What does it mean to use, or do, theory in the scholarship of teaching and learning? The article approaches the question by considering the role of design anthropology in developing studio-based engineering programmes. Central to my discussion within situated contexts of learning is the idea of practice-based exploration conceived as a way of…

This paper addresses the role of engineering PhD education and its relationship to innovation and technology, and the need to reconsider how we educate PhD engineers. Much of the effort on engineering education in the last two decades focused on undergraduate education with a few exceptions that relate to master degree programs. Doctoral education…

Simulation is the process of executing a model that describes a system with enough detail; this model has its entities, an internal state, some input and output variables and a list of processes bound to these variables. Teaching a simulation language such as general purpose simulation system (GPSS) is always a challenge, because of the way it…

The highest rate of accidents and injuries in British industries has been reported by the construction industry during the past decade. Since then stakeholders have recognised that a possible solution would be to inculcate a good attitude towards health and safety risk management in undergraduate civil engineering students and construction…

Capstone courses have been increasingly offered in Taiwan. This paper explored their assessment approaches and issues. Authentic assessment and project competition were found widely adopted and the following two issues were identified: (1) The assessment rubrics employed should be enriched and improved; and (2) Assessment fairness on the extent…

Research in engineering education over the past 15 years has shown that the interest in pursuing undergraduate degrees in engineering has declined among graduating high school students. A large portion of this engineering education research focuses on factors used to predict the likelihood that a student will successfully complete an undergraduate…

The Academic Pathways of People Learning Engineering Survey (APPLES or APPLE survey) is a component of the Academic Pathways Study (APS) of the Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education (CAEE). The APS aims to provide a comprehensive account of how people become engineers by exploring key questions around the engineering learning…

This paper is a case study of first-year science and engineering students' understandings of plagiarism. Students were surveyed for their views on scenarios illustrating instances of plagiarism in the context of the academic work and assessment of science and engineering students. The aim was to explore their understandings of plagiarism and their…

The objective, strategy, and implementation details of a new undergraduate course, Internet-based Instrumentation and Control, are presented. The course has a companion laboratory that is supported by the National Science Foundation and industry. The combination is offered to senior-level undergraduate engineering students interested in sensing,…

Are textbooks useful, or are they an unnecessary expense or even an obstacle to robust conceptual understanding? Clearly, the answer depends upon course context--what are the goals of the course, how could the textbook be used to achieve these goals, does this use justify the cost of the textbook, and are there more educationally effective or…

This article explores issues relating to innovation in engineering education arising from the implementation of e-education. This can be correlated with innovation in general. We describe a systematic approach to innovative design and utilise this approach in engineering education. The main emphasis is on the presentation of attitudes, approaches…

An essential difficulty in solving practical problems that are not like the ones a student has solved before is discerning the core of the problem. It is claimed that discernment has to be trained by variation--by varying the context of the assignments in which students have to identify and grasp their "underlying form". A decisive…

In this article, the author describes an activity he introduced to his engineering drafting students that involved a Tootsie Roll product. In this particular activity, he assigned his students to find out how many licks are needed to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop. He first asked his students to do some research if an answer exists for…

The U.S. is no longer the universally preferred home for the global technology elite. Increasing numbers of scientists and engineers who were educated and have built successful careers there are returning to China, India, and other countries. Noting these trends, the policy and technology communities are sounding the alarm about an impending U.S.…

The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the effects of a residential learning community and enrollment in an introductory engineering course to engineering students' perceptions of the freshman year experience, academic performance, and persistence. The sample included students enrolled in a large, urban, public, research university…