On Development Of A Hybrid Vector Statics Course To Reduce Failure Rate

A group of mechanical engineering faculty members have initiated a hybrid Vector Statics course which involves Macromedia presentations, Hands-on experiments, Online homework program for collecting homework, and online Multimedia computer interactive games. The main objective for designing the new hybrid course is to reduce failure rate which is as high as 44% among approximately 800 students who enroll in this course annually in the college of engineering at Cal Poly, Pomona. In order to measure the effectiveness of the newly developed course an assessment tool is needed. The commonly employed tools such as homework, quizzes, and exams that we use in a typical Vector Statics course serve as good indicators of students’ understanding about the subject matter we teach and students are tested on; however, these tools may not reflect student’s knowledge accurately. For instance, Vector Statics may be a prerequisites course for advanced required courses in engineering, and students must usually earn a Cgrade (or better) in order to take the subsequent courses. However, having a Cin this course means that students are leaving this prerequisite course with ability to solve the given exercises, but often they do not have the ability to answer a simple quantitatively question about the fundamental concept in this course. We believe that by implementing an effective assessment tool we will measure the effectiveness of the newly developed hybrid course. We plan to measure the effectiveness of the hybrid course by: 1. Integrating previously developed and tested Concept Inventory test specifically for Statics throughout the course into its weekly modules. 2. Multiple choice questions drawn from Fundamentals of Engineering Exam and comparing the results with the national average scores. 3. Comparing the student test scores on Concept Inventory test with the national and peer