2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Learning Management System Feature Use in Mechanical Engineering Second- and Third-Year Courses Before, During, and After a Disruption

Presented at MECH - Technical Session 1: Foundations of Engineering Education

Significant and sudden disruptions can bring normal university classroom activity to a halt and have many effects on how instructors teach going forward. There is little research that follows mechanical engineering instructors’ practices and strategies through a disruption. Results of such investigations can contribute to the design of new professional devolvement strategies for mechanical engineering instructors to mitigate or capitalize on the impact of disruptions. This study focused on instructors’ use of learning management system (LMS) features to support course delivery. The research question addressed was “How do mechanical engineering instructors’ LMS feature use change before, during, and after a sudden disruption to higher education?” The research took place at a Midwest Research Intensive (R1) university using LMS data from a mechanical engineering department’s core second- and third-year undergraduate courses. LMS feature use data was collected for five Spring semesters (2019–2023) which included a disruption in Spring 2020. Descriptive statistics and visualizations were used to summarize LMS feature use. While some LMS features were never used, those that were used were found to be used most often during the disruption and the following spring. The years following showed a mix of sustained and discontinued LMS feature use. The intention of this study was to inform mechanical engineering instructors decision-making relative to LMS feature use generally and during disruptions.

Authors

James Hiram Cover University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Prof. Heidi A. Diefes-Dux http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3635-1825 University of Nebraska, Lincoln [biography]

Heidi A. Diefes-Dux is a Professor in Biological Systems Engineering at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln (UNL). She received her B.S. and M.S. in Food Science from Cornell University and her Ph.D. in Food Process Engineering from the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue University. She was an inaugural faculty member of the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Her current role in the College of Engineering at UNL is to lead the disciplinary-based education research initiative, growing the research enterprise and the engineering education research graduate program. Her research focuses on the development, implementation, and assessment of modeling and design activities with authentic engineering contexts; the design and implementation of learning objective-based grading for transparent and fair assessment; and the integration of reflection to develop self-directed learners.
Dr. Grace Panther University of Nebraska, Lincoln [biography]

Dr. Grace Panther is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln where she conducts discipline-based education research. Her research interests include faculty change, 3D spatial visualization, gender inclusive teamwork, and studying authentic engineering practice. Dr. Panther was awarded an NSF CAREER award in 2024. Dr. Panther has experience conducting workshops at engineering education conferences both nationally and internationally, has been a guest editor for a special issue of European Journal of Engineering Education on inclusive learning environments, and serves on the Australasian Journal of Engineering Education advisory committee. Dr. Panther received both her Ph.D. and M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Oregon State University.

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