First-year Engineering Students Research Articles

Engineering students’ perceptions of problem and project-based learning (PBL) in an online learning environment

ABSTRACT Modern engineering curricula often rely on approaches such as problem and project-based learning (PBL) as a core teaching and learning strategy. With a growing need to move these student-centred active learning curricula to online and blended learning environments, it is essential that practitioners understand the impact that these different modes of delivery may have on student collaboration. This paper aims to identify factors that affect students’ perceptions of PBL in an online learning environment. This case study was carried out in an Irish university over a seven-week period with first-year engineering students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study utilised a questionnaire (n = 94) and semi-structured interviews (n = 7) to collect participant data. Qualitative data were analysed using Braun and Clark’s thematic analysis. The analysis identified 6 themes and 18 sub-themes that are linked to students’ perceptions of problem and project-based learning (PBL) in an online environment. The identified themes and sub-themes in this study are uniquely reported findings within the context of online PBL in engineering education.

Emotional Intelligence of Russia’s Potential Scientific and Technical Elite

A highly intellectual environment involves intense mental activity, rapid acquisition of new material, creativity, competition, and rivalry. All these aspects may cause a long-time neuropsychic stress. Students of leading technical universities need to be able to overcome such difficult situations. The authors reviewed theoretical approaches to emotional intelligence. They designed a psychological model of scientific and technical elite of modern Russia. The model included emotional-volitional, demand-motivational, value-meaning, socio-psychological, and cognitive-activity components. This paper focuses on the empirical study and confirmation of the emotionalvolitional component in potential engineering, scientific, and technical elite, i.e., junior students of Russia’s leading technical universities. The research revealed some psycho-logical peculiarities in their emotional intelligence and coping-strategies. The sample consisted of first-year engineering and technical students of the National Research Nuclear University MEPHI (n = 111). The psychodiagnostic tools included the coping test developed by R. Lazarus and S. Folkman and adapted by T. L. Kryukova, E. V. Kuftyak, and M. S. Zamyshlyaeva; D. V. Lyusin’s test of emotional intelligence. The data analysis relied on IBM SPSS Statistics V.22.0 and the Kruskal-Wallis H-test method of mathematical statistics. The students proved able to consciously analyze difficult situations, work out solutions, plan and predict the outcomes of their behavior, as well as to resort to past experience and available resources. In general, these overcoming models had a constructive effect on the development of an engineer’s personality. However, the underdevelopment of the emotional sphere and poor expression of feelings affected interpersonal and intragroup relationships. Students of nuclear engineering should develop their emotional sphere and expand the range of coping strategies in stressful situations.

First-year engineering students’ attitudes and learning goals in calculus: A ten-year follow-up study


 
 
 This study sets out to examine engineering students’ attitudes and learning goals in a first-year mandatory calculus course. We explored how, and the extent to which, course specific goals and attitudes changed over the course of one semester. A study of learning goals and attitudes was conducted among first-year engineering students at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in 2007, and “educationally unwelcome” trends were observed. The current follow-up study (2017) was motivated by comprehensive course revisions from 2013 through 2015, including the use of digi- tal learning resources, improved tutoring sessions and the introduction of active learning methods. Contrary to expectations, this follow-up study brings no evidence of positive impacts of the course revisions at the mean level. Some students had stable attitudes and goal orientations, while others switched to undesired territories throughout the semester in the same way as observed ten years earlier. Better integration between foundational and applied courses, and consideration of the entire teaching and learning environment, may yield more of desired attitudes and goal orientations in the first year of study.
 
 

How Do First-Year Engineering Students’ Emotions Change while Working on Programming Problems?

Emotions are a complex multi-faceted phenomenon. To assess the complexity of emotions from different facets, multi-modal approaches are necessary. However, multi-modal approaches are rarely used for assessing emotions, especially in the context of computer programming. This study adopts a multi-modal approach to understand the changes in students’ perception of emotions before and after working on programming problems. Understanding these changes in students’ perceptions may enable educators to devise interventions that help students adjust their perceptions and regulate their emotions as per their skills. We conducted a one-on-one programming session and retrospective think-aloud interview with 17 students from an introductory programming course. During the programming session, students filled surveys and performed four programming tasks. While working on these tasks, students’ eye gaze, video of face and screen, and electrodermal activity data were also collected using a non-invasive device. The data collection for this study was multi-modal, with a mix of both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. Data analysis was primarily qualitative, with additional triangulation of qualitative and biometric data for select exemplars. The findings of this study suggest that students experience changes in emotions because of many reasons, for instance, they encountered repeated errors, they set high standards for their performance, or they could not manage time. For some students, negative emotions changed to positive emotions when they solved errors without any external help or achieved more than what they expected going into the task. Moreover, the triangulation of qualitative and biometric data of two participants provides a fine-grained analysis of their emotions and behaviors and confirmed the change in the perception of their emotions while performing the programming tasks.

Enhancing Spatial Ability among Undergraduate First-Year Engineering and Architecture Students

Spatial ability (SA) refers to the ability to generate, retain and manipulate abstract visual images in one’s head. Research of this ability conducted during the last few decades had shown that SA is an essential ability to the development of mathematical skills in children. Later studies addressed adult SA development and accordingly found that SA was a predictor of success in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields of academic studies. Recently, focus has also been directed to another related field which is architecture. This group has not been extensively researched in relation to its spatial thinking abilities. The current research examines the efficiency of a new training program aimed at improving engineering and architecture student’s SA abilities. This program was based on previous intervention programs but was innovative in its combination of both traditional and computer-based teaching methods and combining frontal learning, hands on model building and augmented reality (AR) tools, all in a short program of 20 h. We asked whether the training program will be effective in improving student’s SA ability and whether this improvement will remain across different factors such as gender, faculty and math level. The results showed a significant improvement in SA abilities among the students who took the training program, compared with the control group. These results were true for both engineering and architecture students. Moreover, the results showed the training program to be efficient regardless of gender or prior math level.

Engineering for Whom? Investigating How Engineering Students Develop and Apply Technoskeptical Thinking

College engineering education prioritizes technical knowledge and skills, but there is growing recognition that it must also address the social and societal implications of engineering work. Beyond professional ethics, engineers need to develop broader understandings of how engineering and technology interact with and impact individuals and communities. This study focuses on the development of engineering students’ ‘technoskeptical’ ways of thinking, defined as their ability to think about technologies as more than neutral tools and analyze their complex interactions with sociotechnical systems and values. Students in the study were incoming first-year engineering students who participated in a four-week summer bridge program. The program included a course called ‘engineering design for humans and the environment,’ which foregrounded sociotechnical issues and was designed to promote technoskeptical thinking. To assess students’ uptake of technoskepticism, they completed a pre and post task on which they analyzed the unintended effects of outdoor street lighting. Although students engaged in similar technoskeptical inquiries during the design course, this study found that students tended not to transfer those emergent skills to the street lighting task. The results indicate a need to expand instructional efforts so that students more fully internalize technoskeptical practices and apply them to novel situations.

Applying the engineering design process to teach the physics course for engineering students using the flipped classroom combined with an instructional design model

PurposeThis study aims to examine the perceptions of students about learning science and physics using the engineering design process (EDP).Design/methodology/approachThe study employed a mixed-methods research design: The quantitative session features a pre–post-test control group study. In the qualitative aspect, the study conducted semistructured interviews for data collection. In the experimental group, the flipped classroom (FC) model and an instructional design are combined to design, develop and implement a physics course using the steps of the EDP, while the conventional method was applied to the control group. The respondents are students of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Cao Thang Technical College in Vietnam for the academic year 2022–2023. The control and experimental groups are composed of 80 students each. An independent sample Mann–Whitney U test is applied to the quantitative data, while thematic analysis is employed for the qualitative data.FindingsThe results demonstrate a statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of perceptions about learning science and physics using the EDP, which, when combined with a FC, enhances physics learning for engineering students.Research limitations/implications This study implemented the EDP in teaching physics to first-year engineering students in the Department of Mechanical Engineering using the combined FC and instructional design models. The results revealed that a difference exists in the perception of the students in terms of integrating the EDP into learning physics between the experimental and control groups. The experimental group, which underwent the EDP, obtained better results than did the control group, which used the conventional method. The results demonstrated that the EDP encouraged the students to explore and learn new content knowledge by selecting the appropriate solution to the problem. The EDP also helped them integrate new knowledge and engineering skills into mechanical engineering. This research also introduced a new perspective on physics teaching and learning using the EDP for engineering college students.Practical implicationsThe research findings are important for teaching and learning physics using EDP in the context of engineering education. Thus, educators can integrate the teaching and learning of physics into the EDP to motivate and engage student learning.Originality/valueUsing the EDP combined with a FC designed under stages of the analyze, design, develop, implement and evaluate (ADDIE) model has enhanced the learning of physics for engineering college students.

Problem-Based Learning versus Traditional Learning in Physics Education for Engineering Program Students

Problem-based learning (PBL) is an educational method which involves learning by solving real problems. However, applying a PBL approach to engineering subjects in some cases became a challenging issue. Thus, it is important to determine the best ways in which engineering students can learn physics more effectively and solve problems relevant to their daily lives. The main aim of this study was to compare the final assessment grades in a physics course for students in the engineering program using PBL and traditional learning (TL) methods. The advantages and disadvantages of PBL and TL methods from the practical experience of lecturers are also presented. The study presented data of 460 first-year engineering students taking the physics course at Kaunas University of Technology. The information presented in this study is based on the insights, observations, and individual experiences of the authors as teaching staff. The results indicated that the application of the PBL method allows for enhancement in the teamwork, presentation, and critical thinking skills in physics. However, the TL method promotes the individual learning skills and wider theoretical knowledge in physics of students and is more suitable when the exam only includes closed-ended questions.

First-year engineering students’ affective behavior about mathematics in relation to their performance

The present study examines the first-year engineering students’ attitudes towards mathematics, their beliefs and self-efficacy about mathematics, as part of their affective performance, in relation to their mathematical academic performance before and after attending an introductory mathematics course. It aims to contribute on the ongoing discussion about the teaching of mathematics at the level of higher education in engineering programs. First-year engineering students completed a questionnaire and a test after their entrance at the university. Their mathematical performance was examined by using their results at the midterm and the final mathematical mark during AMAT111 course offered at the first semester of their studies. Results indicated that aspects of the affective domain were related with students’ performance, while the predominant role belonged to their previous mathematical knowledge and skills (as learning outcome of the high school education), which undoubtedly need further enhancement. The belief about a formalistic perspective of mathematics and the lack of understanding of the implementation of the mathematical concepts on engineering problem solving situations were obstacles for them on recognizing the importance of attending mathematics courses as part of their engineering studies. Discussion concentrates on the following up steps, which have to be done at the level of higher education in order to face the initial difficulties, which have been identified.

An Experiential Learning Approach for Enhancing Performance of First Year Engineering Students in Engineering Graphics Course

Abstract— Engineering Drawing is a crucial and mandatory course for first-year engineering students. This subject plays a vital role in enhancing students' ability to visualize, imagine, and effectively illustrate concepts. It aids them in expressing their ideas clearly and swiftly, comprehending drawings produced by others, and devising effective designs. The curriculum covers essential topics like projection, sectioning, and the development of solids such as prism, pyramid, cylinder, cone, cube, and tetrahedron. These topics help students develop the ability to conceptualize, visualize, and create drawings according to specific requirements. The achievement of learning outcomes related to these subjects is hindered by the challenges faced by first-year engineering students, including their lack of fundamental knowledge in technical drawing and limited abilities in imagination and visualization. As a result, their performance in these areas tends to be subpar. To address this issue, a practical "learning by doing" approach is introduced alongside traditional classroom instruction. This strategy aims to boost the visualization, imagination, and technical drawing proficiency of first-year engineering students. This article outlines the author's endeavors to enhance students' visualization, imagination, and drawing skills. The focus is on involving students actively in both classroom and extracurricular learning. By methodically incorporating a "learning by doing" approach, there has been a notable enhancement in student engagement, achievement of course objectives, and overall performance in the course assessments. The topic of development of solids was completely taught with this method. This activity resulted increase in the CO attainment, active participation and engagement of the students in the class room as well as outside of the classroom. Following the implementation of this activity, there was a substantial rise of 17.30% in the accomplishment of course outcome, coupled with a notable increase of 25.34% in the students' learning index. Keywords— Course Learning Outcome, Engineering Graphics, learning by doing

INTERACTIVE SPATIAL TRAINING ANIMATES SEX DIFFERENCES IN PERFORMANCE AMONG FIRST-YEAR ENGINEERING STUDENTS

In a 2 × 2 (sex × intervention) experiment we investigated sex differences in performance gains and transfer after training on a brief intervention that used interactive animation and virtual objects to improve performance on a spatial visualization task. Participants were male and female first-year engineering students at a large public university who scored in the lower 60th percentile of a distribution of their peers on the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test. Compared to the control group, trained participants of both sexes showed significant improvement on stimuli viewed during the intervention. Further, trained participants significantly outperformed untrained participants on a transfer task, with trained female participants significantly outperforming trained male participants. We suggest possible explanations for the lack of sex differences in performance on the trained task and for the significant advantage demonstrated by trained female participants on the transfer task. We propose that a female engineering role model may confer a motivational advantage to female entry-level engineering students.

Environmental Sustainability Project by First-Year Engineering Students: Composting

Environmental Sustainability Project by First-Year Engineering Students: Composting

TEMPORAL CHANGES IN VIDEO GAME PLAY AND SPATIAL VISUALIZATION SKILLS BY GENDER AMONG ENGINEERING STUDENTS

Spatial thinking is considered to be a higher-level skill that is critical to success in engineering and in computer science. Further, there are significant gender differences in 3-D spatial skills among first-year engineering students, favoring males. Playing 3-D video games is viewed by many as one activity that may lead to highly developed spatial skills; video gaming is also viewed as a means for attracting students to the field of computer science. In this study, engineering students were administered a test of 3-D mental rotation during first-year orientation and also completed a background questionnaire designed to assess the amount of time spent playing typical 3-D video games during their childhood. Both instruments were administered in 2009 as well as in 2019. Through this research, it was found that men have higher spatial skill levels and spend more time playing 3-D video games compared to their female counterparts. Further, the amount of time spent playing 3-D video games increased significantly for males but not for females between 2009 and 2019. Playing 3-D video games was significantly correlated with spatial skill levels but appeared to be more important for females than for males in terms of developing these skills. Results from this study will inform video game developers as they create games of broad appeal in fulfillment of a dual role: attracting a diverse body of students to computer science programs while also developing the 3-D spatial skills necessary for success in those fields.

Enhancing Learner Engagement in Online Education through ADDG9E Model

Abstract—Nowadays, Online Education has been an inevitable choice of practice in the teaching-learning process. Learner engagement is one of the ineluctable challenges faced by the course teachers. For sustaining the learner's engagement throughout the course, teachers have to plan teaching-learning activities such as learning environment, content delivery, active student engagement, assessment, and evaluation. To plan teaching–learning activities effectively, the ADDG9E Instructional Design model, the combination of ADDIE and the Gagne’s 9 events models, has been proposed. Computer Programming CP101x – online bridge course has been offered to first-year engineering students. This course has been offered to improve the problem-solving skills of the learners. The proposed model has been implemented for organizing an online bridge course using the Moodle platform. The experimental results show that the proposed model has improved the learner's engagement, sustainability in learning, formative and summative assessment scores compared to physical classroom teaching. The course feedback shows that how well the learners have enjoyed their learning in the proposed ADDG9E Instructional Design modelbased online bridge course on computer programming. Keywords— ADDIE Model, Gagne’s 9 Events Model, Online Instructional Design, Online Learning, Online Course Design, Student Engagement, Self-Learning, Self-Motivation.

Exploring first-year engineering student perceptions of the engineering librarian as an IL instructor in multimodal teaching and learning environments

PurposeThis study aims to explore first-year engineering students’ perceptions of the engineering librarian as an instructor in multimodal environments related to Information Literacy (IL) topics, teaching strategy, content evaluation, organising, planning and support.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative approach was used through a survey instrument based on an online questionnaire. Questions were adopted and modified from a lecturer evaluation survey. A simple random sampling technique was used to collect data from first-year cohorts of engineering students in 2020 and 2022.FindingsRespondents perception of the engineering librarian as an instructor in multimodal learning environment was good. Findings revealed students’ learning experiences were aligned with IL instruction even though the environment changed from blended to online. However, an emerging theme that continuously appeared was a lack of access to technology.Practical implicationsThese findings may help in developing and strengthening the teaching identity of academic librarians as instructors in multimodal learning environments.Originality/valueTo the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is novel in that it evaluates the teaching abilities of an academic librarian in multimodal environments through the lens of students.

Motivational attitudes of personality of potential scientific and technical elite of Russia

Introduction. The article presents a theoretical analysis of the need-motivational sphere of the individual, identifying its most important features. The purpose of this analysis was to reveal and substantiate such a substantive component of the theoretical model of the psychology of the subject of the modern scientific and engineering elite as the need-motivational one. To substantiate and test the theoretical model, a comprehensive empirical study was carried out aimed at studying the psychological characteristics of the personality of a representative of the scientific and technical community. Particular emphasis was placed on the study of promising youth (students).Materials and Methods. The following psychodiagnostic tools were used in the study: diagnostics of socio-psychological attitudes of the individual in the motivational-need sphere by O.F. Potemkina, “coping test” (the technique was developed by R. Lazarus and S. Folkman, adapted by T.L. Kryukova, E.V. Kuftyak, M.S. Zamyshlyaeva), emotional intelligence test by D.V. Lyusin (EmIn). A comparative analysis of the results obtained was carried out using methods of mathematical statistics (Kruskal-Wallis H test), and correlation analysis (Spearman) was also used. The study sample consisted of first-year engineering and technical students of the National Research Nuclear University "MEPhI" in the amount of 111 people, who were distributed into 3 groups: Institute of Nanotechnologies in Electronics, Spintronics and Photonics (INTEL) – 15 people; Engineering Physics Institute of Biomedicine (IFIB) – 27 people; Institute of Laser and Plasma Technologies (LAPLAZ) – 69 people.Results. Comparative data analysis showed differences between samples. They are expressed in the type of motivation, in the orientation “towards the result” or “process”. The study showed some alarming trends: purely engineering students are more focused on material values and social benefits, while being emotionally restrained and low in contact. Materials scientists and biomedical specialties are focused on communicative interaction and social support, and are more emotionally relaxed.Discussion and Conclusions. The empirical study, and especially its results, confirmed the feasibility of using the theoretical model and showed its viability. A comparative analysis made it possible to identify common and special features in the manifestation of motivational attitudes among students of various technical profiles.

Integration of Physics and Mathematics in STEM Education: Use of Modeling

Within STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education, integrating real-world problem scenarios is paramount. Within interdisciplinary education, modeling is an approach to fostering student learning and skill development in a student-centered learning environment. This study focuses on an integrated physics and mathematics course in STEM education based on modeling for first-year engineering students. The main objectives of this study are to analyze students’ models, assess the effectiveness of the pedagogical approach, and evaluate the benefits of integrative education. This study uses a Model-Application Activity as a closure for the quadratic model and extends the models built to a two-dimensional motion situation. The core activity involves a real-world experiment where students attempt to roll a ball down a ramp into a cup. While most groups successfully constructed theoretical models, only a few hit the target, highlighting the complexities of applying theoretical knowledge to real-world scenarios. The study also emphasizes the seamless integration of physics and mathematics, enriching the learning experience and making the models more robust and versatile. Despite the promising results, the study identifies a gap between theoretical understanding and practical application, suggesting the need for more hands-on activities in the curriculum. In conclusion, this study underlines the value of integrating physics and mathematics through modeling and a student-centered approach, setting the stage for future research to enhance the effectiveness of STEM education.

Compositional skills error analysis: The case of the university environmental engineering first-year students

<span lang="EN-US">The compositional skills are analyzed to determine whether college students have improved their writing ability after the two years additional in the senior high school curriculum. This study examines the errors committed by first-year engineering students. There were 90 student respondents written outputs collected and subjected to Grammarly software. The researchers analyzed the data using the Scheffe test, comparing the difference between clarity, engagement, and delivery. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was employed to test whether there is a significant difference among other variables. Findings revealed that clarity is the most common error committed by the student-respondents. The errors committed between male and female respondents do not show a difference. The K-12 graduates’ compositional errors do not differ significantly from that in the Alternative Learning System (ALS) passers or the old basic education curriculum graduates. It is in delivery that students vary. This finding implies that college students' compositional skills still need strengthening. Instructors are encouraged to provide comprehensive activities and writing exercises to both genders, regardless of their curriculum. It is recommended that University language instructors identify specific interventions to help students struggling with writing. Therefore, providing enough written opportunities and practices is vital to make college students enhance their compositional skills.</span>

Edukacja matematyczna na poziomie akademickim na kierunkach ścisłych i technicznych w dobie technologii mobilnych i sztucznej inteligencji

The development of technologies and solutions based on artificial intelligence offers an opportunity to help teachers and students develop and improve teaching and learning outcomes. There are many indications that software such as ChatGPT will soon become an accepted part of the technological toolset used by math teachers and students - we just need to learn how to use them safely and optimally. Integrating the use of digital technology into the teaching of mathematics at the academic level is a huge challenge. On the one hand, we have many tools at our disposal, which are often used more effectively by learners than teachers, on the other hand, shortcomings in knowledge and mathematical skills of candidates for studies require many changes in the curricula implemented in the classes. In the case of mathematics education at technical universities, this should encourage activities related to an in-depth analysis of the teaching methods used and the development of learning outcomes that will allow students not only to navigate efficiently in the digital world, but also to participate in its creation. The article presents the results of a survey conducted among first-year engineering students related to the use of applications and software supporting mathematics education. Examples of e-technologies used for learning and solving tasks by students were also shown, and certain threats and possibilities of their use were indicated. The need to modify programs and methods of teaching mathematics at the academic level was also signaled, to allow students to achieve learning outcomes with the optimal use of technology.

Predicting academic performance in first-year engineering students: The role of stress, resiliency, student engagement, and growth mindset

The first-year post-secondary experience of engineering students poses an interesting area of inquiry due to the challenges and experiences associated with the transition into a professional degree program. This study aimed to investigate if four psychological variables (perceived stress, student engagement, resilience, and growth mindset) predicted first-year engineering student performance via end-of-first-year grade point average (GPA). An optional online research survey was administered through a mental health and professional skills initiative of the engineering department to undergraduate first-year engineering students. Perceived stress was found to be a significant predictor of GPA. Post-hoc moderation analyses revealed that the relationship between stress and GPA was buffered by resilience (i.e., weaker stress-GPA relationship at higher levels of resilience) and enhanced by student engagement (i.e., stronger stress-GPA relationship at higher levels of engagement). Implications for the importance of resiliency initiatives are discussed, including embedding resiliency skill development within curriculum.