How Free Choice Affects Student Interest in a Junior-level Embedded Systems Lab Course | Zendy

Michael Bolt | Zendy; Andrew Cookston | Zendy; John Y. Hung | Zendy; V.P. Nelson | Zendy

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How Free Choice Affects Student Interest in a Junior-level Embedded Systems Lab Course

Author(s) -

Michael Bolt,

Andrew Cookston,

John Y. Hung,

V.P. Nelson

Publication year - 2020

Publication title -

2018 asee annual conference and exposition proceedings

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Conference proceedings

DOI - 10.18260/1-2--30580

Subject(s) - mathematics education , course (navigation) , agency (philosophy) , perception , focus group , graduate students , subject matter , medical education , psychology , computer science , pedagogy , engineering , sociology , curriculum , medicine , aerospace engineering , social science , neuroscience , anthropology

Graduate students at Auburn University (AU) have developed a new course structure for a longstanding embedded systems lab in an effort to increase student interest in the subject matter. Students are now given a choice between two different lab exercises each week that focus on the same skills and course material. In order to quantify the success of this change in course structure, an anonymous survey measuring the Engineering Identity of each student was administered at the beginning and end of the semester for two groups in two semesters: a control group given no choice of lab exercise and an experimental group given a free choice between two lab exercises. This paper examines the results of these surveys to determine the effect that student agency can have on student interest levels and their perception of themselves as engineers.

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