2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Research indicates that student learning, engagement, and success in engineering education is highly attributed to the classroom environment and incorporating visual supplements to enhance the physical understanding of fundamental concepts. Despite the implementation and success of numerous pedagogical strategies in these domains, many universities across the country continue to struggle with retention rates, both at the institutional level and the college of engineering. To address such academic challenges and promote student success in engineering education, the authors in this study attempted an alternative pedagogical scheme in a Rigid Body Dynamics course taught at a Hispanic-serving institution (HIS) in the 2023 spring semester. Since the course has a demanding curriculum, the strategy was to provide step-by-step solutions concurrently for each homework assignment. The objective was to 1) provide a resource which would allow students to fully comprehend each concept of the course, 2) promote student success, 3) increase passing rates of the course, and 4) eliminate the need to violate the honor code. The effectiveness of this strategy was evaluated during each examination. Unexpected results indicate that exam averages were lower than those semesters when the solutions were not provided concurrently for each homework assignment. The average for exam 1, exam 2, exam 3, and the final exam during the Spring 2023 semester (solutions provided) included: 57.1, 59.6, 55, and 55.2 respectively; while the averages for Spring 2022 semester (solutions not provided) included: 81, 69, 73, and 74 respectively; and the averages for the Fall 2022 semester (solutions not provided) included: 71.6, 70.78, 61.5, and 62.05 respectively. The drastic decline in exam scores revealed that 1) providing the solutions concurrently with the homework assignment may be harmful to the overall student success in engineering education, 2) students are not allotting time to understand the step-by-step homework solutions, 3) students are memorizing solutions rather than understanding, and 4) violating the honor code is definitely not the best option for success. This study underscores the importance of critically evaluating teaching methods to ensure they promote genuine comprehension and academic success, particularly in demanding fields like engineering.