Freshman Engineering Students Research Articles

Academic Performance: Text Anxiety during examinations of Freshmen Engineering students MLRIT, Hyderabad

The main aim of this research was to find the relationship between test anxiety and academic performance of students at the under graduate level. A sample of 414 students was randomly selected from five different departments of Freshman Engineering at MLR Institute of Technology in Hyderabad, TS, India. Data was gathered by utilizing the Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) developed and improved by Spielberger. Pearson correlation, multivariate English and regression analysis was run for data. It was found that a major negative relationship observed between test anxiety scores and students performance scores. Results proved that a cognitive factor contributes more in test anxiety than effective factors. Therefore, it is examined that test anxiety is one of the key factors that results the students’ underachievement and poor performance but it can be handled by rigorous training of individual students in linked with factors resulting test anxiety.

The effects of computer-aided design software on engineering students’ spatial visualisation skills

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to determine the influence of computer-aided design (CAD) software-based instruction on the spatial visualisation skills of freshman engineering students in a computer-aided engineering drawing course. A quasi-experimental design was applied, using the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test-Visualization of Rotations (PSVT:R) for both the pre- and the post-test. The participants were 116 freshman students in the first year of their undergraduate programme in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at a university in Turkey. A total of 72 students comprised the experimental group; they were instructed with CAD-based activities in an engineering drawing course. The control group consisted of 44 students who did not attend this course. The results of the study showed that a CAD-based engineering drawing course had a positive effect on developing engineering students’ spatial visualisation skills. Additionally, the results of the study showed that spatial visualisation skills can be a predictor for success in a computer-aided engineering drawing course.

Picture Pieces Activity: An effective Team Building Strategy

Practice of Profession requires having the ability to work in teams. This is well articulated in Graduate Attribute 9 of Washington Accord. Furthermore, engineering problem solving requires multi-disciplinary skills. This necessitates the need for engineers to be able to work in multi-disciplinary teams. The challenge for academia is to make the Future Engineers to understand the need for working in teams, with multidisciplinary skills. Projects during are an important part of engineering curriculum. These projects offer learning contexts, which enhance student learning. The challenge for academia is to make the students realize the importance of Project management which is an art of managing the project and its deliverables with a view to produce finished products or service.Accomplishing this goal requires that all team and team members work together with a common Strategy and Goal. Keeping this in mind, an activity was designed in Project Management module, in a course titled Engineering Exploration. This course is designed for freshman engineering students of undergraduate program in KLE Technological University, Hubballi. Through this activity called Picture Pieces Activity, the authors have attempted to communicate to students. 1) The need to work in team in order to successfully accomplish a given task. 2) The factors that contribute to effective team execution of a project. This paper shares the details of the activity, the experiences of authors and the learnings in doing this activity.

An Investigation of the State of Creativity and Critical Thinking in Engineering Undergraduates

The goal of an undergraduate engineering education is to provide students with the necessary knowledge and skills needed to solve real world problems. Creativity and critical thinking are two abilities essential for success in the workplace, and are highly sought after by employers. However, there is evidence of decreasing creativity and critical thinking in senior engineering students. This study sought to understand if freshman engineering students are measurably more creative, but less capable of critical thinking, than senior undergraduate engineering students. Creativity and critical thinking were measured using the Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production (TCT-DP) and the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA), respectively. The data suggest that freshman engineering students were significantly more creative than senior engineering students. However, senior engineering students were found to be no better at critical thinking than their freshman counterparts. When compared to normative data, the senior engineering students underperformed significantly compared to the general population of senior college students. With study limitations in mind, these findings may suggest that senior engineering students are not only less creative, but also less capable of critical thinking, than when they started their engineering program. If this is indeed the appropriate conclusion, then there is a need to understand the underlying issues driving the decline of creativity and critical thinking in engineering undergraduate students.

Techniques used to Improve Spatial Visualization Skills of Students in Engineering Graphics Course: A Survey

Spatial visualization skills are crucial in engineering fields and are required to support the spatial abilities of engineering students. Instructors in engineering colleges indicated that freshmen students faced difficulties when visualizing models in engineering graphics. Students cannot correctly understand and process visual object and mental images of the engineering models. Traditional tools using textbooks, physical models, and modeling techniques is not sufficient for improving the spatial visualization skills of engineering students. This paper is a survey of all techniques used to learn freshmen students in engineering graphics and improve their spatial visualization skills. Also, it presents the method of evaluation the spatial visualization skills. After describing techniques and presented the literature review, this work presents a comparison between methodologies and techniques used in previous studies. Finally, we summarize a road of the map for the techniques and strategies to improve the spatial visualization skills for freshmen engineering students.

Effects of an educational intervention on the technical writing competence of engineering students

This article presents the design, implementation and appraisal of an educational intervention developed to explore how education, practice and feedback of cognitive elements, regarding writing summaries, have an effect on the technical writing competence of freshman engineering students. The educational intervention was designed based on the methodol-ogy of Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) and it consisted of three phases: teaching, practice and feedback. In total, 177 students participated, distributed into three groups: 54 Electronic Engineering students (year 2014), 57 Electrical Engineering students (year 2015) and 66 Electronic Engineering students (year 2015). The intervention effects were studied by quantitative and qualitative evidence. Quantitative evidence was collected through an evaluation rubric of the summaries written by the students; this rubric analyzes ten criteria of the writing competence. Qualitative evidence was collected through open-ended questions about the students’ learning experience throughout the intervention. Results show that the three partici-pating groups improved their technical writing competence due to their participation in this educational intervention. Sen-tence construction (g-Hedges = 0,62) and text sequences (g-Hedges = 0,59) criterion presented the highest effect rates. The other writing criteria, evaluated through the rubric, presented a positive gain with statistical significance, but only in some groups of students.

Self-Control And Academic Performance In Engineering

Self-control has been related to positive student outcomes including academic performance of college students. Because of the critical nature of the first semester academic performance for engineering students in terms of retention and persistence in pursuing an engineering degree, this study investigated the relationship between freshmen engineering students’ scores on the Brief Self-Control Scale and first semester GPA. To identify the unique explanatory contribution of self-control beyond incoming academic performance differences, the effect of ACT Composite scores was statistically removed from the sample of three cohorts of freshmen engineering students (n=1295 total). The results showed the measure of self-control explained on average 4.2% of the residual variability in first semester GPA, after accounting for the variability explained by ACT scores. Based on results of this study, self-control predicted between 27%-42% as much of the variance in first semester GPA as did ACT scores, a much-used high stakes measure frequently used for decisions such as program admittance or mathematics course placement. Thus self-control is a nontrivial predictor of academic performance. Based on post hoc analysis, relevant self-control behaviors might manifest themselves in time and study management since there was a significant correlation between self-control scores and scores on the MSLQ time and study management measure. These results have implications for both how much of an impact positive self-control may have on freshmen engineering academic performance, while also offering potential avenues to support students in bolstering aspects of this personality trait through a focus on strengthening time and study management skills.

Comparing Freshman and doctoral engineering students in design: mapping with a descriptive framework

ABSTRACTThis paper reports the results of a study of engineering students’ approaches to an open-ended design problem. To carry out this, sketches and interviews were collected from 9 freshmen (first year) and 10 doctoral engineering students, when they designed solutions for orange squeezers. Sketches and interviews were analysed and mapped with a descriptive ‘ideation framework’ (IF) of the design process, to document and compare their design creativity (Carmona Marques, P., A. Silva, E. Henriques, and C. Magee. 2014. “A Descriptive Framework of the Design Process from a Dual Cognitive Engineering Perspective.” International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation 2 (3): 142–164). The results show that the designers worked in a manner largely consistent with the IF for generalisation and specialisation loops. Also, doctoral students produced more alternative solutions during the ideation process. In addition, compared to freshman, doctoral used the generalisation loop of the IF, working at higher levels of abstraction. The iterative nature of design is highlighted during this study – a potential contribution to decrease the gap between both groups in engineering education.

Teaching Decision Making Method in Engineering Exploration Course – An Experience

This paper presents the experience of teaching decision making method in Engineering Exploration course. This course is offered to the freshman engineering students of all engineering disciplines. The motivation of including this topic in the curriculum of the course Engineering Exploration is to make the students have hands - on experience in using the decision making method as and when required. In order to obtain a best solution for a given problem knowing and applying decision making process is very important. The decision making method is taught using an activity to the students. Later, an assessment is conducted on applying the learning from the previous activity on decision making. The parameters of assessment focused in this activity are selection of criteria, design features and prioritization. The outcome of the assessment activity clearly shows a good attainment of the two parameters i.e., selection of criteria and prioritization. The other parameter which is design features needs improvement.

Freshman Engineering Students At-Risk Of Non-Matriculation: Self-Efficacy For Academic Learning

Students identified as at-risk of non-academic continuation have a propensity toward lower academic self-efficacy than their peers (Lent, 2005). Within engineering, self-efficacy and confidence are major markers of university continuation and success (Lourens, 2014 Raelin, et al., 2014). This study explored academic learning self-efficacy specific to first-year engineering students with at-risk indicators. The at-risk determination was made through trajectory to matriculate, classified by cumulative grade point average of academic studies. An adapted version of the Self-efficacy for Learning (SEL) scale, modified by Klobas, Renzi and Nigrelli (2007), was administered to freshman engineering students identified at-risk and not at-risk of matriculation. Internal consistency of the SEL was analyzed and once deemed satisfactory (Cronbach alpha = .94), item-level outcome comparisons between student subgroups were made for each of the 22 instrument items.

Project-Based Curriculum for Teaching Analytical Design to Freshman Engineering Students via Reconfigurable Trebuchets

This paper presents an effort to revitalize a large introductory engineering course for incoming freshman students that teaches them analytical design through a project-based curriculum. This course was completely transformed from a seminar-based to a project-based course that integrates hands-on experimentation with analytical work. The project is centered on a reconfigurable trebuchet kit that student groups assemble and work to identify design decisions that will maximize projectile launch distance. Challenges include streamlining the project experience for the large enrollment (up to 148 students) with limited contact hours, and helping students fuse hands-on experiences with quantitative engineering analysis. A mixed-methods approach supported the claim that the curriculum improved the students’ engineering judgment and demonstrated to students the value of engineering analysis and mathematical models in practical engineering design. A rigorous statistical analysis of student trebuchet launch performance at different course stages is included. A qualitative assessment of student learning is derived through students’ reflection of their course experience. Comprehensive results comparing students’ design iterations versus algorithmic design optimization iterations provide important insights into student design intuition, paving the way for hybrid design education models that teach students how to combine human design intuition with quantitative design tools to design superior systems.

Assessing Freshman Engineering Students' Understanding of Ethical Behavior.

Academic dishonesty, including cheating and plagiarism, is on the rise in colleges, particularly among engineering students. While students decide to engage in these behaviors for many different reasons, academic integrity training can help improve their understanding of ethical decision making. The two studies outlined in this paper assess the effectiveness of an online module in increasing academic integrity among first semester engineering students. Study 1 tested the effectiveness of an academic honesty tutorial by using a between groups design with a Time 1- and Time 2-test. An academic honesty quiz assessed participants' knowledge at both time points. Study 2, which incorporated an improved version of the module and quiz, utilized a between groups design with three assessment time points. The additional Time 3-test allowed researchers to test for retention of information. Results were analyzed using ANCOVA and t tests. In Study 1, the experimental group exhibited significant improvement on the plagiarism items, but not the total score. However, at Time 2 there was no significant difference between groups after controlling for Time 1 scores. In Study 2, between- and within-group analyses suggest there was a significant improvement in total scores, but not plagiarism scores, after exposure to the tutorial. Overall, the academic integrity module impacted participants as evidenced by changes in total score and on specific plagiarism items. Although future implementation of the tutorial and quiz would benefit from modifications to reduce ceiling effects and improve assessment of knowledge, the results suggest such tutorial may be one valuable element in a systems approach to improving the academic integrity of engineering students.

The Use of an Innovative Jig to Stimulate Awareness of Sustainable Technologies among Freshman Engineering Students

Renewable energy systems, such as photovoltaic (PV) systems, still require a great deal of research and development in order to improve efficiency, reduce overall manufacturing costs, and to become more sustainable in the future. Solar power production using PV modules has increased and is currently one of the fastest growing energy technologies worldwide, leading to speculation that it will be the main source of electrical power in future. This on-going research and implementation of PV modules and systems necessitates the effective training of technicians, technologists and engineers required to install, maintain or interface with these systems. The Department for Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering at the Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT) in South Africa has implemented a Higher Certificate in Renewable Energy Technologies (HCRET) in January 2014. The purpose of this article is to outline a practical innovative jig that was used to stimulate awareness and understanding of the fundamental operating principles of one specific sustainable technology, namely PV modules. Electronic measurements from this innovative jig are obtained by using an ARDUINO UNO board which interfaces with LabVIEW. Student perceptions of using this innovative jig are further presented, which indicate that the practical experiments were satisfying, challenging, relevant and applicable to PV module operation.

No Budget, No Experience, No Problem: Creating a Library Orientation Game for Freshman Engineering Majors

“Mystery at the Library” is a simple, inexpensive game developed as a library orientation activity for freshman engineering students. Players searched the library building and online to find clues and solve the mystery of a stolen book. Feedback from players and library desk staff was used to improve the game over time. A straightforward narrative with puzzles focused on learning objectives kept players engaged and avoided unnecessary confusion. A post-game survey indicated that the game was both helpful and fun for a majority of respondents.

Comparing Career Awareness Opportunities Of Academically At-Risk And Non At-Risk Freshman Engineering Students

This study explored how freshman engineering students utilized career awareness developmental opportunities prior to entry into post-secondary academics. Specifically, the study delved into separations and distinctions among students at-risk of non-continuation due to matriculation concerns and students non at-risk. Founded on the amended arrangement of Nasta’s (2007) Career Exploration Survey-Revised instrument, singular factors were studied through hypotheses targeting career awareness behaviors among at-risk and non at-risk subgroups. The results show there are possible contradictions to commonly accepted beliefs about career awareness between at-risk and non at-risk students. Several deductions, considerations, and implications are highlighted based upon the findings of the study.

Birinci sınıf mühendislik öğrencileri ile öğretim görevlilerinin yaşam boyu öğrenme yönelimleri

Bilimdeki hızlı gelişmeler ve mühendislik alanında bunları izleyen teknolojik değişiklikler, mühendislerin kendi beceri ve bilgilerini güncellemelerini gerektirmektedir. Bu da, mühendislik fakültelerinin yaşam boyu öğrenme (YBÖ) becerilerini müfredatlarına dâhil etmelerini ve öğrencilerinin YBÖ için hazır oluş düzeylerini belirlemelerini gerektirir. Bu amaç doğrultusunda bu çalışma, Abu Dabi'deki Petrol Enstitüsü'nde 2012-2013 akademik dönemi boyunca birinci sınıf mühendislik öğrencilerinin ve öğretim görevlilerinin YBÖ yönelimlerini tespit etmeyi hedeflemektedir. Çalışmaya, ortalama 19 yaşındaki 196 öğrenci ve ortalama 42 yaşındaki 31 öğretim üyesi katılmıştır. Çalışmaya katılan öğrencilerin yaklaşık %75.5'i yabancı ülkelerden gelen öğrencilerdir. Yaşam Boyu Öğrenim Eğilim Skalası kullanılarak toplanan veriler, cinsiyet ve etnik köken arasındaki kıyaslamalarla analiz edilmiştir. Öğrencilerin YBÖ yönelimleri ayrıca öğretim görevlilerinin yönelimleriyle de karşılaştırılmıştır. Veri analizi için SPSS istatistik yazılımı sürüm 18.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, ABD) kullanılmıştır. Verileri yorumlamak için, sıklık ve yüzde gibi tanımlayıcı istatistikler kullanılmıştır. Grup karşılaştırmaları için Mann-Whitney U testi kullanılmıştır. Bulunan sonuçlar, sebat ve öz-düzenleme becerileri için nispeten düşük puanlarla birlikte öğrencilerin genel puanının ortalama olduğunu göstermiştir. Ancak öğretim görevlilerinin genel puanlarının yüksek olduğu ve merak becerileri için nispeten daha da yüksek puanlara sahip olduğu görülmüştür. Kız öğrencilerin puanlarının, öz-düzenleme ve merak konularında istatistiksel olarak anlamlı farklılıklarla birlikte daha yüksek olduğu görülmüştür. Ayrıca farklı ülkelerden gelen öğrencilerin tüm alt-beceri puanları, istatistiksel olarak anlamlı bir derecede daha yüksek bulunmuştur. Bu çalışmayla, mühendislik öğrencilerinin YBÖ becerileri konusunda farkındalıklarının artmasından fayda görecekleri ve mühendislik müfredatının, bu becerilerin öğretimini de bünyesine dâhil etmesi gerektiği sonucuna varılmıştır. Öğrencilerin yaşam boyu öğrenen özelliklerini üstlenmelerini sağlamak amacıyla bazı pratik öneriler sunulmuştur.

Bringing Biology to Freshmen Engineering Students: The Approach Implemented at Notre Dame

The growing relevance of biology to diverse engineering problems has led to the suggestion that training in biological sciences should be incorporated into the core engineering curriculum. While there is growing interest in this idea, challenges to including biology in the engineering curriculum include fitting this new material into an already crowded schedule (i.e., deciding what other core topics to cut), determining what biological topics should be covered, and agreeing upon which part of the university should teach the course. This “methods” article describes Notre Dame’s approach to solving these problems, in which the second semester of general chemistry has been replaced by a semester of “biological chemistry” that is designed specifically to bring key concepts of biology to the first year engineering students while also teaching some core aspects of typical second semester chemistry. This course is now approaching its 10th year, and it has expanded to include not only all first year engineering students, but also a sizable fraction of physics and mathematics majors. We discuss some of the challenges that we faced in designing and implementing the course, and provide both a summary of the present curriculum and pointers about how to make the course run smoothly. We suggest that our approach be considered as a general solution to the problem of how to introduce biology to students in engineering as well as in mathematics and the physical sciences.

Virtual Blocks: a serious game for spatial ability improvement on mobile devices

This paper presents a novel spatial instruction system for improving spatial abilities of engineering students. A 3D mobile game application called Virtual Blocks has been designed to provide a 3D virtual environment to build models with cubes that help students to perform visualization tasks to promote the development of their spatial ability during a short remedial course. A validation study with 26 freshman engineering students at La Laguna University (Spain) has concluded that the training had a measurable and positive impact on students’ spatial ability. In addition, the results obtained using a satisfaction questionnaire show that Virtual Blocks is considered an easy to use and stimulating application.

High-Achieving High School Students and Not So High-Achieving College Students

This study investigated the relationship among lack of self-control, academic ability, and academic performance for a cohort of freshman engineering students who were, with a few exceptions, extremely high achievers in high school. Structural equation modeling analysis led to the conclusion that lack of self-control in high school, as measured by the frequency of illegal and irresponsible behaviors, had an inverse relationship with first semester grade point average (GPA), whereas academic ability, as measured by ACT scores, had a positive relationship with college GPA. The correlation between the residual error for one of the indicators of self-control, homework behaviors in high school, and the residual error for first semester GPA was also significant. Research on the relationships between self-control, homework behaviors in high school, and performance in college should continue; meanwhile, parents and teachers would be advised to emphasize the importance of developing self-control and positive homework behaviors in academically advanced high school students.

An analysis of writer’s performance, resources, and idea generation processes: the case of Filipino engineering students

The purpose of the pilot study, which is a part of a larger project on ESL writing involving freshmen college students in the Philippines, is to explore the relationship between writer’s performance, writer’s resources, and writer’s idea generation process. To measure the writer’s performance, diagnostic essays of 85 Filipino freshmen engineering students were evaluated based on Gustilo’s (2011) modified holistic scoring guide. To measure writer’s resources, tests on linguistic knowledge and topic familiarity and a survey questionnaire on writing background were administered to the same students. To measure writer’s idea generation process while composing, a Likert Scale questionnaire based on Chenoweth and Hayes 2001 and 2003 models was designed and administered to the students after their diagnostic essay task. Pearson product moment correlation was used to test for significant relationships. Discourse completion task (DCT) was administered to confirm the results gathered through quantitative method. Findings partly confirm the findings of previous studies. Writer’s performance is correlated with all the variables under study except for spelling test.