Treatment Plant Instructional Modules In Environmental Engineering

The Environmental Engineering Curriculum Innovation and Development (CID) group within the National Science Foundation (NSF) Gateway Coalition systematically developed and evaluated instructional modules in various fields of environmental engineering. This paper describes the activities conducted by professors at the University of South Carolina (USC) as part of the group. Six treatment plant instructional modules based on SuperPro Designer £ were developed at USC: one software instructional module and five instructional modules based on individual and multiple combinations of unit operations. These modules underwent two rounds of beta testing at USC and were sent to professors at The Cooper Union (CU), Polytechnic University (PU), and Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) for evaluation. In turn, USC professors evaluated modules developed at CU and PU. The development of evaluation procedures for the instructional modules was performed in conjunction with a professional external evaluator. The evaluation had two basic components: an instructor review and an evaluation by the students. The instructor review involved a technical review of module documentation as well as an evaluation of the effectiveness and practicality of implementing the module. The students evaluated the quality and usefulness of the software application and the instructor’s approach in implementing the instructional modules. The modules were revised based on the beta test results.