The paper describes a case study in which the main objective is to understand how engineering students can improve their writing skills, regarding spelling and syntax, when taught specifically on these issues. The methodology Writing To Learn is applied in two courses and, making use of the written texts, the students' writing skills are assessed…

Product development is the set of activities starting with the perception of a market need and ending in the production and sale of a new product satisfying that need. Broadly speaking, it is a process that should follow a structured methodology, if a certain level of effectiveness and efficacy is envisaged. In the Portuguese industrial…

Linear algebra is a standard undergraduate mathematics course. This paper presents an overview of the design and implementation of an inquiry-based teaching material for the linear algebra course which emphasizes discovery learning, analytical thinking and individual creativity. The inquiry-based teaching material is designed to fit the needs of a…

Gliders and sailplanes provide a great launching platform for teaching about technology and scientific principles. Soaring is technological innovation in action, using earth's natural resources for energy and endurance during flight. This article focuses on the basics of soaring, which educators can use to increase excitement and interest in the…

Programmable logic devices (PLDs) are used at many universities in introductory digital logic laboratories, where kits containing a single high-capacity PLD replace "standard" sets containing breadboards, wires, and small- or medium-scale integration (SSI/MSI) chips. From the pedagogical point of view, two problems arise in these…

This paper describes the authors' experience of teaching agile software development to students of computer science, software engineering, and other related disciplines, and comments on the implications of this and the lessons learned. It is based on the authors' eight years of experience in teaching agile software methodologies to various groups…

A laboratory-based class in flat-panel display technology is presented. The course introduces fundamental concepts of display systems and reinforces these concepts through the fabrication of three display devices--an inorganic electroluminescent seven-segment display, a dot-matrix organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display, and a dot-matrix…

The haptic paddle is a force-feedback joystick used at several universities in teaching System Dynamics, a core mechanical engineering undergraduate course where students learn to model dynamic systems in several domains. A second goal of the haptic paddle is to increase the accessibility of robotics and haptics by providing a low-cost device for…

To ensure the competitiveness of the USA in the global economy, and its role as a leader in science and engineering, it is important to cultivate the next generation of home grown mathematicians. However, while universities across the USA offer calculus classes to thousands of undergraduate students each year, very few of them go on to major in…

Students' workload has been recognised as a major factor in the teaching and learning environment. This paper starts by structuring the different conceptualisations of workload described in the scientific literature. Besides the traditional distinction between objective and subjective or perceived workload, a distinction between conceptualisations…

The Education Scotland publication, "External Quality Arrangements for Scotland's Colleges, Updated August 2013," specifies that Education Scotland will produce a number of subject-based aspect reports each year. These reports complement, in a subject-specific context, the generic evaluations of learning and teaching in Education…

This project explored teaching and learning of hard-to-learn threshold concepts in first-year English, an electrical engineering course, leadership courses, and in doctoral writing. The project was envisioned to produce disciplinary case studies that lecturers could use to reflect on and refine their curriculum and pedagogy, thereby contributing…

A methodology for design based research (DBR) into effective development and use of Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVE) in vocational education is proposed. It blends software development with DBR with two theories selected to inform the methodology. Legitimate peripheral participation LPP (Lave & Wenger, 1991) provides a filter when…

Elementary engineering education (EEE) is an educational innovation. Using Rogers's innovation diffusion model, the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM), and Dreyfus's skill acquisition model as its theoretical frameworks, this study investigated elementary teachers' EEE adoption and EEE expertise development. Data of this study were collected…

Visual program simulation (VPS) is a new, interactive form of educational program visualisation, in which learners use graphical controls to direct a program's execution rather than simply watching an animation of it. In this article, we report on a qualitative empirical study of novice programmers learning through VPS. From an analysis of…