The project is developing educational modules to teach the following mathematical procedures; simultaneous linear equations; regression; integration; and ordinary differential equations. The modules are providing faculty and students customization based on engineering major (Chemical, Civil, Computer, General, Electrical, Industrial, and Mechanical) and computational system (Maple, Mathcad, Mathematica, and Matlab).
Each instructional module enhances instructor preparation and development, and student educational experience by a) reviewing pre-requisite mathematical background information, b) demonstrating the need for and use of numerical solutions through real-life examples, c) combining text and interactive self-directed simulations to illustrate algorithms, examples, advantages, pitfalls, errors and convergence of numerical techniques, d) relating historical information to numerical methods, and e) providing self-assessment tools and problem sets.
Self-sustaining dissemination avenues of project materials include the Numerical Methods website at USF, website hubs of major course management providers, digital libraries, and application centers of computational systems. Results are shared at major engineering education conferences and published in engineering education journals.
The impact of the modules on student learning, student satisfaction, and instruction acceptance at three diverse institutions will be evaluated using formative and summative evaluation techniques.
