Exploring the Impact of a MATLAB Programming Interactive e-Textbook in a First-Year Engineering Course

• Published in: Association for Engineering Education - Engineering Library Division Papers
• Main Authors: Kecskemety, Krista M, Kadri Akinola Akanni Parris, Nicholas Rees Sattele
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Atlanta American Society for Engineering Education-ASEE 15.06.2019
• Subjects: Coding; Colleges & universities; Correlation analysis; Engineering; Engineering education; Matlab; Populations; Programming; Spring (season); Students; Studies; Teachers; Textbooks; Trends

Exploring the Impact of a MATLAB Programming Interactive e-Textbook in a First-Year Engineering Course This full paper seeks to explore the degree to which the use of an interactive e-textbook impacted student performance in introductory MATLAB programming. Introductory programming in first-year engineering continues to be an exciting challenge both for students and instructors. The use of traditional textbooks for supplemental instructions and reference material has been standard practice at The Ohio State University. With the desire for increased student engagement and greater retention of the material the faculty have investigated the use of an interactive e-textbook. The interactive textbook employed, utilizes animations, participation activities, challenge activities and programming lab assignments which are geared to evaluate the student’s learning and faculty’s effectiveness of instruction. For the purposes of this study, there are 3 populations that will be considered as data sources: 1. Autumn 2017 semester with the traditional static textbook (23 sections). 2. Spring 2018 semester pilot with the interactive online textbook (3 sections). 3. Autumn 2018 semester with the interactive online textbook (23 sections). In each semester, each section of approximately 72 students per section received instruction covering the same material and using the same evaluation criteria. In the data we will consider removing instructor differences by using those that taught the course using both the standard static textbook and the interactive online textbook. We will be investigating student performance on exams and programming assignments from these 3 populations. In addition, what may be of particular significance is the extent to which students spend more time actively using the interactive textbook. This contribution is potentially significant in that it can be used to find correlation to any changes in grades for assignments and MATLAB exam content. The study will begin by looking at overall grade trends but will also eventually investigate rubric-level detail in student grades. The intent is to also examine trends in student performance data between Autumn and Spring semesters. Because the off-term sections (Spring) may have a different student population we need to conduct a larger study about this data to determine its validity in this context. Thereafter, with further study, it may be worthwhile exploring broader adoptions of interactive textbooks in engineering education for coding and other suitable content areas. The eventual aim is to conduct a longitudinal study which will look at assessing to what extent retention of material increases from this basic introductory course to a more advanced course with the same coding language.