Developing On-Line Homework for Introductory Thermodynamics

Homework in engineering courses is used to develop problem‐solving skills and to provide students with the practice they need in order to achieve mastery of essential concepts and procedures in their disciplines. We describe homework exercises that were developed for introductory thermodynamics and...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of engineering education (Washington, D.C.) Vol. 94; no. 3; pp. 339 - 342
Main Authors Taraban, Roman, Anderson, Edward E., Hayes, Matthew W., Sharma, M.P.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.07.2005
Subjects
Active Learning
Computer Assisted Instruction
Computers
Correlation
Engineering
Homework
Instructional Innovation
Instructional Materials
Nonparametric Statistics
on-line education
Online instruction
Problem Sets
Problem solving
Thermodynamics
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Homework in engineering courses is used to develop problem‐solving skills and to provide students with the practice they need in order to achieve mastery of essential concepts and procedures in their disciplines. We describe homework exercises that were developed for introductory thermodynamics and delivered to students via the Internet. Records of student use were created automatically by the computer server. The data revealed students' patterns of software usage in the context of the course; additional data from course instructors revealed the extent to which completing the on‐line homework improved students' in‐class test performance.
Bibliography:ark:/67375/WNG-F736NP8F-N
ArticleID:JEE859
istex:EBDC67BF251DA7404C97CF0088BAC318C8212AFD
M. P. Sharma is professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Wyoming. He received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Washington State University. A current area of interest is conducting research on teaching and learning methods, especially on the use of synchronous and asynchronous tools using Web technology.
Matthew W. Hayes is a graduate student in the Experimental Psychology program at Texas Tech University.
Edward E. Anderson is professor of Mechanical Engineering at Texas Tech University, and he is also director of the University Teaching, Learning, and Technology Center. His responsibilities at the center are to train and assist faculty throughout the university in applying technology to their teaching. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University and Ph.D. degree from Purdue University.
Roman Taraban is associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Texas Tech University. He received his Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Carnegie Mellon University. His interests are in how undergraduate students learn, and especially, how they draw meaningful connections in traditional college content materials (e.g., textbooks, lectures, multi‐media).
ISSN:1069-4730
2168-9830
DOI:10.1002/j.2168-9830.2005.tb00859.x