Matching Items (3)
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- All Subjects: Software Engineering
- Creators: Sohoni, Sohum
Description
Parents in STEM careers are more apt to guide their kids towards STEM careers (Sherburne-Michigan, 2017). There are STEM programs and classes for students who are interested in related fields, but the conundrum is that students need to be interested in order to choose to participate. The goal of this creative project was to introduce engineering concepts in a high school class to reveal and investigate the ways in which engineering concepts can be successfully introduced to a larger student populace to increase interest in engineering programs, courses, and degrees. A lesson plan and corresponding materials - including circuit kits and a simulated ball launching station with graphical display - were made to accomplish this goal. Throughout the lesson students were asked to (1) use given materials to accomplish a goal, (2) predict outcomes based on conceptual understanding and mathematical calculations, (3) test predictions, (4) record data, and (5) analyze data to generate results. The students first created a simple circuit to understand the circuit components and learn general electrical engineering concepts. A simple light dimmer circuit let students demonstrate understanding of electrical concepts (e.g., voltage, current resistance) before using the circuit to a simulated motor in order to launch a ball. The students were then asked to predict the time and height of a ball launched with various settings of their control circuit. The students were able to test their theories with the simulated launcher test set up shown in Figure 25 and collect data to create a parabolic height versus time graph. Based on the measured graph, the students were able to record their results and compare calculated values to real-world measured values. The results of the study suggest ways to introduce students to engineering while developing hands-on concept modeling of projectile motion and circuit design in math classrooms. Additionally, this lesson identifies a rich topic for teachers and STEM education researchers to explore lesson plans with interdisciplinary connections to engineering. This report will include the inspiration for the product, related work, iterative design process, and the final design. This information will be followed by user feedback, a project reflection, and lessons learned. The report will conclude with a summary and a discussion of future work.
ContributorsBurgess, Kylee Rae (Author) / Jordan, Shawn (Thesis director) / Sohoni, Sohum (Committee member) / Kinach, Barbara (Committee member) / Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Software engineering education today is a technologically advanced and rapidly evolving discipline. Being a discipline where students not only design but also build new technology, it is important that they receive a hands on learning experience in the form of project based courses. To maximize the learning benefit, students must conduct project-based learning activities in a consistent rhythm, or cadence. Project-based courses that are augmented with a system of frequent, formative feedback helps students constantly evaluate their progress and leads them away from a deadline driven approach to learning.
One aspect of this research is focused on evaluating the use of a tool that tracks student activity as a means of providing frequent, formative feedback. This thesis measures the impact of the tool on student compliance to the learning process. A personalized dashboard with quasi real time visual reports and notifications are provided to undergraduate and graduate software engineering students. The impact of these visual reports on compliance is measured using the log traces of dashboard activity and a survey instrument given multiple times during the course.
A second aspect of this research is the application of learning analytics to understand patterns of student compliance. This research employs unsupervised machine learning algorithms to identify unique patterns of student behavior observed in the context of a project-based course. Analyzing and labeling these unique patterns of behavior can help instructors understand typical student characteristics. Further, understanding these behavioral patterns can assist an instructor in making timely, targeted interventions. In this research, datasets comprising of student’s daily activity and graded scores from an under graduate software engineering course is utilized for the purpose of identifying unique patterns of student behavior.
One aspect of this research is focused on evaluating the use of a tool that tracks student activity as a means of providing frequent, formative feedback. This thesis measures the impact of the tool on student compliance to the learning process. A personalized dashboard with quasi real time visual reports and notifications are provided to undergraduate and graduate software engineering students. The impact of these visual reports on compliance is measured using the log traces of dashboard activity and a survey instrument given multiple times during the course.
A second aspect of this research is the application of learning analytics to understand patterns of student compliance. This research employs unsupervised machine learning algorithms to identify unique patterns of student behavior observed in the context of a project-based course. Analyzing and labeling these unique patterns of behavior can help instructors understand typical student characteristics. Further, understanding these behavioral patterns can assist an instructor in making timely, targeted interventions. In this research, datasets comprising of student’s daily activity and graded scores from an under graduate software engineering course is utilized for the purpose of identifying unique patterns of student behavior.
ContributorsXavier, Suhas (Author) / Gary, Kevin A (Thesis advisor) / Bansal, Srividya K (Committee member) / Sohoni, Sohum (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
One of the primary objective in a computer science related course is for students to be able to write programs implementing the concepts covered in that course. In educational psychology, however, learning gains are more commonly measured using recall or problem solving questions. While these types of questions are relevant to computer science exams, they do not necessarily reflect a student’s ability to apply concepts by writing an original program to solve a novel problem.
This thesis investigates the effectiveness of including questions within instructional multimedia content to improve student performance on a related programming assignment. Similar techniques have proven effective in educational psychology research using other measures. The objective of this thesis is to apply educational techniques used in other domains to an experiment with real world measures of students in a computer science course. The findings of this paper demonstrate that the techniques used were promising in improving student performance on a programming assignment.
This thesis investigates the effectiveness of including questions within instructional multimedia content to improve student performance on a related programming assignment. Similar techniques have proven effective in educational psychology research using other measures. The objective of this thesis is to apply educational techniques used in other domains to an experiment with real world measures of students in a computer science course. The findings of this paper demonstrate that the techniques used were promising in improving student performance on a programming assignment.
ContributorsMar, Christopher (Author) / Sohoni, Sohum (Thesis advisor) / Nelson, Brian C (Committee member) / Craig, Scotty D. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016