Teaching Engineering: Our Student's Perspective
The influence of teachers and their approaches to teaching on student learning impacts the number of engineers produced as well as the quality of those engineers. Yet it is not an easy task to assess instructional quality. Typically we measure teaching by end-of-course surveys, peer reviews, and other measures such as ABET criteria. But do these approaches get at what students expect of their teachers? A group of engineering students in the College felt that their perspectives on quality teaching with the use of technology had not been heard and they wanted to open a dialogue on their instructional needs. They came into the FIC and asked how to conduct such a process.
Their initial email, penned by a female student in chemical engineering said, “I am a part of the Roden Leadership Program. In case you have not heard of us we are a bunch of undergrad engineers who are working to empower positive change in the College of Engineering and UT campus. I was given your name when I brought up the idea of working to improve engineering professor’s use of technology (e.g. PowerPoint, Doc cam, chalkboards, etc.). It is a big frustration when a lot of very bright faculty don't communicate the information very well in class. I don't think that they don't want us to learn BUT I don't think they realize how much we don't comprehend information that is just flashed on PowerPoint slides. I was talking with others about how much more we would absorb in class if they used some of their resources better. Back to the topic at hand, I was wondering if you were available to talk about this and maybe lend some suggestions on how this could be approached.”
As a result of the introductory email, five students came into the FIC. We talked about the issue of using technology in the classroom and if there were larger instructional issues beyond instructional technology. We decided that we would begin by surveying students to see how they perceive instructional practice. Our approach was to create a short, online survey and send out via an email announcement to all of the College’s undergraduate students. A total of 411 students from a cross section of the departments, year at UT, and gender responded to this voluntary survey. Beyond demographics, students were asked questions about their professor’s approaches to instruction, use of teaching tools, and their own perspectives on learning. The first question was a simple yes or no response to “When I came to UT, I expected that my engineering professors would be good teachers.” An overwhelming 96% came to UT expecting their professors would be good teachers. An indicator of good teaching is enthusiasm and the students were asked if their professors show passion and excitement for their classes. At least half of the students (49%) found that at least some of the time that their professors were enthusiastic and another 33% found their professors to be passionate about teaching and engineering. Although 6% rarely saw excitement, 2% never saw it and another 11% were neutral.
Several survey questions were specific to the use of instructional technology. The use of PowerPoint was not as prevalent as we expected for 40% of the students reported their professors used PowerPoint and 40% reported use of the blackboard. Another 20% cited use of the document camera. Students were not lamenting the blackboard, however, and that may be because they found their professors were less spontaneous and moved too quickly when they used PowerPoint. While student responses indicate the use of PowerPoint (39.3%) and/or a chalkboard or dry erase board (40.5%), PowerPoint is not the only technology used in the classroom. Professors also use the documentary camera and they often bring into the classroom visual models. 53% reported visual models in their classrooms and pictures/graphics are used 75% of the time. A quarter of the faculty provide complete notes from their PowerPoint presentations while 14% offer incomplete PowerPoint notes. A very small 3% give students completed notes in Word and 3.5% give incomplete notes in Word. The majority of the faculty do not provide any written form of their notes.
There was a wide range of responses to the open-ended question, “I personally learn best in the classroom when…” Passion and enthusiasm in the form of a lively professor were often mentioned as was the application of material to real life situations. One student noted, “The professor makes the class interesting and is genuinely interested in teaching. I’ve only had basic sequence classes so my view may be skewed, but the classes don’t motivate me at all. If my engineering classes continue as uninteresting, I will strongly consider switching majors.” Students want professors to “teach on their level” and they realize they need enough problems to see how theory applies. Not all of the students want technology for there were plenty of comments about the wish for more chalk and board teaching so that professors don’t skip steps. Students also want the big picture and find it helpful when examples are worked out on the board. One student noted wanting, “the professor who uses a variety of methods for teaching, keeps things interesting, talks and writes down everything, uses visual aids and avoids PowerPoint.”
Listening to students has helped us to see several instructional issues that need further exploration. From this survey, it is apparent that our faculty are using technology (mostly PowerPoint) to deliver lectures. Using PowerPoint can impact their ability to communicate and professors need to make every effort to watch how quickly they convey information and to plan for ways to help students efficiently take class notes. The use of other media in the class helps students because students are often visual learners. All too often, however, PowerPoint is only used to present textual data. Currently most faculty use technology for lecture delivery and have yet to explore its use for feedback and interactions.