This study investigates and contrasts the final year (capstone) engineering projects at three public universities in Southern Africa: Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST), and Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST). The research examines their practices, structures,…

Teamwork skills are a vital learning outcome in higher education, yet negative interpersonal interactions within teams can diminish students' sense of belonging and inclusion. To address this challenge, the introduction of equity, diversity, inclusion, and intersectionality (EDI&I) topics into course curriculums has been proposed. This study…

Purpose: Biomedical engineering (BME) curricula are necessarily broad and it has been reported that BME students can experience substantial barriers to their career attainment compared to other engineering majors. Methods: Challenges and curricular innovations for addressing industry needs were discussed in workshops held at the BME Education…

Challenge: Courses like introductory calculus are described as "gatekeeper" classes but are required for students across a variety of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors. Real applications of mathematics subjects are known to have a positive effect on student motivation and retention. Considering the broad and…

Social justice considerations are critical in today's engineering education. As an example, access to electricity will be crucial to the development of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) by powering essential sectors and services that would yield economic growth and an improved quality of life. Because infrastructure investments are often allocated to urban…

An elective course on chemical process separations has been developed to provide upper-level undergraduate students the opportunity to develop expertise in evaluating and potentially improving energy consumption in distillation operations. This paper presents examples of the work submitted to illustrate the pedagogy of the class. These examples…

This study assesses the current landscape of teaching-focused faculty (TFF) in ChE through a combination of departmental surveys, individual faculty surveys, and manual data collection from institutional websites. We identify key factors influencing TFF salaries. Open-ended responses show that student interactions are the most rewarding aspect of…

Video-based learning (VBL) is widely used due to its flexibility and accessibility. However, only watching videos results in shallow learning, and therefore there has been much research on providing support for engagement in VBL. In this paper, we present our VBL platform and the results of a study performed in two consecutive years in the same…

The U.S. must find ways to engage all of its population in advancing scientific and technological work. This must include efforts to admit and educate a more diverse array of students in terms of pre-college opportunity and preparation, as well as provide supportive environments and experiences to help these students succeed. For these efforts to…

Background: Metacognitive processes have been linked to the development of conceptual knowledge in STEM courses, but previous work has centered on the regulatory aspects of metacognition. Purpose: We interrogated the relationship between epistemic metacognition and conceptual knowledge in engineering statics courses across six universities by…

An implementation of the journal club model to develop confidence in academic skills across speaking, writing and integrity domains, as well as socialising journal club members to academia, is reported. A journal club was established in a Foundation Year (Pre-undergraduate) context for ten physical scientists. A mixed-methods approach was used to…

Additive manufacturing (AM) and 3D printing (3DP) offer unique opportunities for experiential learning and practical application in engineering education. In developed countries, AM is integrated into engineering education to train mechanical engineers. However, existing research has not investigated the integration of AM and 3DP into higher…

While decades of research from cognitive psychology provided insight into effective learning strategies for long-term learning, there is a discrepancy between what research recommends and what students do. We investigated first-year engineering students' knowledge and use of learning strategies, and how they experience and adapt to learning…

Creative thinking is a key focus in twenty-first century higher education, yet engineering students are often seen as lacking creativity due to traditional training approaches. To address this issue, this study examines the effectiveness of project-based learning (PBL) integrated with Scamper--a creative thinking tool--and Trello--a project…

With ever-evolving workforce trends and needs, there is an increasing need for educators who can foster multi-disciplinary skills such as creativity, problem solving, and systems thinking in K-12 students. To support this shift, this two-year study examined how engineering and human-centered design course materials, matched with coordinating field…