Thomas J. ImpellusoMechanical Engineering

ME203: Computer Programming Applications

COURSE RE-RE-RE-DESIGN

ME203Status as of Fall, 2006:

Programming for Mechanical Engineers:loops, logic, arrays, files, functions

The class had been: “programming without purpose.” (Specific Mechanics Algorithms were not presented.)

ME203Status as of Fall, 2006:

Class met in a lab and enrollment was limited by the thirty workstations.

Three instructors were needed each semester.

Changes deployed as of Fall ’08 – mid-way

through re-design

• Cognitive Load to introduce mechanics

• Use of Blackboard for organization

• Use of Wimba for delivery

Especially, the Desktop Sharing.Special attention

Engineering School Server

Student at home Instructor at home

Desktop Sharing

Wimba

Unlimited Students

Enrollment

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

F '06 S '07 (*) F '07 S '08 F '08 S '09

1. No need to hire three instructors.

2. No need to support 30 workstations

Final Exam Grade Comparison

Type of Student Fall 2006 Fall 2008

All students 53.25 76.28

Hispanic students 61.25 82.33

Female students 70.00 88.25

Failing to Finish

Type of Student Fall 2006 Fall 2008

All students 25.9% 13%

Hispanic students 50% 16%

Female students 50% 0%

Instructor Review

Fall, 2006 2.48 3.14

Fall, 2008 3.396 4.40

Spill over: Graduate classes average now about 4.5 to 5.0

Theories

• No ‘herd’ mentality.

• Review in privacy of home.

• Cognitive Load Theory

• Scaffolding

• Minerva’s Machine

• Articulation

• Stacking Fear

That completes the design.

BUT WE WANT MORE

Re-design: 1/3

Captivating the entire class

Purpose: enables instructor to focus attention on the students in need.

(and now students are volunteering to turn the captivates into CD’s for ‘on-demand-learning)

Re-re-design: 2/3

Adaptive Releas: In order to download the first five home-works, the students must first pass a short quiz about the syllabus.

Purpose: enables student motivation

Re-re-re-design: 3/3

Peer Review: Will it replace the need for graders?

Purpose: enables learning communities.

Personal Experience

Brace yourself and do half.

Prepare time to do the second half while teaching the first half because you see patterns emerge.

I think unbalanced focus on research results in course mis-articulation.

Redesign

ME310: Machines and Mechanisms

Articulation Matters

ME499: Simulation Science

Was ME205; will become SDSU-grid

IEE: Informal Engineering Education

DaVinci/SDSU Island (With S.A.)

Beam bending Angular Velocity

Kinematics

Truss AnalysisCentripetal Clutch

AerodynamicsDynamics: Runge-Kutta

Newton-Raphson

Bessel Functions

Sincere and warm thank you to Suzanne Aurilio,

and to Jon Rizzo, too.