Assignment Change – An effect of my visits

One result of visiting all the AE programs this last year was that I decided that in my own program I wasn’t doing enough to expose and enthuse students about current developments in buildings.  I was particularly inspired by what I saw Greg Brooks doing at UT Austin though I didn’t try and directly copy him.

My response was to revise an assignment (one of seven) in  the junior-year course, AE-390, “Architectural Engineering Design-I” using as a starting point a book that Greg recommended to me.  The goal was to have students choose from a variety of contemporary buildings and then analyze and present those buildings in both architectural and engineering terms.  Links to the results as well as the assignment that they were operating from are available on this page.  As usual in my assignments I was trying to address multiple issues which will be evident on reading the assignment.

I leave judgments about the quality of the results to the reader, but clearly I wouldn’t be posting them if I weren’t pleased with the change.  My conclusion is that my sabbatical has helped my students.  For that I thank all those I visited, with special thanks to Greg.

What Faculty have to Share and Want to Know

Two of the questions at the end of the survey asked:

1)  What do you do currently that you see as most successful that other instructors or schools might adopt?

2) What things do you think you might learn from other schools that would help you?

The answers to those questions are now available (58/105 answered one or the other).

Themes seem to be:

• BIM/Revit
• Capstone Design
• Practice/Practitioner interaction updating
• Integrated design - with other engineering disciplines as well as architecture

Evaluation of Issues and Need for Research on Teaching

Respondents were asked to give ratings (1-5 scale using words) on the following questions:

• Evaluate the importance of the following issues to your school
• Evaluate the importance of the following issues to AE programs nationally
• Evaluate the importance of research related to teaching AE Design in the following areas

The detailed results are available on this Google-Docs spreadsheet.

Summary of Results

Issues for Schools

Considerable Importance

• Integration of all three ABET components of AE - Structure; MEP; Construction Management (3.9/5)
• Sustainability Design (3.5/5)

Non-Significant Evaluations

• All the others were not rejected from the null-hypothesis of "average" significance.

Issues Nationally

Considerable Importance

• Integration of all three ABET components of AE - Structure; MEP; Construction Management (3.6/5)
• Sustainability Design (3.7/5)

Some Significance

• BIM (Building Information Modeling)  (3.4/5)
• Lean/Economic Design (3.3/5)

Non-Significant Evaluations

• All the others were not rejected from the null-hypothesis of "average" significance.

Teaching Research

Considerable Importance

• Correlating industry needs with AED curricula  (3.8/5)
• Identifying the most effective teaching strategies for different aspects of AED. (3.5/5)
• Incorporating distance-learning into the curriculum (2.5/5) - [negative importance]

Some Significance

• Incorporating computer-based instruction into the curriculum  (3.4/5)
• Addressing different student learning styles (3.4/5)

Non-Significant Evaluations

• All the others were not rejected from the null-hypothesis of "average" significance.

Note on Statistical Significance of Results

Almost all the results showed a statistically significant difference from a null-hypothesis model centered on the middle term (3.0) of the 5-Likert values using a goodness-of-fit chi-squared analysis.  Those that weren't significant are shaded gray. 

Note, as always, that a significant result does not mean a big difference.  That is a matter of individual judgement, which is the reason the actual counts are shown.

Teaching Approaches Used and Advocated

Respondents were asked to give ratings (1-5 scale using words) on the following questions:

• I use the following approaches in teaching AE Design
• I use student teamwork in teaching AE Design.
• I would advocate changing the way the school teaches AED by changing the use of the following techniques

The detailed results are available on this Google-Docs spreadsheet.

 

Summary of Results

Approaches used:

• Lecture is most common, followed by problem-based learning and guided design.
• Architectural studio and modified study are never used in many cases.

Student Teamwork Used:

• There is quite a spread in use in most cases - no consensus
• Teamwork is used not much more than "sometimes" in most approaches, with a fair amount of use in Problem-Based Learning, and Guided Design.

Advocating Change in use of Techniques

• There is considerable interest in increasing the use of all techniques except Lecture.
• There is a marked interest in decreasing the use of lecture

 

Note on Statistical Significance of Results

Almost all the results showed a statistically significant difference from a null-hypothesis model centered on the middle term (3.0) of the 5-Likert values using a goodness-of-fit chi-squared analysis.  Those that weren't significant are shaded gray. 

Note, as always, that a significant result does not mean a big difference.  That is a matter of individual judgement, which is the reason the actual counts are shown.

Approaches to Teaching AE Design

One of the questions I've asked on the survey/questionnaire that I'm developing is which approaches to teaching AE Design do the faculty use.  I've included links to most of them below to help anyone who's uncertain of the meaning I intend.

• Lecture 
• Architectural Studio 
• Modified Studio - Architectural Studio modified, especially by emphasizing team-based projects 
• Case Study
  
• Problem-Based Learning 
• Guided Design 
• Socratic 
• Other