HydroLearn: Improving Students' Conceptual Understanding and Technical Skills in a Civil Engineering Senior Design Course
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
7-26-2021
Abstract
Engineering graduates need a deep understanding of key concepts in addition to technical skills to be successful in the workforce. However, traditional methods of instruction (e.g., lecture) are sometimes not effective in fostering deep conceptual understanding and make it challenging for students to learn the technical skills, (e.g., professional modeling software), that they need to know. Research indicates that engaging students in authentic tasks can help them make connections to deepen their conceptual understanding as they practice the real work of engineers [1]. Other scholars have also found that allowing students to grapple with high cognitive demand tasks (i.e., tasks for which there is not one correct solution) supports the development of students' conceptual understanding [2], [3]. Moreover, in the digital age, when so many engineering tools and data sources are widely available online, faculty can take advantage of these resources to design authentic, high cognitive demand tasks for their students [4] - [6]. This study builds on prior work to assess engineering students' conceptual understanding and technical skills before and after completing modules designed around authentic, high cognitive demand tasks. Given the challenges posed by traditional methods of instruction, we designed online active learning modules to support and deepen undergraduate students' understanding of key concepts in hydrology and water resources engineering (e.g., watershed delineation, rainfall-runoff processes, design storms), as well as their technical skills (e.g., obtaining and interpreting relevant information for a watershed, proficiency using HEC-HMS [Hydrologic Engineering Center Hydrologic Modeling System] and HEC-RAS [Hydrologic Engineering Center River Analysis System] modeling tools). These modules integrate instructional content, real data, and modeling resources to support students' solving of authentic, high cognitive demand tasks. The purpose of this study was to examine changes in students' self-reported understanding of concepts and skills after completing these modules. The following research question guided this study: Are there differences in undergraduate students' self-reported learning gains in concepts and skills after participating in each of four online learning modules centered around authentic, high cognitive demand tasks, as compared to before participating in these modules?
Publication Source (Journal or Book title)
ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
Recommended Citation
Gallagher, M., Byrd, J., Habib, E., Tarboton, D., & Willson, C. (2021). HydroLearn: Improving Students' Conceptual Understanding and Technical Skills in a Civil Engineering Senior Design Course. ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings Retrieved from https://repository.lsu.edu/civil_engineering_pubs/1183