Watson, M. K., & Barrella, E., & Skenes, K., & Puzzio, A., & Kicklighter, B. L. (2021, July), Continuity of Instruction, Cognitive Load, and the Middle Years Slump  Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--36845

\bibitem{asee_peer_36845}
  Watson, M. K., \& Barrella, E., \& Skenes, K., \& Puzzio, A., \& Kicklighter, B. L. (2021, July), \emph{Continuity of Instruction, Cognitive Load, and the Middle Years Slump}
  Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference.
  10.18260/1-2--36845

Mary Katherine Watson, Elise Barrella P.E., Kevin Skenes, Aidan Puzzio, and Benjamin Lawrence Kicklighter.  "Continuity of Instruction, Cognitive Load, and the Middle Years Slump".  2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference, 2021, July.  ASEE Conferences, 2021.  https://peer.asee.org/36845 Internet.  19 May, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_36845}
  Mary Katherine Watson, Elise Barrella P.E., Kevin Skenes, Aidan Puzzio, and Benjamin Lawrence Kicklighter.
  "Continuity of Instruction, Cognitive Load, and the Middle Years Slump".
  \emph{2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference, 2021, July}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2021.
  https://peer.asee.org/36845 Internet.  19 May, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_36845
author = "Mary Katherine Watson, Elise Barrella P.E., Kevin Skenes, Aidan Puzzio, and Benjamin Lawrence Kicklighter"
title = "Continuity of Instruction, Cognitive Load, and the Middle Years Slump"
booktitle = "2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access"
year = "2021"
month = "July"
address = "Virtual Conference"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/36845}
number = {10.18260/1-2--36845}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Similar to other institutions of higher education, XXX shifted exclusively to an online modality during the Spring 2020 semester to provide continuity of instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Prior to the pandemic, all engineering programs were administered solely through face-to-face instruction; thus, the mandatory transformation to online instruction represented a unique opportunity to explore the impacts of unprecedented disruption on student learning and development.  We sought to examine student experiences with changing modality through the lens of Cognitive Load Theory (CLT), which characterizes learning as assimilation of knowledge into one’s long-term memory.  However, it is our short-term (working) memory that first processes information. If the cognitive load (or mental effort) associated with a task exceeds short-term processing capacity, then learning cannot occur.  As engineering curricula are interconnected networks of classes that build on prior prerequisites, cognitive overload during continuity of instruction could have lasting impacts on student competencies.  
 
Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted a study to track changes in perceived workload among students as a result of the rapid shift to online continuity of instruction.  At the midterm of the Spring 2020 semester, students from mechanical, civil, and construction engineering reflected on workload experienced during their prior face-to-face engineering courses.  At the end of the semester, students reflected on the workload experienced during their online engineering courses.  At each survey administration, students used the NASA Task Load Index (TLX) to rate their workload on a 0-100 scale along six dimensions:  mental, physical, temporal, effort, frustration, and performance.  We used a mixed Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to compare changes in workload dimensions between modalities for several demographic groups.  In this paper, we will report on our findings for middle years students.  Regardless of modality, middle years students reported greater workload along temporal, effort, and frustration dimensions than did freshmen and seniors.  Our preliminary findings of higher perceived temporal demand, required effort, and frustration align with other researchers who have identified a “middle years slump” among many engineering students.  Furthermore, we found that middle years students experienced the greatest increase in mental demand during the shift from face-to-face to online instruction.  Mental demand may be indicative of cognitive load, and cognitive overload is known to hinder learning.  Cognitive overload during the formative middle years when students are completing foundational engineering science courses could have lasting impacts on performance in subsequent design courses.    

AU  - Mary Katherine Watson
AU  - Elise Barrella P.E.
AU  - Kevin Skenes
AU  - Aidan Puzzio
AU  - Benjamin Lawrence Kicklighter
CY  - Virtual Conference
DA  - 2021/07/26
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Continuity of Instruction, Cognitive Load, and the Middle Years Slump
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/36845
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--36845
ER  -