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Main Menu Session 1338

Process Education in Computer Graphics

David R. Forsman, Kathryn Holliday-Darr, Michael Lobaugh Penn State Erie, The Behrend College

Abstract:

Changes in the student culture have dictated that we need to change our approach to teaching. These changes have made it necessary for us to reevaluate our teaching methods and how we present material to our students. Because we desire to improve our students’ performance and find a way to have the student be more prepared for class we decided to apply a process education approach to our instruction. Process education is “an educational philosophy which focuses on building students’ learning skills” (in all domains) and developing “self-growers.”(1) A “self-grower” is an individual that develops the ability to learn beyond the presented material and actively seek a higher level of understanding.(1) The graphics faculty at Penn State Erie has adopted this philosophy for all graphics classes, and has begun applying process education techniques in 1st, 2nd, and 5th semester engineering technology graphic courses. This paper will detail the implementation of these techniques and discuss the outcomes and effectiveness of this teaching approach. For example, to encourage reading, open notebook quizzes were given for each reading assignment. This method reinforces the study and cognitive skills by having the students write notes on issues that would normally be difficult for them to remember. Initially, the students reported back that their note taking ability was weak which resulted in poor quiz scores. Realizing this was an issue that effected students, an exercise was developed in how to read a technical textbook and take effective notes. The result of this was that students became aware of their weakness early on in the class and activities could be undertaken to aid them in improving in those areas.

Introduction:

Incoming first year students deal with many adjustments their first year. One of the most difficult transitions the Penn State Erie, The Behrend College engineering students must make is adjusting to the level and quality of work required in a short amount of time. The sharper students say they are used to hearing information repeated over and over until all of the students in the class understand the material. For this reason, they had to study very little, if at all, in high school. Now their college instructors expect them to take notes, read a technical textbook, figure out material on their own, manage their time, etc. Other universities have also noted that more students are being required to take remedial classes in English and Math as a prerequisite for admission to college as full time students.(2, 3) This indicates students are not as prepared as in the past and may signal other problems such as a poor attitude towards learning and a weak work ethic. These students and their college instructors are often frustrated. How can we as instructors help these students smoothly make the transition from being a passive learner to an active learner? Several engineering faculty attended a one-day workshop on process education. Process Education is another name for active learning which is “an educational philosophy which focuses on building students’ learning skills (in all domains) and developing “self growers””. (1) "Active Teaching takes the position that the purpose of teaching is greater than the limits of the subject

Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2002, American Society for Education Education

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Forsman, D., & Holliday-Darr, K., & Lobaugh, M. (2002, June), Process Education In Computer Graphics Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--11354