bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Using Discourse Analysis to Study a Cross‐Disciplinary Learning Community: Insights from an IGERT Training Program
Authors: Anthony Linda J. , Palius Marjory F. , Maher Carolyn A. , Moghe Prabhas V. 
Published: January 2013

AbstractA major challenge for fostering integrative cross‐disciplinary collaborations at the graduate level arises from the divergent exposure and training of students from uni‐disciplinary graduate programs. In this report, we present the design and preliminary analysis of an experimental forum to facilitate cross‐disciplinary discourse within a NSF‐sponsored Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Program (IGERT) at Rutgers. This forum brings together IGERT Graduate Training Fellows and faculty from four diverse graduate programs in the engineering area and four related programs in life sciences and physical sciences for structured seminars and interchanges. Our report offers methodological and analytical tools grounded within a conceptual framework for promoting discourse that integrates content across diverse disciplines as well as across levels of inquiry. Both the theoretical framework and the research tools may be valuable to others seeking to develop integrative training environments for coalescing learning communities between engineers and their collaborators.
Investigating the Teaching Concerns of Engineering Educators
Authors: Turns Jennifer , Eliot Matt , Neal Roxane , Linse Angela 
Published: January 2013

AbstractThe teaching concerns of engineering educators offer one lens for thinking about how to support engineering educators' efforts to improve their teaching. In this study, we collected narrative accounts of teaching consultations between engineering educators and an instructional consultant. Transcripts of these accounts were coded for individual teaching concerns, which were then interpreted from the perspective of existing models and also aggregated into themes. We discuss our findings by using them to highlight ways in which engineering educators are already thinking effectively, to suggest how the adoption of innovation and professional problem‐solving can serve as promising frameworks for thinking about teaching activity, and to suggest that additional research on engineering teaching take advantage of distributed cognition models to truly understand how our students are taught.
Enhancing the Learning of Fluid Mechanics Using Computer Simulations
Authors: Fraser D. M. , Pillay R. , Tjatindi L. , Case J. M. 
Published: January 2013

AbstractThis paper reports the results of a study into the impact of computer simulations on the understanding of fluid mechanics by engineering students. A “lesson study” approach was taken, using constructivist educational theory combined with the variation theory of learning from phenomenography to inform the design of learning activities and to assess their impact. Student difficulties with fluid mechanics concepts were assessed using questions from the Fluid Mechanics Concept Inventory (FMCI). Students had the greatest difficulties with pressure measurement, fluid flow through pipes with changing diameter, and velocity profiles for fluid between flat plates. We developed a set of three simulations to address these difficulties. The impact of the simulations was gauged by a second administration of the FMCI. Most of the students in the sophomore fluid mechanics class participated in the whole of this exercise. Students showed significant improvement in two of the three areas of difficulty. Student feedback on this as an additional learning exercise was very positive.
Faculty as a Critical Juncture in Student Retention and Performance in Engineering Programs
Authors: Vogt Christina M. 
Published: January 2013

AbstractLarge numbers of students depart from engineering programs before graduation. For example, in fields such as engineering and computer science, students have commented on the inaccessible or unapproachable nature of faculty. To evaluate this problem, this study gathered data across four research universities. Using structural equation modeling, it measured environmental effects, i.e., academic integration or faculty distance on (a) self‐efficacy, (b) academic confidence and (c) self‐regulated learning behaviors effort, critical thinking, help‐seeking and peer learning, and (d) GPA. Results showed that faculty distance lowered self‐efficacy, academic confidence and GPA. Conversely, academic integration had a positive effect on self‐efficacy, which in turn had strong positive effects on effort and critical thinking. Consequently, ongoing educational reform efforts must encourage engineering faculty to understand the significance of their student/professor relationships and seriously undertake measures to become personally available to students.
Improving Learning in First‐Year Engineering Courses through Interdisciplinary Collaborative Assessment
Authors: Qualters Donna M. , Sheahan Thomas C. , Mason Emanuel J. , Navick David S. , Dixon Matthew 
Published: January 2013

AbstractThis paper describes a feedback process that assessed first‐year engineering student learning using a mastery exam. The results were used to improve learning and teaching in first‐year courses. To design the initial exam, basic knowledge and concepts were identified by instructors from each of the host departments (Chemistry, Math, Physics and Computer Science). In 2004, the 45‐item exam was administered to 191 second‐year engineering students, and in September 2005, the revised exam was administered to the next class of second‐year engineering students. The exam was analyzed using Item Response Theory (IRT) to determine student abilities in each subject area tested. Between exam administrations, workshops were conducted with the four department instructor groups to present exam results and discuss teaching issues. The exam provided a learning assessment mechanism that can be used to engage faculty in science, mathematics, and engineering in productive linkages for continual improvement to curriculum.
Impacts of Teaching Approaches on Learning Approaches of Construction Engineering Students: A Comparative Study between Hong Kong and Mainland China
Authors: Leung Mei‐yung , Lu Xinhong , Chen Dongyu , Lu Mei 
Published: January 2013

AbstractTeaching and learning contexts influence the learning process and determine the learning outcome or product. Teaching approaches may vary across different engineering and science courses and students. This study was aimed at understanding the differences in teaching approaches between two regions (Hong Kong and mainland China) and their relevant impacts on the learning process in construction engineering education. An exploratory survey was conducted on construction engineering students in China to investigate relationships between teaching approaches, learning approaches, and teaching satisfaction. Results indicate that the “transferring” and “shaping” teaching approaches are commonly used in the first and second class universities in the mainland, while the “transferring” and “traveling” approaches are commonly applied in Hong Kong. Teacher‐centered teaching is correlated to a “surface” learning approach among students at Hong Kong universities but it is correlated to a “deep” learning approach for students in the mainland. Students at universities in mainland China are satisfied with all four teaching approaches, “transferring,” “shaping,” “traveling,” and “growing;” while students in Hong Kong are only significantly satisfied with the “growing” teaching approach.
Conceptualizing Engagement: Contributions of Faculty to Student Engagement in Engineering
Authors: Chen Helen L. , Lattuca Lisa R. , Hamilton Eric R. 
Published: January 2013

AbstractThe concept of student engagement, now prominent in the engineering education and higher education communities, has a long intellectual history. Yet only recently has attention focused on the role that faculty play as designers of educational environments to support student engagement. Drawing from examples and data from the Engineering Change study (which evaluated the impact of the new EC2000 accreditation standards on engineering programs and student learning), the Academic Pathways Study of the Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education, and studies underway at the United States Air Force Academy, we explore the role of faculty, as the institutional agents who are most proximal to the student experience, in developing, facilitating, and sustaining high levels of student engagement.
Assessing Pedagogy in Bioengineering Classrooms: Quantifying Elements of the “How People Learn” Model Using the VaNTH Observation System (VOS)
Authors: Cox Monica F. , Cordray David S. 
Published: January 2013

AbstractOne goal of the VaNTH Engineering Research Center is to estimate the effects of the “value added” to bioengineering student learning as a result of “How People Learn” (HPL) framework interventions. A necessary step in that process is to assess pedagogical differences in both lecture‐based and HPL‐oriented courses. Data from 28 bioengineering courses, over five semesters, were analyzed using a newly developed HPL Index. This index, developed from the Classroom Interaction Observation portion of the VaNTH Observation System, reports levels of HPL‐inspired pedagogy, traditional pedagogy, and classroom organization within a class using codes for different types of faculty and student interactions assigned by an observer in real time. Results confirm the HPL Index's ability to distinguish pedagogical practices based on HPL principles and pedagogical practices based on traditional, non‐HPL pedagogy.
Assessing General Creativity and Creative Engineering Design in First Year Engineering Students
Authors: Charyton Christine , Merrill John A. 
Published: January 2013

AbstractCreativity is a vital tool for innovation in engineering. Psychology and engineering faculty developed the Creative Engineering Design Assessment (CEDA) because existing tools are limited. This measure was administered with general creativity measures in 63 engineering (57 males, six females) and 21 non‐engineering (six males, 15 females) students in five week intervals. Inter‐rater reliability showed high consistency overall and between the test and retest administrations. Only engineering males and females significantly differed on the retest. Engineering students with low, medium, and high creative engineering design did not statistically differ in their general creativity, not domain specific to engineering; however, only high scorers were significantly higher on the retest from the other groups. Future research is needed with larger samples.
Applied Ethics in the Engineering, Health, Business, and Law Professions: A Comparison
Authors: Barry Brock E. , Ohland Matthew W. 
Published: January 2013

BackgroundApplied ethics plays a critical role in engineering, health, business, and law. Applied ethics is currently a required component of the pre‐practice education for these professions, yet the literature suggests that challenges remain in how we define, instruct, and assess professions‐based ethics education.PurposeBased on the on going debate associated with the instruction and assessment of applied engineering ethics, an exploratory investigation was performed to determine what could be learned by looking across professions.Scope/MethodEthics, as an educational topic, can be very broad in scope. This study was limited to literature at the intersection of ethics terminology, historical development, instruction, and assessment within engineering, health, business, and law. Many references associated with each profession and the input of profession‐specific content experts informed the literature survey.ConclusionsEthics within the engineering, health, business, and law professions have historically developed in isolation. Even case studies, which the engineering profession seems to have adopted from law, are framed differently within engineering. There are common lines of debate related to instructional methods, curricular methods, and instructor qualifications, but no profession has resolved these debates. A common trend in applied ethics research is a focus on assessment of student learning, rather than evaluation of instructional methods and/or curriculum incorporation methods. Assessment tools have been developed and applied widely for many years in several of the health care sub‐disciplines, business and law. An engineering‐specific applied‐ethics assessment tool has recently been developed, but has yet to see extensive application.
The National Effective Teaching Institute: Assessment of Impact and Implications for Faculty Development
Authors: Felder Richard M. , Brent Rebecca 
Published: January 2013

BackgroundThe National Effective Teaching Institute (NETI) is a three‐day teaching workshop that has been given annually since 1991 in conjunction with the Annual ASEE Conference. Its goals are to improve the participants' teaching effectiveness, promote their engagement in scholarly teaching and educational scholarship, and motivate them to engage in instructional development on their campuses. To evaluate the impact of the NETI on its participants, a Web‐based survey was administered to alumni of NETI offerings from 1993 to 2006.Purpose (Hypothesis)The study was designed to test the hypothesis that the NETI met its stated goals, and to the extent that it did, to identify factors in the workshop's structure and delivery that might have contributed to its success.Design/MethodAn online survey collected information regarding the participants' awareness and use of selected teaching strategies, their students' and their own ratings of their teaching, and their engagement in scholarly teaching, educational research, and giving their own teaching workshops and seminars. The validity of the survey structure is supported by several published studies that compared self‐assessments of teaching with external evaluations by trained observers.ResultsThe NETI has motivated many of its participants to adopt or increase their use of proven teaching strategies known to correlate with improved student learning; made them more student‐centered, scholarly, and reflective in their teaching practice; and induced many of them to engage in instructional development and educational scholarship.ConclusionsThe NETI has satisfactorily met its goals. When interpreted in the light of a theory of adult motivation, the results support the effectiveness of discipline‐specific faculty development for engineering educators.
Engineering Competence? An Interpretive Investigation of Engineering Students' Professional Formation
Authors: Walther Joachim , Kellam Nadia , Sochacka Nicola , Radcliffe David 
Published: January 2013

BackgroundThere is growing evidence that engineering students' professional formation is shaped by the interplay of explicit learning activities and various influences from the wider educational context. The unintended outcomes of these processes, or Accidental Competencies, formed the lens for an empirical investigation of this social learning system.Purpose (Hypothesis)The exploratory inquiry addressed the following research questions. What are influences that contribute to engineering students' professional formation? How does it occur and what are resulting competencies and incompetenciesDesign/MscethodData was collected internationally in focus groups with 67 students in their transition from university into professional practice. The students' accounts were analyzed qualitatively using the software NVivo7. From the iterative analysis based on a grounded theory approach, categories and subordinate clusters of influences, mechanisms, and outcomes emerged.ResultsThe following three forms of representation provide an authentic view of the social learning system under investigation: (i) a contextual model of competency formation illustrates the complex nature of the learning processes; (ii) an overview of the coding structure presents seven competence clusters (Flexibility, Interaction, Plan, Professional Realities, Self, Social Context and Technical); and (iii) thick descriptions from the students' accounts trace three characteristics of the complex learning processes (compound influences, ambiguity of outcomes, context‐dependent nature of learning outcomes).ConclusionsEngineering education is a complex system where a range of influences outside the realm of explicit instruction contribute to the development of students as professional engineers. This study provides an evidence‐based framework to consider this complexity in reflective teaching practice and innovative curriculum design.
The Motivational and Transfer Potential of Disassemble/Analyze/Assemble Activities
Authors: Dalrymple Odesma O. , Sears David A. , Evangelou Demetra 
Published: January 2013

BackgroundReverse engineering and product dissection, more broadly termed Disassemble/Analyze/Assemble (DAA) activities, have been a regular practice in industry. The systematic analysis of the benefits of these activities for learning and instruction is, however, a relatively recent phenomenon. A number of studies have provided highly descriptive accounts of curricula and possible learning outcomes of DAA activities, but relatively few have compared participants performing DAA activities to a control group doing more traditional activities.Purpose (Hypothesis)A study was designed to investigate the relative potential of DAA activities to motivate students and promote transfer, the ability for students to apply or adapt their knowledge to develop novel solutions. It was hypothesized that students who engaged in the DAA activity would be more motivated and would demonstrate greater transfer of knowledge.Design/MscethodA within‐subjects experiment, counterbalanced for order of treatment, was conducted with 290 first‐year engineering students to compare a DAA activity to a more traditional step‐by‐step laboratory activity for potential effects on learning and motivation.ResultsThe DAA activity elicited significantly higher ratings of learning, enjoyment, and perceived helpfulness than traditional instruction. On a redesign task, a significantly higher frequency of students showed transfer from the DAA activity than from the traditional instructional activity.ConclusionsDAA activities may offer a potential solution to the challenge of poor instruction, a cited cause of discontentment among undergraduates in STEM. They have the potential to motivate and to facilitate the transfer of knowledge.
TargetATPsite: A template‐free method for ATP‐binding sites prediction with residue evolution image sparse representation and classifier ensemble
Authors: Yu Dong‐Jun , Hu Jun , Huang Yan , Shen Hong‐Bin , Qi Yong , Tang Zhen‐Min , Yang Jing‐Yu 
Published: January 2013

AbstractUnderstanding the interactions between proteins and ligands is critical for protein function annotations and drug discovery. We report a new sequence‐based template‐free predictor (TargetATPsite) to identify the Adenosine‐5′‐triphosphate (ATP) binding sites with machine‐learning approaches. Two steps are implemented in TargetATPsite: binding residues and pockets predictions, respectively. To predict the binding residues, a novel image sparse representation technique is proposed to encode residue evolution information treated as the input features. An ensemble classifier constructed based on support vector machines (SVM) from multiple random under‐samplings is used as the prediction model, which is effective for dealing with imbalance phenomenon between the positive and negative training samples. Compared with the existing ATP‐specific sequence‐based predictors, TargetATPsite is featured by the second step of possessing the capability of further identifying the binding pockets from the predicted binding residues through a spatial clustering algorithm. Experimental results on three benchmark datasets demonstrate the efficacy of TargetATPsite. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Physicochemical analysis of wheat flour fortified with vitamin A and three types of iron source and sensory analysis of bread using these flours
Authors: Crandall Philip G , Seo Han‐Seok , O'Bryan Corliss A , Meullenet Jean F , Hettiarachchy Navam S , Washburn Anna M , Ranhotra Gur S 
Published: January 2013

AbstractBackgroundWheat flour is increasingly being fortified worldwide with vitamin A and iron. Research on high levels of fortification is limited; therefore, in this study, wheat flour was made under controlled conditions fortified with vitamin A at 30 000 or 70 000 retinol equivalents (RE) kg−1 and three types of iron source at 66 mg kg−1.ResultsMilling produced a uniform distribution of fortificants with no significant separation during packaging or transportation. Chemical and physical analyses demonstrated that the dual fortified flours had acceptable physicochemical properties of mixing tolerance, pasting curves, damaged starch and falling numbers. The level of vitamin A fortification compensated for initial loss caused during wheat processing. Overall, white breads baked from seven treatments of fortified flour had only 22% (eight out of 36) of the sensory attributes as being significantly different. However, the type of iron source may play a key role in modulating the sensory attributes of bread baked from the dual fortified flour with vitamin A and iron.ConclusionThe findings suggest that dual fortified flour with high or even lower levels of vitamin A and iron could be considered for food fortification programmes to reduce the prevalence of micronutrient undernutrition of vitamin A and iron in developing countries. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry
A disease activity score for ENT involvement in granulomatosis with polyangiitis (Wegener's)
Authors: Martinez Del Pero Marcos , Chaudhry Afzal , Rasmussen Niels , Jani Piyush , Jayne David 
Published: January 2013

AbstractObjectives/Hypothesis:Accurate assessment of disease activity in patients with otorhinolaryngological manifestations of granulomatosis with polyangiitis (Wegener's) (ENT/GPA) is necessary for treatment decisions and clinical trials. We have designed a disease activity score (ENT/GPA DAS) for this purpose.Study Design:A prospective cross‐sectional study.Methods:GPA patients seen in a tertiary center were systematically assessed for disease activity and/or infection in the ear, nose, and throat region using European Vasculitis Study Group guidelines. An ENT disease activity score was developed and validated, and compared to the ENT domain of the Birmingham Vasculitis Activity Score (ENT/BVAS).Results:One hundred forty‐four patients were studied, of whom 87% (125/144) had ENT involvement. ENT items of disease activity were correlated with expert clinical assessment. Discriminant correlation tests were performed to control for infection. Six items were retained to form the ENT/GPA DAS: reported bloody rhinorrhoea, granulation, ulcers and/or friable mucosa in the upper airway on endoscopic evaluation, objective stridor, sudden sensorineural hearing loss, and inflamed tympanic membrane/middle ear without infection. Nasal crusting was excluded. Individual items of ENT/GPA DAS had higher sensitivities and comparable specificities in predicting disease activity than ENT/BVAS items. Overall ENT/GPA DAS demonstrated higher sensitivity and lower specificity for disease activity in ENT/GPA when compared to overall ENT/BVAS.Conclusions:A tool to assess ENT disease activity in GPA has been developed. It is potentially superior to existing tools but requires further testing for intra‐ and interobserver reliability. Laryngoscope, 2013