2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In this paper, the 7E (elicit, engage, explore, explain, elaborate, evaluate, and extend) instructional model was developed, implemented and evaluated for instructing a topic of the mechatronics course to senior students of mechanical engineering major. To do so, a topic (a force sensor design, development and testing) of the mechatronics course was selected to be instructed to the students in a regular classroom setting following the 7E plan. The instruction of the entire topic in a regular class period was divided into the 7 sequential stages of the 7E plan. Required activities to be performed by the instructor in each stage of the 7E plan for instructing the topic were determined. The instructor developed the instructional materials (lecture materials, handouts, prototype sensor system, etc.) as per the planned activities. The instructor taught the topic to 10 senior mechanical engineering students in the classroom setting in a 50-minute class period. An evaluation team consisting of 6 engineering students (3 senior and 3 graduate students) was engaged to observe and evaluate the instruction. The evaluation was made on three criteria: (i) instructional quality, (ii) instructional outcomes, and (iii) socioemotional attitudes of students. The instructional quality meant how effectively the instructor aligned the instruction with the 7 stages of the 7E model, which was assessed following a 7-point Likert scale by the evaluation team. Instructional outcomes meant how effectively the students learned the topic, which were determined by the scores of an examination (test) on the topic that the students attended at the end of the instruction. The socioemotional attitudes were assessed in terms of engagement and enthusiasm levels of the students following a 7-point Likert scale. The instructor taught the same topic to another group of senior mechanical engineering students (10 in number) in the same classroom setting following the traditional instructional approach (the instruction was not divided into the 7 stages of the 7E plan), and the instruction was evaluated by the same evaluation team following the same evaluation criteria. The results showed that instructional quality, instructional outcomes (test scores) and socioemotional attitudes improved by 23.67%, 8.85% and 24.52% on average respectively for the 7E model (plan) compared to the traditional instructional approach. The challenges and burdens that the instructor faced for designing and implementing the 7E model were investigated and necessary training and institutional support for the instructor were determined. The results can inspire and guide instruction design for engineering courses following the 7E model.