Interim Report to University Teaching and Learning Committee for
Teaching Development Grant
Submitted by: Dr. Charles Fleischmann, Department of Civil Engineering
Transformation of Engineering Mechanics from traditional lectures to
an overall E-learning experience
In 2005 we received a Teaching and Development Grant from the Teaching and Learning
Committee. The grant was $23000 over two years. This report is an interim report written at
the mid point of the project.
Purpose: Engineering Mechanics is truly the cornerstone of engineering education. The
course is the foundation on which engineering is built. Over the past decade we have seen
the students change from traditional linear learners relying on lectures and books to more
random learners using digital learning tools. Unfortunately, this course (as with most
university level courses) has lagged behind the student’s preferred learning styles and relies
on traditional learning methods to present the material. It is now time to bring this course upto-date with the student’s learning styles.
Beyond the general need to update this course, the changes are necessitated by two external
forces: the loss of the textbook and semesterisation. Firstly the textbook that has been the
foundation for this course within New Zealand and internationally is undergoing a major
revision. Although the revised edition of the existing text was chosen, all of the examples
given in class, tutorials, and homework require rewriting. In addition, lectures are being
revised and updated as well as the tutorial and homework problems.
The second motivator for this course change is the movement to semesterisation. This
course was traditionally taught as a full year course. However, the College of Engineering
has changed to a semester system in which each course is a single semester, thus
engineering mechanics is changing to one semester in 2007. Changing to one semester also
necessitate changes through-out the course.
Methodology
We proposed to redevelop ENGR102 Engineering Mechanics to be more responsive to the
students needs. The course is being improved in three specific areas:
1) Develop standard presentation materials for lectures including annotated notes
for the lecturers so that more consistent lectures across the 3 streams can be
provided. These notes will be placed on WebCT after the lectures.
2) Develop online weekly assignments within WebCT that provide prompt feedback to
the students.
3) Develop short online video tutorials that are focussed on a single concept or
practice problem the student is seeking help on.
Progress
1. Develop standard presentation materials for lectures
Completed work: The standardization of the lecture material was our top priority for
year 1. A great deal of time was focussed on generating the powerpoint material for
the course. The 1st semester of the course was completed last year and the 2nd
semester was created in draft form.
Remaining work: To finalize the presentation material a number of correction are
required in the 1st semester notes as well as worked examples to be modified or
replaced. The 2nd semester material needs to be reworked more extensively and
errors and omission corrected. In addition, the course is changing from a full year
course to a semester course so there will be some modification to the material order.
2. Develop online weekly assignments
Completed work: The creation of online assignments proved more onerous than
expected. The problems were written into the WebCT question database which is
not well suited for practical engineering problems. Last year we were only able to
complete the 1st semester’s problems.
Remaining Work: Having gained the experience last year we are optimistic that we
will be able to enter more problems into the WebCT question database. Our intention
is to enter all of the course homework into the WebCT question database.
3. Create short online video tutorials
Completed Work: Last year we were only able to complete the 1st term video tutorial.
This was primarily due to not being able to find a suitable student until January 2006.
The videos that were created were well received by the students.
Remaining Work: This year we plan to complete the video tutorials for the entire
course. We will have two students working on the project which should accelerate
the development. In addition, we have gained the experience with the software
(Camtasia) which should also streamline the process.
Spin-off Funding: It is important that UCTL committee realize that this grant was
instrumental in obtaining funding from HP New Zealand. The University was awarded
$110,000 grant for the implementation of an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) within the
College of Engineering. The ITS will analyse an individual student's problem-solving skills
and develop a model of the student's abilities and needs, which it will use to select
challenging problems appropriate to the student's ability. The project is being lead by Dr
Antonija Mitrovic who developed an ITS for teaching computer science. The HP grant is to
develop an ITS for Engineering Mechanics and Dr. Fleischmann is acting as the content
expert.