Effective Writing Assignments To Enhance Student Learning In “Introduction To Circuit Analysis”

In facing challenges of declining enrollment, retention, incorporating higher technical content, and improving student learning, an integrated reconstruction of pedagogy and curriculum is being sought. This paper describes the design and development of short writing assignments. The short writing assignments are designed based on three strategies: ‘Mock Presentation to High School Students’, ‘Web Search to linking the subject to real world application’ and ‘Identification of Unresolved lab problems’. These short writing assignments are incorporated into “Introduction to circuit analysis”, a freshman course in a 4-year engineering technology curriculum at Miami University, OH. These assignments are simple, informal, and easy to collect, check and/or grade, even for large classes. In addition to end-of-course rating instruments, three classroom assessment techniques are used to evaluate the reaction to the assignments in ‘realtime’. These are: 1) Weekly questionnaire, 2) One minute paper, and 3) Small Group Instructional Diagnosis (SGID). A brief overview of the method, discussion of each writing assignment, grading, including a sample assignment is presented in this paper. This paper summarizes the engagement of students in solving meaningful problems, and developing the course material linked to actual practice while employing assignments that are worth evaluating.