The objective of this engineering education proposal is to revamp the Industrial Engineering (IE) by incorporating a constructivist model into the departmental courses. The project will address the following research questions: (1) Do constructivist pedagogies increase the ability of engineering students to understand course concepts, learn problem solving and creatively apply course material; and (2) do constructivist pedagogies increase the retention rate of women and underrepresented minorities in engineering? The objectives are to: (1) identify problem solving and creativity related outcomes in a sequence of core courses in the Industrial & Management Systems Engineering (IMSE) program at the University of South Florida (USF), (2) revamp these courses following constructivist learning principles, (3) teach these revamped courses in the engineering program at USF to a pilot cohort, (4) examine differences in student outcomes, retention and attitudes, and faculty perceptions between those who took the constructivist versus traditional courses, (5) create a process to guide faculty in developing (or revamping) university courses based on proven, constructivist learning principles, and (6) disseminate project findings nationally.
The project will begin with Engineering Probability and Statistics, the first course in the sequence. The PIs will perform a curriculum analysis with emphasis on problem solving and creativity/design content and activities across the series of targeted courses in engineering education. Results from the pilot course will be used to inform future modifications to courses such as: Probabilistic Operations Research, Production Control, and Industrial Statistics/Quality Control. This project will result in insights into how students can learn engineering (including creativity) more effectively as well as a process for structuring courses following constructivist learning principles.
