2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Further Strategies to Increase Engagement in an Online/Hybrid Signals and Systems Course

Presented at Advancing Online and Hybrid Learning in Engineering Education

This paper describes additional strategies taken to increase student-reported achievement of Learning Objectives of a sophomore-level “Signals and Systems” core course in electrical engineering and computer engineering at a large mid-Atlantic institution. As described at 2023 ASEE Annual Meeting, we spent the past few years increasing the response rate to the end-of-course survey and aim in the longer term to increase the proportion of students who self-report their attainment of the course learning objectives as either “Good” or “Excellent.” After reflecting upon these results and learning lessons from previous course offerings, we are now introducing strategies to further increase student engagement and attain department metrics for the course starting in Fall 2023 (70 students) and Spring 2024 (72 students). Starting in Fall 2023, 12 activities were introduced to improve the course. The activities can be grouped into three categories: (A) Demonstrating the worth of the course to the students; (B) Making class fun; and (C) Removing obstacles to student learning. Results are promising. In Fall 2023, attendance was high; targets for department metrics were achieved; and students passed the course with a grade of C or higher.

Authors

Dr. Mary Yvonne Lanzerotti http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7802-1117 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]

Dr. Lanzerotti is a Collegiate Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech. Previously she worked at the United States Military Academy (West Point, NY).
Dr. Scott Dunning Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]

Dr. Scott Dunning is Associate Department Head and Chief of Staff for the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech. Prior to that, he served on faculty of the University of Maine where he was the academic dean for the School of Engineering Technology for his last thirteen years.
Prof. R. Michael Buehrer Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]

Dr. R. Michael Buehrer joined Virginia Tech from Bell Labs as an Assistant Professor with the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2001. He is currently a Professor of Electrical Engineering and is the director of Wireless @ Virgi
Prof. Ahmad Safaai-Jazi Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Dr. Nektaria Tryfona Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]

Dr. Nektaria Tryfona is a Collegiate Associate Professor at the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She received her B.Eng. and Ph.D in Computer Engineering and Informatics from the Polytechnic School, University of Patras, Greece.
She has extensive experience on building data management and database solutions for large-scale systems in collaboration with industrial and governmental agencies, and academic partners. She has published her work in peer-reviewed international conferences and journals.

Her current research interests include data management, data valuation and AI and engineering education. Her teaching/mentoring activities focus on developing and offering classes in project-based learning environments as well as, advising and mentoring students working in industry-driven problems.

Before joining Virginia Tech, she was tenured Associate Professor at the Computer Science Department, Aalborg University, Denmark, a Senior R&D Engineer in industry and academic research centers in USA and Europe, and the founder and Director of DataLab, George Mason University.
Mr. Jianqiang Zhang [biography]

Mr. Zhang is a Senior Learning Data Analyst at the Technology-enhanced Learning and Online Strategies (TLOS) at Virginia Tech, where he acts as a technical lead for several online teaching & learning platforms, and contributes to the learning data analytics efforts. He earned his Master of Arts in Education with a focus on Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) and is working towards his PhD in IDT, Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics with a focus on English as a Second Language (ESL), Bachelor of Arts in English with a focus on English for Special Purposes (ESP). His professional and academic interest spans accros multiple disciplines, including instructional design, learning analytics, user experience (UX), accessibility, and software/application design & development. Mr. Zhang has presented at regional and international conferences, published in academic journals and served as a volunteer peer reviewer for the Association for Educational Communications & Technology (AECT) conferences.
Dr. Luke Lester Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]

Luke F. Lester, an IEEE and SPIE Fellow, received the B.S. in Engineering Physics in 1984 and the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1992, both from Cornell University. He joined Virginia Tech in 2013 as the Head of the Bradley Department of Electrical a
Dr. Kenneth Reid http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2337-7495 University of Indianapolis [biography]

Kenneth Reid is the Associate Dean and Director of Engineering at the R. B. Annis School of Engineering at the University of Indianapolis. He and his coauthors were awarded the Wickenden award (Journal of Engineering Education, 2014) and Best Paper award, Educational Research and Methods Division (ASEE, 2014). He was awarded an IEEE-USA Professional Achievement Award (2013) for designing the B.S. degree in Engineering Education. He is a co-PI on the “Engineering for Us All” (e4usa) project to develop a high school engineering course “for all”. He is active in engineering within K-12, (Technology Student Association Board of Directors) and has written multiple texts in Engineering, Mathematics and Digital Electronics. He earned a PhD in Engineering Education from Purdue University, is a Senior Member of IEEE, on the Board of Governors of the IEEE Education Society, and a Member of Tau Beta Pi.
Muhammad Dawood http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5096-9416 New Mexico State University [biography]

Dr. Muhammad Dawood received his BE degree from the NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan, 1985, and his MS and Ph.D. degrees, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in 1998 and 2001, respectively, both in electrical engineering. Dr

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