2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Engineering statics is one of the core courses typically offered to first year students and taught in most universities across the world that offer undergraduate degrees in engineering. This course utilizes concepts first learnt in high school Physics and Math and forms the basis for several other engineering courses such as Strength of Materials and Structural Analysis. A proper understanding of the concepts in statics is important for student learning to enable them to become accomplished engineers. ---------offers this course in Fall, Spring and Summer semesters as a common course for all branches of engineering. There are several ‘features’ pertaining to the course being offered at -------that are worth mentioning. For instance, the course spans over sixteen weeks in fall and spring semesters, while the duration is reduced to eight weeks in summer. Also, the course is offered online and in-person in the summer semester, while in fall and spring the course is offered only in-person. For all three semesters, the course is taught by a different set of instructors, with a larger number (>250) of students registered in both the fall and spring semesters and a smaller number (<100) attending in summer. Although there are differences between the syllabus used in fall, spring and summer, evaluation of student performance for all three semesters is similarly based on exams, quizzes and assignments, with a common grading system. This paper assesses the student performance in statics over the past few years at -----, across various semesters while considering the various ‘features’ of the course. Since engineering statics is a key subject of engineering mechanics that plays an important role in future student success, a critical evaluation of the parameters affecting student learning is needed. Results from this study will be used to enhance student performance in statics in future by various means, such as hands-on learning and guest lectures from industry.