a single problem statement with all the necessary information is defined and students work on the different aspect of the problem with the progress of the course. Compared to traditional method, more percentage of students showed interest in derivation of abstract principles (60%), the ability to apply the concepts (40%), ability to correlate with the basic principles and execute the project (50%). Their ability to comprehend and integrate the abstract concepts through the practical application has also enhanced their participation in laboratory classes. Keywords—Fluid Mechanics; Engineering applications; Project based learning; Rubrics design.

Enhancing Engineering Education in the Roblox Metaverse: Utilizing chatGPT for Game Development for Electrical Machine Course

This research paper explores the use of chatGPT to facilitate the development of educational experiences in the Roblox metaverse, specifically focusing on the electrical machine course. The primary objectives of this study are to demonstrate how chatGPT can streamline the creation of immersive and interactive learning environments within Roblox and to evaluate the efficacy of these experiences in engaging students and enhancing their understanding of electrical machines. Our approach leverages chatGPT's capabilities to optimize client-side scripts for server-side implementation efficiently, create well-structured dictionaries for describing game activities, stages, and points, and simplify the implementation of various effects and interactions. Upon completing our Roblox-based educational experience, the resulting code will be available under a Creative Commons license, allowing other educators and developers to build upon and customize our work for their needs. We tested this project with a group of 22 college-level students studying electrical machines, whose feedback has been instrumental in understanding the effectiveness of our methods and identifying areas for improvement. The results of this study suggest that integrating chatGPT into the development process of Roblox-based electrical machine-learning experiences can lead to increased student engagement and understanding. Further research is recommended to explore the broader implications of using chatGPT and other AI-powered tools in developing metaverse-based educational content across various subjects and learning environments. By doing so, we can continue to push the boundaries of what is possible in virtual education and provide more engaging and effective learning experiences for students worldwide.

Enhancing Engineering Education with Augmented Reality Visualization

An augmented reality mobile app is an application that overlays digital content on top of the real-world environment through a mobile device's camera. Our project, named ARchino, is an augmented reality mobile application designed to assist users in visualizing hardware components in a 3D model format. The application utilizes the Vuforia engine for database management and Unity software for 3D model integration. The project aims to improve the user experience in understanding and identifying the hardware components by providing an interactive and immersive experience. The goal of this project is to develop an augmented reality (AR) app used for self-paced learning. This AR app allows IT students to learn about different components of computer hardware in a more interactive and engaging way. AR apps use 3D models of computer hardware components such as CPUs, servers, Keyboard, Mouse and other hardware components. Students can use AR app to view these components in a 3D layered structure, giving them a clear understanding of the various layers and their relationships. The AR app also allows students to rotate and zoom in/outon components, and learn about the different specifications of each component. Overall, this AR app has the potential to revolutionize engineering education by providing students with a more engaging and interactive way to learn about computer hardware

Data Mining Techniques and Machine Learning Algorithms in the Multimedia System to Enhance Engineering Education

In the current digital era, engineering education worldwide faces a massive challenge in education and career development. By authorizing educators and administrators to migrate to the actions, cloud services technology has transformed into the educational environment. A Multimedia assisted smart learning system (MSLS) has been suggested in this paper where universities/colleges will advocate future development and begin skill-set enhancement courses by e-learning. To classify their employment prospects at the early stage of graduation, this proposed system measures learners' academic/skill data. Machine learning and Data mining are advanced research fields whose accelerated advancement is attributable to developments in data processing research, database industry growth, and business requirements for methods capable of extracting useful information from massive data stores. In addition, for skill set evaluation, a practical algorithm is suggested to find different groups of students that lack the appropriate skill set. The anticipated student groups can be provided with opportunities by e-learning to enhance their required skill set. The findings suggest that more critical choices can boost employment prospects and overall educational development by implementing the new engineering education system.

Enhancing engineering education through the integration of Open Science principles: A strategic approach to systematic reviews

Enhancing engineering education through the integration of Open Science principles: A strategic approach to systematic reviews

M-Learning Based Remote Laboratory for Electronics Experiments

<p>The paper goals on the implementation of Mobile learning (M-learning) based Remote Laboratory to maximize the available resource as well as to improve self learning ability. The developed system provides practical experience to the learners in the field of analog electronics. This laboratory permits the learners to conduct experiments on real time with the internet facility using developed android mobile application. A characteristic of Junction Field Effect Transistors (JFET’s) related to analog electronics has been considered for remote laboratory experimentation. The designed system can be expanded by adding new experiments without any complexity. This M-learning based remote laboratory approach enables the sharing of resource between the institutions for the minimization of expense and also encourages learners by enhancing engineering education.</p>

Enhancing engineering education in the elementary school

AbstractThe Next Generation Science Standards emphasizes the inclusion of engineering practices throughout the K–12 science curriculum. Therefore, elementary educators need to be knowledgeable about engineering and engineering careers so that they can expose their students to engineering. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of engineering professional development on in‐service elementary teachers’: (a) knowledge and perceptions regarding engineering, and (b) self‐efficacy of teaching engineering. This quantitative study revealed that even one professional development opportunity can help to alleviate some misconceptions about the work of engineers and what constitutes technology, as well as increase teachers’ confidence to teach engineering concepts.

Active Learning Approach to Enhance Engineering Education in Argentina: A Case of Study in Signals and Systems

We are really interested in improving engineering education by applying an original paradigm. For this reason, the undergraduate course of Signal and Systems was selected as our first field of work, to begin the implementation of this new idea and their promotion within our university community. In this regard, the “active learning approach” (AL) is made up of a series of tools that allow the students to become “actively” involved in the course, getting engaged in the activities proposed to enhance their skills rather than trying to assimilate unilaterally imparted information. The idea is to fight against that sort of teaching which does not take into account that each student learns in a singular way and at a specific pace, and not necessarily in a rigid division of levels. We attempt to foster an active discussion about motivation and commitment of the engineering student, analyzing their performance in challenges that stimulate their problem-solving capacity and that are not based on traditional activities.

Enhancing Engineering Education through Design-Driven Curriculum

In China, there is a strong demand for reforming higher engineering education both from industry and tertiary education perspective. School of Mechanical Engineering (ME), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) is ongoing developing design-driven curricula to enhance engineering education through project-based teaching, learning and assessment. More than 3000 students have completed over 600 projects in various courses since 2014. Of these projects, solving open-end problem accounts for about 25%, developing simple products about 25%, focusing on creative mechanism about 25%, and industry sponsored projects about 25%. Evaluation from industry at project showcase and students’ self-assessment showed the positive effects of the undergoing reform of undergraduate courses conducted by ME, SJTU on the enhancement of engineering education.

Upgrading translational engineering in medicine and biology through conscious-technology with humanistic motivation and global vision

The synergy between Engineering and Biology, which evolves as fast as both each of these disciplines do, allows us to offer top-of-the-line foundations to generate strong interactions industrial and welfare entities associated to health and living systems fields. We propose to articulate these fields based on the premise that new professionals must face different situations or crises due to the so-called islands of excellence. Often, the effort of retaining the lectures of teachers conspires against one’s own capability for analysis, logic and reasoning; a university education that does not stimulate the critical mind and does not teach how to think is not higher education, but training to submission. We are revising the programs of biomedical engineering education and the application of new pedagogic paradigms where critical thinking is the key: a holistic challenge which consists in a new way of teaching, learning, innovating, communicating and sharing with a creative attitude that represents quality of perception. We must redesign Engineers to work in a hybrid world where technology, science, humanism and other tendencies fuse and interconnect. In consequence, engineering becomes a profession whose limits are not specified, and where technology is the cause of a splendid amalgamation of science, art and management, widening the scope of its institutional mission. Rene Favaloro stated that individualism had to be replaced by collective interests and realized that teachers could cooperate in his plans through daily preventive education. During his lectures, he did not speak only about Medicine, but also about important social aspects such as poverty, the environment, drugs, education and the arms industry. He promoted changes in society, where education and social justice would be a top priority, and where university graduates got strongly involved with society, because history has taught us that good ideas and technologies can have unintended and negative consequences. On the basis that an increasingly educated and Internet-connected generation is rising up against the abuse of power and threats that hang over our entire planet, we propose a new educational paradigm which takes into account the thoughts of Favaloro as well as those of the Nobel Laureate Bernardo Houssay, and the legacies of Louis Pasteur and the Medici Family, to enhance Engineering Education in Biology and Medicine, and thus while encouraging faculty with this approach and motivating students and stimulating their creativity and their innovative ability throughout a conscious-technology curricula with humanistic motivation and global vision.

Enhancing Engineering Education via Physical Experiments: The Case of Learning Energy Storage with a Flywheel System

Abstract Design thinking is complex that is hard to learn and harder to teach. The purpose of engineering education is to graduate engineers who can design (Dym CL, 2005). How to enhance students’ reasoning and cognizing about data has gained an increasingly visible role in the K-12 curriculum (Doerr H. M. and Lyn D., 2003). In order to enhance teaching and learning engineering mathematics, a modeling approach by shifting the focus on finding solutions to a particular problem to create a system is proposed in this study. Besides, a training process for the college students who are intending to be the instructors of guiding physical experiments is included. Nonlinear systems, signifying any system is not linear, cannot satisfy the superposition principle. In this paper, a new modeling method for nonlinear systems based on an Adaptive Network-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) for operation and practice was used (Jang, J.S.R., 1993). Through this method, students were able to learn how the transfer functions work for identifying an unknown system. This method had well helped the participated students how the nature of nonlinear system is and how to find out the optimal solutions in controls.

A proposal to enhance Engineering education in biology and Medicine by following the legacy of René Favaloro.

The synergy amongst Engineering, Medicine and Biology evolves as fast as these disciplines. We propose to articulate these specialties based on the premise that new professionals must face different situations or crisis due to the so-called islands of excellence. René Favaloro focused his work and struggles against poverty, since malnutrition and environmental degradation may increase the propensity to cardiovascular diseases. Doctor Favaloro has dedicated, throughout his career, a considerable amount of time to prepare and qualify a research group, aware of the importance that an adequate working environment has over the final results. He created a team of young students, engineers, medical doctors, physicists, mathematicians and other specialists. He centered his attention on human resources, in order to disseminate his latest advances in Biology, Medicine and Engineering. We are revising the programs of biomedical engineering education and the application of new pedagogic paradigms, where critical thinking is the key: a holistic challenge that consists of a new way of learning, innovating, communicating and shearing, with a creative attitude that represents quality of perception.

Enhancing engineering education using project-based learning for Lean and Six Sigma

Purpose– The aim of this research is to determine the importance and impact of project-based learning (PBL) on students' knowledge in Lean and Six Sigma courses where practical application of theoretical knowledge is necessary.Design/methodology/approach– Students teams were given hands-on collaborative projects conducted with local companies. After the completion of the project, a student evaluation survey was conducted and the responses were analysed in two different phases. The first phase consisted of collecting responses from the Lean and Six Sigma courses; observing the impact of the semester project on students' knowledge based on the response percentages. The second phase analyses the responses from both the Lean and Six Sigma courses, by performing a Fisher's exact test to examine how similar the students received knowledge from the use of the semester project.Findings– Results showed that the inclusion of the semester project in the courses had a positive impact on the students' knowledge in learning course concepts and the students were able to apply theoretical knowledge in solving real-world problems. It is also observed that the response patterns are different in most of the aspects between both the courses.Research limitations/implications– This research evaluates student learning with statistical tests and is limited only for classroom teaching techniques. Further, this research states that application-oriented courses should be accompanied by projects as it helps in better understanding the course deliverables for the students.Originality/value– Research evaluating the impact of PBL on students' knowledge in Lean and Six Sigma courses does not currently exist. Statistical analysis of survey responses from both the Lean and Six Sigma courses was performed using aχ2 test of independence to examine how similar the students received knowledge from the use of the semester project.

Use of Professional Industry Interaction to Enhance Engineering Education

AbstractThe Architectural Engineering Program at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln has benefitted from forming partnerships with professionals in the building design industry. These relationships have exposed students to industry professionals in various settings through the development of several architectural engineering programs. These programs give students firsthand, real-life learning experiences with the profession that many of them will pursue upon graduation to supplement their classroom instruction. In addition to the programs’ educational benefits, by involving industry in many facets of the academic program, networking experiences occur that benefit students by helping them to find future jobs and benefit employers by helping them to develop an understanding of the abilities of certain students prior to the recruitment process. Industry professionals interact with students in various ways, including providing graduate students with project advice, forming teaching partnerships, and participat...

BETS – Innovating on Co-op to Enhance Engineering Education

The Business Employment Transferable Skills (BETS) program was a pilot project established for unemployed first year Waterloo Engineering students to train them in entrepreneurial skills and provide them with experience in start-up companies. Twenty students participated in the BETS program and they were “hired” in a similar competitive manner used for regular co-op jobs. The students were from 8 different engineering programs and had completed 8 months of academic study prior to entering the program. Students initially completed 80 hours of training to build workplace skills required to succeed in an entrepreneurial work place. Employers submitted a one-page form, describing a proposed project and the BETS coordinator “matched” them with teams of two students for 3 week work placements. Each student completed a total of 4 placements over a 12 week period. A total of 29 start-ups, with limited financial resources to staff projects, in local technology incubators participated. Most were in various ICT sectors however a few other sectors were represented. Most companies had fewer than 5 employees and most personnel were non-salaried “founders”. Students worked on a range of projects including web site development, market research, data gathering and database development, mobile app development and product testing. At the end of each placement the students received an assessment of their performance by the employers. The students completed an assessment of the work placement where they identified skills developed, challenges encountered and successes achieved. BETS was well received by students and employers. Companies benefited from completion of short-term projects and developed a rapport with potential future employees. BETS students gained insight into start-ups and relevant, transferable and marketable skills and outcompeted classmates in the next co-op round. The lessons learned during the trial will be presented at the conference.