Enhanced Teaching Techniques Applied to an Upper-division Composite Materials Engineering Course with an Emphasis on Aerospace Applications

While developing content for an Advanced Composite materials course for Mechanical Engineers it was decided to incorporate several enhanced teaching techniques that an NSF team had fine-tuned over several years. The 3 credit course in Advanced Composite materials consists of two lectures and a lab where hands on selection and application of composite materials focuses on students designing and building projects in a composite materials lab environment. ‘Just in time feedback’ mechanisms are used that provide rapid formative feedback and reinforcement of a positive learning experience to enhance the learning process such as: 1) ‘muddiest points’ and ‘most interesting points’ identification and next lecture clarification, 2) three to five minute PPT and video segments used in class to fortify concepts that have proved to be confusing or complex in the past or in current lectures, 3) online postings of short segment ‘Camtasia’ modified PPT explanations for students to refer to as rapid reference sources on particular subjects and 4) ‘Youtube’ video clips to provide alternative descriptions of lecture items covered. This work looks at examples of these techniques and their effectiveness in a course that is geared toward training engineers quickly to become familiar with extensive advanced composite material nomenclature, concepts, processes and applications. Assessments are illustrated with student work on projects, exams and peer reviewed presentations and student surveys.