In many mechanical engineering undergraduate curriculums, there are topics that are vital to the students' future careers in the manufacturing and design workforce that are not taught in-depth. As one of those topics, Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing, or GD&T, is vital to companies who develop and manufacture products because it allows…

A unit operations laboratory course was significantly modified to be an open-ended problem-based experience with an emphasis on teamwork and communication skills. Students were surveyed to assess gains in engineering self-efficacy as well as to indicate which course structure components were most beneficial to learning. Students showed significant…

This paper deals with the use of metadiscourse by Italian university lecturers who teach through the medium of English (EMI, English-Medium Instruction). The objective is to verify whether, irrespective of possible shortcomings in their mastery of the language, lecturers demonstrate sensitivity to the situational demands of the EMI classroom,…

This case study trialled the introduction of a student-response system (Top Hat) in a third-year engineering Fluid Mechanics course (n = 44) to improve student engagement, motivation and cognition. It was recognised that for the potential benefits of student-response systems (SRSs) to be fully realised, more time must be allocated for student…

Promoting the adoption of an alternative pedagogy can be a difficult process. Many professors are not interested in significantly modifying how they teach their course. Those that are interested in pedagogical reform still have concerns that must be addressed before or during an implementation. This paper presents a case study following the…

This paper reports on a study about how the mathematics textbook was perceived and used by the teacher in the context of a calculus part of a basic mathematics course for first-year engineering students. The focus was on the teacher's choices and the use of definitions, examples and exercises in a sequence of lectures introducing the derivative…

Teaching in the 21st century requires a modern teaching practice coherent with the evolutions of the Information Age. Interestingly, teaching practices have stretched beyond an art form and into the realm of science. Following these scientific trails, one can argue that one of the greatest challenges educators currently face is to maintain student…

In response to demands from industry and the profession for more graduates, first-year engineering numbers have grown considerably over the last decade, matched by an increasing diversity of academic backgrounds. In order to support first-year students effectively, and ensure the courses they take remain appropriately pitched, the academic…

This study was conducted to evaluate students' (n=70) learning performance after their participation in lectures using enhanced guided notes (EGN) in an electric circuits course for non-electrical engineering students. Unlike traditional guided notes, EGN include questions that prompt students to evaluate their metacognitive knowledge. The results…

The authors have developed a first-year fluids course for a class of around 230 aerospace, civil and mechanical engineering students. This paper aims to show how the teaching and assessment methodology was applied to the challenge of a large class. The lectures featured formal teaching interspersed with active learning elements. Smaller group…

Inherently a discovery-based pedagogy, Disassemble/Analyze/Assemble (DAA) activities start with the artefact--an instance of a typically well-engineered solution. Through systemized disassembly and the subsequent analysis of components, students engage in an iterative process of observation and follow-up probing. In-turn, this process helps…

First-year engineering students often complain about their mathematics courses as the significance of the difficult and abstract calculus to their field of study remains unclear. We report on the project "MathePraxis", a feasibility study which was designed as a means to give first-year students some impression about the use of…

It is now widely acknowledged that water management discipline is transforming, from being a public health and flood prevention challenge of the nineteenth century to a multi-dimensional challenge of water security for the twenty-first century. In order to train water engineers to be capable of working with this holistic multi-dimensional…

Several previous studies have investigated the use of questions to facilitate interactions in academic lectures in tertiary education. However, the issue of how disciplinary cultures influence the patterns of questions in lectures has received little attention. Therefore, this study aims to examine the interdisciplinary differences in professors'…

Results of a successful pilot study are presented, in which quizzes are introduced in a second year bachelor course for mechanical engineering students. The pilot study course entailed the basic concepts of mechanical vibrations in complex, realistic structures. The quiz is held weekly using a SharePoint application. The purpose of the quizzes is…