Scaffold learning in dynamics: A first-year engineering mechanics course

• Published in: Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA)
• Main Authors: Huang, Shaobo, Mao, Xiaoyi (Zoe)
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 31.07.2025
• ISSN: 2371-5243; 2371-5243
• DOI: 10.24908/pceea.2025.19604

Engineering dynamics is a mandatory course for all students in the first term of the first-year engineering program at the University of Saskatchewan. It is a challenging subject as it requires the application of broad knowledge and skills in areas such as physics, calculus, and graphic visualization. Competency-based assessment (CBA) is employed to measure students’ performance in the course. To facilitate student learning, the assessment materials were classified by difficulty levels and introduced in a specific order to scaffold students’ learning progress. As the first level of the scaffold, a series of quizzes were designed for students to review the basic concepts and principles in the course. The quizzes were released from Mobius, a homework system, when the relevant topics are discussed in class. This study assesses how the quizzes mentioned above impact students learning in the Dynamics course. Limitations and future study were discussed in the end.