The project is expanding the WeBWork homework delivery tool into engineering. It generates a repository of WeBWorK engineering problems for three core, semester-long, sophomore-level engineering courses: Statics and Mechanics of Materials, Electrical Engineering and Circuits, and Thermodynamics. The problem library is being made available worldwide for free public utilization. The project includes a research component to study the effect of online engineering homework on student learning.
Due to the electronic nature of the freely available repository, this project has the potential to impact students and faculty from a broad range of schools, including minority institutions, community colleges and non-PhD-granting institutions. The project builds on the success of WeBWorK in mathematics and expands it to engineering. The project team continues to embrace the open-source concept as a means to expand the project and disseminate results, thereby enhancing infrastructure in engineering education. A project website is being created and maintained, which updates the engineering community about assessment studies, journal publications, and training opportunities. In addition to in-house training, a two-day workshop is being hosted for ten external participants, and a workshop is being offered at an American Society for Engineering Education annual meeting. The research and assessment from this project has the potential to shape future directions in engineering education.
