2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Innovative engineers depend on technical reading as a primary means of lifelong learning. Several scaffolded course activities encourage the practice of reading and notetaking in a collaborative learning environment. In lower-level courses, students receive brief instruction in How to Read a Book[1], Cornell notes[2], and Sketchnoting[3]. Student Note assignments require students to take hand-written notes while reading the textbook and post a picture of their reading and class notes to an online discussion board. In later courses, students, well trained in the Student Notes methodology, tackle a more advanced textbook through guided reading activities before class. Though Reading Notes Quizzes proved an unacceptable tax on student-faculty rapport, Group Notes and Student Board Notes show much more promise. In upper-level courses, faculty provided a list of questions connected to specific sections of an advanced textbook. In a third-year course, Group Notes assignments require students to generate answers in groups of two or three and upload a scan of their answers ahead of lecture. In the fourth-year course, the Student Board Notes assignments require students to copy their notes for a specific question onto the board which the faculty then use to facilitate a “just-in-time” clarification of content before application in example problems. Student responses indicate a generally positive outlook on many of these reading and notetaking assignments. Faculty appreciate students who engage with the material before class. Students learn how to expand their understanding through reading even as they gain required technical knowledge.