期刊名称：Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association
出版年度：2015
语种：English
出版社：The Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA)
摘要：ENGR 141: Engineering Mechanics is a foundational course in the UVic Engineering Faculty that serves all of the engineering degree programs: biomedical, civil, mechanical, electrical, computer and software. Between the 2013 and 2014 offerings of the course, the ENGR 141 population grew dramatically, by well over 50%, necessitating changes in the course structure and methods of student assessment. In addition to addressing logistical challenges, the changes were designed to develop the students’ confidence in their ability to wield fundamental mechanical principles independently and in peer-to-peer working environments. This was done by repurposing the tutorial sections of the course to create student driven exploration, analysis and solution of complex three dimensional mechanics problems. A series of 22 problems lying outside the domain of the assignment problem sets were addressed-two in each week of the tutorials. The assignments and midterms problems were constructed so that the impact of tutorial work on students mastery of the course Intended Learning Outcomes could be extracted. Under the new tutorial format, instructors monitored group dynamics, helped troubleshoot and provided encouragement. Presentation of solution strategies were made by select student groups each week. The current work describes the motivation for the changes made, observations made at implementation and some preliminary results from analyses of the impact of the new course structure on student mastery of the course learning outcomes. Important conclusions are that the student-led tutorials should be accompanied with additional instructor contact hours that provide opportunity for students to receive tutelage on a one-to-one basis and that individual testing should stress the procedures and tools emphasized in the tutorials. In addition, students found that assessments made through multiple choice testing contradicted values and principles being stressed in the tutorial and seminar sessions.
