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Session 2793

Study of Suitability of Studio Model for Introductory Computing

Richard Shiavi, Arthur Brodersen Vanderbilt University School of Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Nashville, Tennessee 37235

Abstract

The School of Engineering at Vanderbilt University requires all engineering students in their first semester to take a course that introduces computers in engineering. The question always arises about the best setting in which to teach this type of material; a combination of lecture and laboratory, or all laboratory. For two years the course was organized with two different modalities of instruction. One was the lecture/laboratory and the other the all laboratory structure. At the end of the semester an in-depth questionnaire with quantitative ratings was given to the students to determine if there were differences in learning preferences. Contingency tables were used to compare responses. There were several statistically significant differences in student responses favoring the all laboratory structure. Several of them are: the students are much more comfortable with computers at the end of the semester; either laboratory or working by oneself were the preferred settings for learning; and lecture was not a preferred setting for learning any topic.

Introduction

As in many universities, the School of Engineering at Vanderbilt University (VUSE) requires all engineering students in their first semester to take a course that introduces computers in engineering. It is named "Introduction to Computing in Engineering". The particular goals of the course are to: introduce the computer as an engineering tool; develop a familiarity with Internet resources; begin to develop communication skills; and to develop an appreciation of working in teams. Part of the communications component is that the students are required to submit a laboratory report each week. The reports are written individually. Also for the latter two-thirds of the course, the students are divided into four person teams and required to develop and present a computer-based project. When organizing this type of course the question arises, "Which is the best modality for instruction, a combination of lecture and computer laboratory or an integrated setting in a computer laboratory?". The former will be called the combined structure and the latter the laboratory structure. The laboratory structure is actually the studio model whose main purpose is to provide a student-centered learning environment 1,3.

For four years this course had been offered and conducted with the combined structure. For the fall semesters of 1999 and 2000, we reorganized our facilities so that this course could be

“Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright Ó 2002, American Society for Engineering Education”

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Brodersen, A., & Shiavi, R. (2002, June), Study Of Suitability Of Studio Model For Introductory Computing Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10724