Re-tooling Information Instruction Delivery and
Assessment for the Freshman Engineering
Class: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Mary L. Strife, Marian G. Armour-Gemmen, Robin A.M. Hensel
120th ASEE Annual Conference Atlanta, GA 23-26 June 2013
Began Summer 2011 Continuous part of Engineering 101
Consensus to fit in Living Partnership
Buy-in by administration to ABET outcomes
Background
Knowledge of how to evaluate an article Ability to appropriately cite an article Familiarity with four source databases for
engineering research Understanding of plagiarism and how to
avoid it Ability to identify four types of intellectual
property
Student Outcomes
Focus on Problem-Based (Active) Learning in the construction of all sessions
Three Delivery Environments:◦ In-Class Session◦ IP Module on Blackboard◦ “Out of Class Experience” (OCE)
Information Delivery
Basic library webpages (including LibGuide) Exercise about when to quote a source Information use overview:
◦ Worldwide web resources and Wikipedia◦ Evaluating resources with a mnemonic device
Class exercise to identify different types of citations as well as parts of a citation
Introduction to Summon (WVU Libraries’ discovery service)
Topics Covered in In-Class Session
Topics Covered in Intellectual Property Module
Article on eReserve Introduction to intellectual property Exercise identifying trademarks Introduction to patents Exercise for searching patents Quiz on intellectual property
Length◦ Initial: One hour sessions◦ Change: Expanded to 1.5 hours in 2nd semester
Assignments◦ Initial: Could complete within two weeks◦ Change: Needed to be completed in the session
Assignment Worksheet◦ Initial: Included paper and electronic resources◦ Change: Included electronic resources only
MLA Citations◦ Initial: Full citation had to be written out by student◦ Change: Provided fill-in-the-blank citations
Out of Class Experience (OCE)
1st semester added many additional sessions because students didn’t sign-up
2nd semester integrated sign-ups during the in-class session
OCE Sign-ups: LibGuide Survey Function
Topics Covered in OCEEach student: Was provided a
different subject to research
Searched for a book, technical report, and journal article
Searched for graph in a specific book
Databases used: MountainLynx
(library catalog) DOE Information
Bridge SAE Digital Library EI Compendex Knovel
Evaluation & Observations
Overall Results
Pre-Test Post Test9.5
10.0
10.5
11.0
11.5
12.0
12.5
Pre-Post Test Analysis
Aver
age
Num
ber
Corr
ect
Item
s
p-value = 0.001
Results from the Course Section Pre- and Post-Tests
6 5 H01 2 3 8 13 9 H02 1 7 4 H03 H05 0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
Average Gain Per Course Section
Course Section ID
Aver
age
Pre-
Post
Tes
t D
iffer
ence
Increased cooperation and buy-in by faculty Librarians integrated as part of the teaching
team Librarians participation as judges of
Engineering 101 mini-conference Significant learning by students over the pre-
and post-tests
The Good
Consistency across sections Different instructor personalities
and teaching styles
Challenges (the Bad)
# SectionsContact hrs. # OCE
Contact hrs.
Total teaching hrs.
Fall 2011 18 3 0 0 54Spring 2012 3 1 1 1 4Fall 2012 17 1 36 1 53Spring 2013 8 1 15 1.5 30.5
Time allocation
Plagiarism Avoidance Tutorial wouldn’t work
Lack of participation in the on-line IP Module
The Ugly
Out of Class Experience
Retooling for Fall 2013◦ Plagiarism Avoidance Tutorial◦ IP Module
Continued Dialog with Professors
Improvements
Contact
Mary Strife [email protected]
Marian Armour-Gemmen [email protected]
Robin Hensel [email protected]