Auburn University
Course Title: Engineering Physics
Contact: Marllin Simon
Auburn University plans to redesign Engineering Physics, the foundation course of its undergraduate engineering major, which enrolls ~750 students annually. The current course is offered in a traditional lecture, lab and recitation format. The lecture component is conducted by faculty, meeting either twice (75 minutes) or three times (50 minutes) a week. Each section is divided into groups of 24 students for labs and recitation sessions led by graduate teaching assistants (GTAs.) Labs focus on procedures, and the recitation sessions focus on solving problems.
Engineering Physics suffers from an unacceptably high failure rate. In the current structure, faculty provide the first exposure to course material to passive, unengaged students. Then the students attempt to process, analyze and synthesize this information to solve problems and/or apply it to actual situations. They receive little or no help, oversight or guidance from the faculty. Students are not engaged with the course and are frequently absent, and faculty are not connected to the students.
The planned redesign, using the Replacement Model, will give the students responsibility for the first exposure to the material through online activities and assessments completed prior to class. Faculty will monitor their progress. Class time will be used to summarize content and deal with misconceptions, subtleties, connections and applications. Progress and level of engagement will be monitored in class with a classroom response system and out of class with Cengage instructional package analytics. The lab and recitation sessions will be replaced with a single physics activity session, which will facilitate faculty, student and GTA interaction. Students will work in small groups in an inquiry-based atmosphere to solve real physical problems and capstone problems. Pre-tests, post-tests, problem-solving, active figures and conceptual inventories will be conducted online.
The quality of the educational experience will be enhanced as the course moves from a faculty-centered, passive-student environment to a student-centered active learning environment. Students will be engaged intellectually as they are introduced to a media-rich environment that includes collaborate learning activities and an inquiry-based curriculum. All homework will be completed and graded online, giving students immediate feedback on their assignments. Student progress will be closely monitored, and both faculty and GTAs will provide individual assistance to students who need help.
The impact of the redesigned course will be assessed using a “before” (traditional) and “after” (redesigned) model by comparing common content items selected from exams. For the last three years, Auburn has divided exams into conceptual parts with each part scored and recorded. Baseline data from 342 students enrolled in three traditional sections in fall 2006 and 2007 and spring 2008 will be compared by using the same questions in the final exams of three redesigned sections enrolling ~400 students.
Auburn’s cost reduction strategy is to decrease the number of GTAs involved in the course from eight to five in the fall and six to four in the spring by having each GTA carry three physics activity sessions rather than two labs and recitations. This change is made possible because of the coordinated development and automation of much of the course material. The cost-per-student will decline from $390 in the traditional course to $219 in the redesigned course, a savings of 44%. Once a new classroom building is completed, Auburn also plans to increase section sizes, thus freeing up some faculty to teach other upper-level courses.
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