Personalized Thermodynamics Homework Problems Pilot Study

Personalized homework problems are enhancing the instruction of engineering thermodynamics by providing immediate feedback to students and faculty. In the engineering school at LeTourneau University, we piloted a set of thermodynamics problems that were personalized for each student in the class. These problems followed the protocol for a computerassisted personalized-approach (CAPA) to learning on-line (LON) that was developed at Michigan State University (MSU). The LON-CAPA system has been successful for instruction of the natural sciences [1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8]. At LeTourneau, we have extended the CAPA tools to the instruction of engineering thermodynamics. Mastery of thermodynamics concepts requires students to solve problems using several steps to achieve the desired learning results. Practice using multiple steps to discover the final answers is essential. When required to provide an answer at each logical step, each student strengthens his or her problem-solving technique in addition to arriving at the correct final solution. Computerized assessment of each individualized homework problem gives immediate feedback to the student. Individualized problems encourage collaboration about the process of solving the problem without allowing students to uncritically copy another’s answers.