Jenny Lo

Work in progress - spiral curriculum approach to reformulate engineering curriculum

A theme-based spiral curriculum approach is being adopted to initiate the department-level reform (DLR) of the freshman engineering and the bioprocess engineering curricula at Virginia Tech. A large number of engineering faculty members are collaborating with experts in educational psychology and academic assessment to accomplish the objectives of this 3-year NSF supported project that began in September 2004. Successful implementation of the spiral approach will be used as a model for incorporating similar reforms in other engineering departments and elsewhere

Work in Progress: Introduction to Engineering Ethics through Student Skits in the Freshman Engineering Program at Virginia Tech

An engineering ethics assignment through student skits was piloted in the spring 2006 with 180 freshman students enrolled in an introductory engineering course at Virginia Tech. Students, assigned into groups of 4-8, were given one of five ethics case studies documenting realistic engineering scenarios, a set of guidelines, a performance assessment rubric, and instructed to prepare a 5-10 minute skit integrating the essential elements of the given case study. The student groups were given two weeks to organize, prepare, and practice before performing their skit for the class. Students were required to complete a hand-out, provided during the skit session, identifying which of twelve Rules of Practice as part of the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) ethical codes had been violated and provide a brief response to a set of open-ended ethical questions. Results of the student hand-out, student surveys and focus group interviews are discussed

Work in progress: a freshman course for engineering and computer science students

Primarily as a result of the move of computer science into the college of engineering, the first-semester engineering course taken by all first-year engineering students at Virginia Tech was significantly redesigned. The primary goal of the redesign was to switch from an inherently procedural programming language (Matlab) to an object-oriented language (Alice). This object-oriented approach to learning programming was also believed to be better for students bound for computer science and computer engineering. In addition, coverage of ethics, which had been constrained to engineering topics, will be broadened to include software issues. Previously implemented hands-on early design portions of the course will not be significantly modified. The first offering of the new course will be in fall Semester 2004, with approximately 1,200 students enrolled.

Work in progress - pilot of foundational engineering education course

In spring 2005, implementation of a significant redesign of the first semester introductory engineering course (EngE1024) occurred in support of the enhanced research mission of the Department of Engineering Education (EngE). This redesign produced changes to course curriculum, the format of the course, and the use of faculty and graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) resources. A pilot course was offered to about 240 students in a new format; this format involved one lecture and a workshop session every week. The lecture consisted of a 50-minute session team taught by the first two authors in a class of 120 students. The 32-seat workshop session was 110 minutes, and primarily conducted by a GTA. The intents of new format were to allow students more in-class time for group/design projects, allow faculty members introduce research/contemporary engineering topics, and give graduate students meaningful teaching experiences. Preliminary analysis of course assessment data indicates a 2-1 preference by students for the new format to the old format used until fall 2004

AdWiki: Designing and implementing a socio-technical infrastructure for advising freshmen engineering students

Recent studies demonstrate that inadequate undergraduate advising often contributes to engineering students switching out of their majors. In this paper we present findings from a project undertaken to design and implement a web-based advising system for first-year engineering students. The advising system, AdWiki, has been accessed over 6425 times by over 1260 students since its full implementation. AdWiki was created to address three major issues in advising: (1) heavy faculty advising responsibility in the department, (2) lack of appropriate faculty rewards for time and effort spent on advising, and (3) inefficient uses of advising resources. Were recognized a need for a technology-based solution, one that was useful, usable, and sustainable. To achieve this objective, we turned to theoretical literature on the design and use of technology and approached our project through the socio-technical perspective. This perspective recommends a holistic and humanistic approach to design, where technology is just one element of a larger system. AdWiki has seen tremendous usage since full deployment, which we believe is a result of our approach. In this paper, we discuss our theory-guided approach to system design and present assessment and usage data to support our process and findings.

Improving Ethics Studies through a Spiraling Theme Based Curriculum

One of the ABET criteria specifically requires students to be able to work in a professional and ethical manner upon graduation. Incorporating ethical thinking into student learning has often been considered a challenge in engineering curriculums. The Biological Systems Engineering (BSE) and Engineering Education (EngE) departments at Virginia Tech are working to address this need for increasing student exposure to engineering ethics. It was decided the best method for improving ethics training is for students to continuously revisit engineering ethics at increasing levels of complexity through a spiral themed curriculum.