Browsing by Author "Mendez, Julie"

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
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    Development and Use of Open Educational Resources in an Undergraduate Heat and Mass Transfer Course
    (American Society of Engineering Education, 2021-07-26) Mendez, Julie; Mechanical and Energy Engineering, School of Engineering and Technology, IUPUC
    Higher education costs have been increasing more rapidly than inflation over the last few decades. One way to decrease textbook costs is to use open educational resources (OER), which are materials licensed in a way that allows everyone to engage in the “5R activities”: retain, reuse, revise, remix and redistribute. The most significant benefits of using OER or other no-cost digital materials instead of traditional textbooks is cost savings to students and the ability of all students to have access to the course materials on the first day of class. Studies have investigated faculty and student perceptions of open course materials, and most have had positive experiences with them. Several studies have indicated that students in courses using OER either achieved the same learning outcomes or show improved learning outcomes compared to courses that required traditional textbooks. This paper describes the use of OER and other no-cost digital materials in an undergraduate heat and mass transfer course, as well as the development of instructor-created videos. The main resources include an electronic textbook available at no charge and openly licensed videos. Compared to a previous offering of the course, there was a statistically significant improvement in course performance on two module-level outcomes. A survey at the end of the course indicated that students found the no-cost digital textbook to be about the same quality as or better than the quality of the textbooks in their other courses. Overall, students reported using the textbook in this course more frequently than textbooks in a typical course.
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    Development of a Hybrid Heat and Mass Transfer Course
    (ASME, 2018-11) Mendez, Julie; IUPUC Division of Mechanical Engineering
    This work describes the development of a hybrid junior-level 4-credit-hour heat and mass transfer course. The lecture portion of the course was developed as approximately 80% online. The students and instructor met in person for the lecture portion of the course once every other week for 50 minutes, with the remaining activities completed online. The laboratory portion of the course remained in the traditional face-to-face format. Specifications grading was used to determine final course grades. This paper will describe the course structure, types of assignments, and use of face-to-face class time. Student performance in the hybrid course is compared to previous student performance in the same course taught in a face-to-face format. Student feedback and instructor observations are shared.
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    Instructor and Student Experiences with In-Class Polling Options
    (Purdue University, 2019) Mendez, Julie; IUPUC Division of Mechanical Engineering
    Active learning pedagogy has been shown to improve student performance in engineering courses. One active learning technique is Peer Instruction, where students individually answer a poll question, and discuss answer choices with a classmate before answering the same question again. There are various options to conduct in-class polling, from low-tech options, such as holding up fingers or a colored card, to more costly digital technologies, such as commercial platforms that require a dedicated device or a student’s own mobile device. Previous studies have indicated that the pedagogy matters more than the platform or technology used to conduct polling. However, different platforms allow for different affordances not present in some low-tech options. The high-tech options afford some benefits, including being able to ask questions other than multiple choice, such as open response. The purpose of this study is to gain insight into student preferences and to explore benefits and disadvantages of the different platforms from an instructor prospective. Two groups of students were surveyed: one group who completed a course using Plickers, a low-tech system, and another group from two different courses who used the Top Hat Classroom application on their mobile devices. The survey results indicated that the students had a mostly positive experience with each platform. Benefits and drawbacks from an instructor perspective are described.
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    Intentional Use of the Learning Management System: A Case Study in Self-Regulatory Behaviors in a Blended Undergraduate Thermodynamics Course
    (American Society of Engineering Education, 2021-04-16) Mendez, Julie; IUPUC Division of Mechanical Engineering
    In a blended undergraduate thermodynamics course, affordances within the learning management system (LMS) were used to highlight student learning outcomes, require foundational course content to be completed before attempting more complex topics, provide mastery-oriented feedback, allow students to track their progress, and promote metacognitive reflection. This paper describes the use of these options within the Canvas LMS. Additionally, this study investigated whether student self-regulatory behaviors changed during the course. Students were asked to complete a survey about their metacognitive self-regulatory activities related to studying for this course. The first survey was completed during the fifth week of the course, after most students had completed two reflection assignments. The same survey questions were administered a second time, during the final two weeks of the course. Survey results suggest some increase in student self-regulatory behaviors during the course. These results suggest that, near the end of the course, students were more likely to change how they studied to fit the course and the instructor’s style and to set goals for themselves for studying.
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    Intentional Use of the Learning Management System: A Case Study in Self-Regulatory Behaviors in a Blended Undergraduate Thermodynamics Course
    (ASEE, 2021) Mendez, Julie; IUPUC Division of Mechanical Engineering
    In a blended undergraduate thermodynamics course, affordances within a learning management system (LMS) were used to highlight student learning outcomes, require foundational course content to be completed before attempting more complex topics, provide mastery-oriented feedback, allow students to track their progress, and promote metacognitive reflection. This paper describes the use of these options within the Canvas LMS. Additionally, this study investigated whether student self-regulatory behaviors changed during the course. Students were asked to complete a survey about their metacognitive self-regulatory activities related to studying for this course. The first survey was completed during the fifth week of the course, after most students had completed two reflection assignments. The same survey questions were administered a second time, during the final two weeks of the course. Survey results suggest some increase in student self-regulatory behaviors during the course. These results suggest that, near the end of the course, students were more likely to set study goals for themselves.
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    Specifications Grading in Undergraduate Fluid Mechanics
    (ASEE, 2023-12) Mendez, Julie; IUPUC Mechanical Engineering
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    Standards-Based Specifications Grading in a Hybrid Course
    (ASEE, 2018-06) Mendez, Julie; IUPUC Division of Mechanical Engineering
    Standards-based grading is being used increasingly in engineering courses in place of a traditional points-based grading system. Benefits of standards-based grading include clearly matching course assessments to the learning objectives and putting more focus on learning instead of grades. In specifications grading, students are given detailed requirements with all assignments, which are graded pass/fail. The course grade is based on the number of assignments successfully completed. As more undergraduate courses are offered in online or hybrid formats, there is little documentation of the use of standards-based grading or specifications grading in these course delivery methods in engineering. This work describes the implementation of standards-based specifications grading (SBSG) in a hybrid (approximately 80% online) undergraduate thermodynamics course.
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    Standards-Based Specifications Grading in Thermodynamics
    (ASEE, 2018-04) Mendez, Julie; IUPUC Division of Mechanical Engineering
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    Two Approaches to Concept Maps in Undergraduate Fluid Mechanics
    (ASEE, 2020-06) Mendez, Julie; Lofton, Jessica; Mechanical and Energy Engineering, School of Engineering and Technology
    In constructivist pedagogy, students create their own meaning of the course material. One way for students to represent connections between ideas is by creating a concept map. This paper describes different approaches to using concept maps as a study tool in undergraduate fluid mechanics courses at two different institutions. The two instructors worked together to create a concept map of the topics covered in the courses, which had similar learning outcomes and covered most of the same topics. The goal of creating this concept map was to provide the students with a visual representation of how the different topics were related. At the first institution, the instructor-created concept map was used primarily as a visual aid (“passive approach”). The instructor showed the map at regular intervals in class, where the map grew as students learned new material. At the second institution during the following semester, students were encouraged to create individual maps, which could be used as an aid during assessments (“active approach”). The instructor-created map was presented in class after allowing the students to develop their own maps. No significant differences in course performance were found compared with courses taught by the same instructors when concept maps were not used. Concept maps were found to be a useful tool for connecting and organizing course topics for both students and instructors.