SKIP LECTURING – LET THE STUDENTS TALK!: CONCEPTUAL LEARNING OF ENGINEERING DYNAMICS BY USE OF VOTING TESTS

Abstract

An important challenge in engineeringeducation is how to make students capable of transferringknowledge gained in theoretical courses into usefulcompetencies when solving real engineering problems. Oneof the reasons for the knowledge transfer being so difficult isthe lack of conceptual understanding of the basicengineering subjects, especially when we talk about firstyear students. Hence, we describe a teaching style where anintroductory engineering dynamics course was taught with aconsistent use of peer instruction and voting tests facilitatedby an audience response system. The study reveals that thesuggested teaching style leads to an increased learningoutcome, especially regarding the students conceptualunderstanding. Furthermore, it shows that the students arevery satisfied with the teaching style and indicates that theuse of voting tests seems to provide the students with a morecritical and hence maybe a more realistic self-assessment oftheir academic outcome.

Index Terms - Clickers, Voting Tests, Peer Instruction,Learning Outcome.