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…

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…

The objective of this work is to share the authors' experience towards a different mode of teaching/learning method. Cooperative learning (Jigsaw) was employed on the University of Vigo's fourth-year engineering students. The results of the experience show that cooperative learning is quite a viable alternative to the classical way of lecturing at…

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to examine how a number of key themes are introduced in the Master's programme in Engineering for Sustainable Development, at Cambridge University, through student-centred activities. These themes include dealing with complexity, uncertainty, change, other disciplines, people, environmental limits, whole life…

There has been a rapid increase in the use of technology in university classrooms. Many university classrooms and laboratories include an overhead projection unit, computer, and connections for laptops. More recently, tablet PCs have been investigated as another way to effectively engage students in a classroom environment. This study summarizes…

Faculty from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the College of Education at the University of Missouri (MU), Columbia, developed a novel course for engineering graduate students emphasizing pedagogy and professional skills. The two-semester course sequence, titled "Preparing Engineering Faculty and Professionals,"…

Undergraduate engineering institutions are currently seeking to improve recruiting practices and to retain engineering majors particularly by addressing what many studies document as a major challenge of poor instruction. There is an undisputed need for instructional practices that motivate students in addition to facilitating the transfer of…

This article presents a study that aimed to determine engineering students' preferred way of learning and to provide additional learning resources to support their methods of learning. The population for this study was drawn from electrical, civil, and mechanical engineering programs at an urban university. Overall, the results of the study…

The study reported in this paper represents the first stage of a five-year project aimed at improving the quality of teaching and learning in undergraduate mathematics courses for science and engineering students. Students were surveyed about their confidence in their mathematics background, their confidence with current mathematics topics, and…