2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Students enrolled in lecture-heavy (commonly known as traditional) undergraduate engineering courses often have difficulty retaining information and struggle connecting content learned to real-world experiences. This inclination raises concerns regarding the preparedness of recently graduated engineers, particularly in their capacity to find solutions for problems they will encounter in their careers by thinking critically. Often, the difficulty with applying the content learned while pursuing their undergraduate degree may be attributed to courses not providing ample opportunities to explore the complexity of engineering problems, particularly within biomedical engineering. This work in progress paper aims to explore whether there is a correlation between the lack of conceptional knowledge among biomedical engineering students and the pedagogical interventions used in a tissue mechanics course.

To address this dissonance in learning and integration, we suggest that the use of the digital learning tool Perusall and case studies in an undergraduate tissue mechanics course has the potential of providing students with an opportunity to improve their conceptual understanding of biomedical engineering concepts. The overall goal of this work in progress is to determine the potential of Perusall and case studies to help students engage in scientific argumentation, as well as its potential to collect qualitative data for the improvement of biomedical engineering education. In summary, this study seeks to explore how the implementation of Perusall and case studies as pedagogical strategies could possibly help students overcome the challenge of connecting content to real world applications.

This work in progress is grounded on the idea that both digital and in-person socialization and discussion play an integral part in scientific argumentation and the professional development of future biomedical engineers. Data collection for this study will include student observations, student artifacts, and discussions both online (Perusall) and in person (case studies). The qualitative data collected will be analyzed through both open and axial coding to determine the ways in which students interpret, process, and analyze the content of the material presented to them through Perusall and case studies. The results obtained from the study are intended to structure the course and better understand where there may be gaps in content comprehension and misconceptions for students.

Future directions of this research would consist of continuing to evaluate whether there is improvement in the development of students’ scientific argumentation ability and their capability to grasp the taught content to apply it to biomedical applications after the implementation. This, in turn, will guide the impact that engineering educators may have in the classroom through effective pedagogical strategies that will help better prepare their students to become effective engineers.