2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Student Engagement with Interactive Engineering Textbook Reading Assignments When Tied to the Grade

Presented at Mechanical Engineering Division (MECH) Technical Session 9: Online Learning Environments

Engineering courses have seen a rise in the usage of online textbooks, especially in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for classes to be remote. Some of these online textbooks contain learning questions, video media, animations, simulations, 3D tools, and other interactive elements. The goal for these interactive elements is for students to engage through reading, answering questions, watching videos, stepping through animations, or otherwise participating with the interactive content. Despite the availability of such interactivity, student engagement is not a guarantee. Due to time constraints and other pressures, students may opt for racing through the textbook or skipping the interactive elements entirely, rather than earnestly interacting with the material. In response, some instructors have tried to motivate reading by assigning the completion of reading assignments as a percentage of the final course grade. This paper investigates how student textbook engagement is affected when reading assignments are tied to the final course grade.

This paper uses data from online interactive engineering textbooks containing short answer, matching, and multiple-choice questions, along with animations as assigned activities. The animations show key conceptual information, and are viewed in a sequential step order. All steps must be viewed in order to receive credit. For this paper, we measure student engagement through activity completion percentage. We describe the various components of interactive engineering textbooks, outline a definition of engagement, and summarize overall textbook engagement data. Across three engineering textbooks, we confirm a significant positive correlation between student engagement and the percentage of final course grade awarded for completion of assigned activities. Assigning any percentage at all corresponds to over a 35% increase in content completion, and the higher the assigned percentage, the greater the completion increase. These results strongly suggest that instructors should assign course credit for completion of interactive textbook material if they want students to read and engage.

Authors

Chelsea Gordon zyBooks, A Wiley Brand [biography]

Chelsea Gordon received her PhD in Cognitive Science at University of California, Merced in 2019. Chelsea works as a research scientist for zyBooks, a Wiley company that creates and publishes interactive, web-native textbooks in STEM.
Dr. Adrian Rodriguez zyBooks, A Wiley Brand [biography]

Adrian Rodriguez is an Engineering Content Developer for zyBooks, a Wiley brand and a Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include engineering education, multibody dynamics, contact and impact with friction, electro-mechanical systems, and nonlinear dynamics. He earned his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Texas at Arlington.
Dr. Alicia Clark zyBooks, A Wiley Brand [biography]

Alicia Clark obtained her BS Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Lafayette College, and her MS and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington. Her research interests include engineering education, fluid mechanics, and medical ultrasound. She is currently an Engineering Content Developer for zyBooks, a Wiley Brand. At zyBooks, she creates digital content for engineering textbooks to help make textbooks more engaging and accessible for students.
Mr. Bryan Gambrel zyBooks, A Wiley Brand
Ms. Linda Ratts zyBooks, A Wiley Brand
Jennifer L. Welter Wiley [biography]

Jennifer "Jenny" Welter has been a publishing professional for more than two decades, specifically focused on engineering publications and courseware during the majority of her tenure. She is passionate about supporting engineering education, specifically focused on content and assessment development for more effective student learning. She earned her BA in English from The University of Iowa.
Dr. Ryan Barlow zyBooks, A Wiley Brand [biography]

Ryan Barlow obtained his Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Utah in 2012, his Master's Degree in Science Education from the University of Maryland in 2016 and his PhD in Engineering Education from Utah State University in 2020. He currently works for zyBooks, A Wiley Brand creating interactive content for online mechanical engineering textbooks. His current research focuses on online engineering assessment, accessibility in online textbooks, and studying the effectiveness of online textbooks in engineering courses.
Dr. Yamuna Rajasekhar zyBooks, A Wiley Brand [biography]

Yamuna Rajasekhar is a senior manager of Content at zyBooks, a Wiley Brand. She is an author and contributor to various zyBooks titles. She was formerly an assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Miami University. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from UNC Charlotte.
Dr. Nikitha Sambamurthy zyBooks, A Wiley Brand [biography]

Nikitha Sambamurthy is the Editorial Director at zyBooks, at Wiley Brand. She completed her Ph.D. in engineering education at Purdue University, and has since been dedicated to bridging engineering education research and engineering education industry.
Lauren Fogg zyBooks, a Wiley Brand [biography]

Lauren Fogg obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2021 and her Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2022 from Louisiana Tech University. She is currently working on her Ph.D. in Engineering with a concentration in Engineering Education from Louisiana Tech University. She is currently an Associate Engineering Content Developer with zyBooks, a Wiley Brand. Her research interests are diversity, gender equity, retention, project-based learning, cognitive models of problem-solving, and making engineering textbooks more accessible and innovative for students.
Jamie Emily Loeber

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