(330a) Beyond the Textbook: Data-Driven Research, Interactive Learning, and Creating Creative Problems

For his impactful and innovative research related to learning analytics for interactive, web-based textbooks and mixed method studies of problem-solving using student-written, video-inspired problems.

Engineering education requires innovation to prepare students to think critically and solve complex 21st-century problems. Here, a brief summary of data-driven engineering education research, sometimes called learning analytics, quantifying student engagement, struggle, practice, and reruns in core chemical engineering courses including material and energy balances (MEB), thermodynamics, and heat transfer. By applying many best practices in education, including visual, multimedia learning and deliberate practice, two main technology-based pedagogies will be explored: interactive textbooks (zyBooks) and video-inspired, student-written problems (commonly called YouTube problems). The final part of the talk will capture very recent work at Bloom’s taxonomy’s highest level – creating. Here students and AI tools co-create new course problems, and the opportunities and shortcomings will be addressed. I hope attendees will leave with a deeper understanding of how to implement technology-driven, student-centered approaches that align with best practices in engineering education.

This award talk is only possible because of the industrious students, dedicated student researchers, and supportive colleagues who make being an engineering professor so rewarding.