Contribution: While design project courses offer first-year students a practical introduction to engineering, a portion of class time is usually spent on lecturing foundational knowledge instead of practicing engineering design. This article presents a blended design-based learning (bDBL) approach that makes class time more efficient and explores…

Contribution: A modular three-credit undergraduate course that enables students to sharpen their teaming skills is introduced. The course addresses the professional skill gap between recent undergraduate students and what the work environment expects. Background: The trend of teaming in the industrial world continues to grow as the demand for…

Contribution: Results and conclusions on the use of transactive memory system (TMS) in software engineering (SE) education in student project teams that consist of undergraduate and postgraduate students are documented. This can be valuable for the adoption of this learning approach and team formation by other universities and institutes.…

Contribution: This paper provides evidence for the benefits of pair programming early in the curriculum on student performance later in the curriculum. It also confirms the short term benefits of partnerships at scale. Background: Engineers often work in teams, both in industry and in academia. Previous work has shown that partnered programming…

Contribution: A rubric for assessing the systems thinking expressed in conceptual models of technological systems has been constructed and assessed using a formal methodology. The rubric, a synthesis of prior findings in science and engineering education, forms a framework for improving communication between science and engineering educators.…

Contribution: This paper argues for a shift in how students' team project experiences are assessed. Findings from this paper suggest that it is not enough to consider student-reported data in assessing team dynamics; hidden gendered behavior may be impacting students in ways that students do not realize or report. Background: Although the number…

Global software engineering education (GSEE) is aimed at providing software engineering (SE) students with knowledge, skills, and understanding of working in globally distributed arrangements so they can be prepared for the global SE (GSE) paradigm. It is important to understand the challenges involved in GSEE for improving the quality and…

Contribution: Student engagement and interest in engineering is compared between virtual and physical laboratory projects, designed to be realistic and replicate engineering practice. Reported motivation and engagement was greater in the virtual project than the physical projects. Results are interpreted in terms of the different affordances for…

Scholarship of Application. Background: Capstone courses constitute the culminating experience in engineering curricula. A core characteristic is the student team and project-based nature, with many team deliverables. The ensuing difficulty is to fairly assess the individual team member's contribution toward the team effort. Contribution: The…

Contribution: A novel project-based learning (PBL) approach applicable to diverse design-oriented engineering courses. This article reports the application results during six academic years (2012/13 to 2017/18) for electronic instrumentation (EI) course for third-year Industrial Electronic and Automation Engineering majors. Background: Engineering…

Contribution: A conceptual model for task allocation among student teams in project-based learning (PBL) is proposed in this paper, along with a discussion on ways gender can affect teams' apportioning of roles in inequitable ways in STEM PBL. Background: Studies find that men and women report taking on different roles in PBL projects, and that…

Contribution: An analysis of the extent to which sustainability is present in the syllabi, project briefs, report templates, and student final reports of the three Iberian European project semester (EPS) providers, over a five-year period. Background: EPS is a one-semester capstone project framework that adopts project-based learning and…

This paper describes a study of teaching a programming language in a C programming course by having students assemble and program a low-cost mobile robot. Writing their own programs to define the robot's behavior raised students' motivation. Working in small groups, students programmed the robots by using the control structures of structured…

In recent years, engineering education teachers have needed to incorporate technology-supported collaboration to enhance learning. Implementing these activities requires course redesign, which must be meticulous for their full potential to be reached. This can require a lot of work for first time users, which can be a barrier to implementation.…

Teaching in university engineering departments is currently facing a number of challenges, especially for those involved in the most innovative and dynamic areas of information and communication technology. Learning model developments that place greater weight on laboratory activities require investment in specific equipment that is often very…