Course Redesign ePortfolio Showcase

To improve learning and retention by providing engaging interactive online resources, motivated by practical real world examples and supported by embedded self-tests. Assessment of these materials will be based on a "flipped" or partially flipped class format, which students study the online materials before class. So that class time may be fully devoted to discussion and examples and problem-solving.

This course serves as apre-requisites to many important senior-level ME core courses in the curriculum such as Mechanical Vibrations, Mechanical Measurements, Control Systems, and Acoustics and Noise Control. Failure of this course will impede students' educational path towards graduation. It is observed that students often have a hard time visualizing abstract concepts.This course is mathematically intense, and thus create additional challenges. The objective of this proposal is to enhance students' learning through use of simulation software and technology to assist students in understanding and visualizing course concepts, and thus to shorten time to degree and increase graduation rate of Mechanical Engineering students.

Circuit analysis by reduction methods, source transformations, mesh and nodal analysis. Operational amplifier model, transient analysis, alternating current circuits, impedance, power, phasor diagrams, and three-phase balanced networks. Computer programming and application of computer software for circuit analysis.

This course serves as a pre-requisite to many important senior-level ME core courses in the curriculum such as Mechanical Vibrations, Mechanical Measurements, Control Systems, and Acoustics and Noise Control. Failure of this course will impede students' educational path towards graduation. It is observed that students often have a hard time visualizing abstract concepts.This course is mathematically intense, and thus create additional challenges. The objective of this proposal is to enhance students' learning through use of simulation software and technology to assist students in understanding and visualizing course concepts, and thus to shorten time to degree and increase graduation rate of Mechanical Engineering students.

I propose to integrate computer- and experiment-based activities in these classes. For example, multimedia technologies like the "MasteringEngineering" will provide students with tutorial homework problems to emulate the instructor's office-hour environment and provide feedback specific to their errors. Additionally, we will design experiment-based assignments, so students, through interaction with physical models, will significantly enhance their understanding and retention of topics presented in the course.

One of the prerequisites for the dynamics course is statics (ENGR30). In the statics course students have been introduced to diagrams known as free-body diagrams. These diagrams show the magnitude and direction of external reactions acting on an object. In dynamics, these free-body diagrams coupled with another set of diagrams known as kinetic diagrams are ubiquitous in analyzing an object that is in motion. The goal of this project is to provide a medium through which the student will be able to visualize the motion of objects and practice generating the appropriate diagrams.

The redesign will change ME163 into a "Learn-by-doing" student centered activity with focus on student success through implementation of the "How to Become a World Class Engineering Student" approach which has shown to increase retention as well as first year overall GPA. Student will be better prepared for all "bottleneck" courses. Team-Based Learning will be implemented to assure that student learning occurs interactively.

Fluid Mechanics I (ME 311) is the last course in the engineering mechanics sequence (statics, dynamics, fluids) which is required by both mechanical and civil engineering majors. Like statics and dynamics, ME 311 is characterized by high enrollment and high repeat rates - since Fall 2007, approximately one-third of ME 311 students have received repeatable grades (W, D or F), with another third receiving C's. This project resulted in the creation of various supplemental materials including modular video tutorials, recorded in-class lectures, and the curation of videos that demonstrate fluid mechanics concepts. McGraw-Hill's Connect platform was used to provide an environment where students could perform self-assessment and remediation while reading the textbook.

This course serves as apre-requisites to many important senior-level ME core courses in the curriculum such as Mechanical Vibrations, Mechanical Measurements, Control Systems, and Acoustics and Noise Control. Failure of this course will impede students' educational path towards graduation. It is observed that students often have a hard time visualizing abstract concepts.This course is mathematically intense, and thus create additional challenges. The objective of this proposal is to enhance students' learning through use of simulation software and technology to assist students in understanding and visualizing course concepts, and thus to shorten time to degree and increase graduation rate of Mechanical Engineering students.

Thermodynamics is a notoriously difficult course in engineering. New concepts and terminology that are often abstract and counterintuitive for engineering students cause confusion. This project will focus on developing computer simulation modules that demonstrate key concepts and in-class activities that encourage peer-to-peer interaction and knowledge development to enhance student learning, engagement, and time on task to provide an enhanced learning experience. Student success will be measured using formative and summative assessments. Overall student success will be compared against previous course offerings.

ME126 Heat transfer is a required course in the Department of Mechanical Engineering based on two difficulty prerequisite courses of Thermodynamics (ENGR124) and Fluid Mechanics (ENGR132). Students are often challenged by current course materials and ill preparation from prerequisites and thus they either earn poor grades or fail the course. The goal of the course redesign is to improve student learning and their performance to reduce the failure rate. Through various pedagogical tools, efforts are made to provide active learning opportunity and practices are conducted to increase student engagement with course materials. A resulting student learning performance will be evaluated.

Digital design fundamentals is a freshman/sophomore level course required to all Electrical, Computer, and Mechatronics engineering students. The Electrical and Computer Engineering department enrolls 160-200 students every year in the course. For many years, the DFW rate for this course has ranged from 26-46%. I believe the success rate of this course can be improved through the planned redesign of the course which will in turn improve the retention rate in the engineering discipline. Redesigning the course will focus on three major aspects: 1) include Hardware Description Language programming assignments to re-inforce understating of main topics. 2) Use a tablet to record all lectures and make them available to students after class. 3) Use online assessment tool to assess students' understanding of main topics before proceeding to the next one.

ME301 Thermodynamics is one of the primary engineering courses for Mechanical, Civil, and Manufacturing Engineering majors at Cal Poly Pomona. Like ME214 Vector Statics and ME215 Vector Dynamics, ME301 has been characterized by high enrollment and high repeat rates which make this bottleneck course a good candidate for course redesign. This project will create various supplemental materials including modular video tutorials, recorded in-class lectures, self-assessment quizzes on Blackboard, and the curation of videos that demonstrate thermodynamics concepts.

The aim of this project is to develop online course materials that can be used in either a flipped classroom or a fully online offering of BMED 213. Online and summer sections would help to ease the scheduling problems and enrollment bottlenecks that arise in this course that is taken by nearly 1000 students per year. The challenge is to ensure a level of student engagement and assignment completion rates equal to our traditional lecture-based sections. I hope to achieve this through a judicious mix of online videos and some aspects of a choose-your-own-adventure exploration of topics.

Mechanics is the foundation of all engineering programs. Statics, dynamics and strength of materials are the three essential courses of engineering mechanics. In the last two years, with the help of CSU course redesign program, we have done significant amount of work in redesigning statics and dynamics courses. Strength of material is the next course in this sequence. We have approximately 550 students taking this course every year. The current failure rate in this class is 35%. However, another 35% of the students receive "C" grade in this class, meaning about 70% of all our students receive "C" grade or lower. Redesigning this course will complete the engineering mechanics sequence and help improve our overall student success.

Redesign the existing face-to-face lecture class to use flipped-classroom and active learning techniques. Students watch videos at home to be introduced to new concepts, and then explore them in class by working problems and engaging in activities designed to reinforce these concepts. Online quizzes are used to allow students to practice working problems as much as each student needs. Activities include the simulation of electronic circuits to better understand their performance.

This course focuses on equipping students with the basic computing skills students will need throughout their engineering disciplines. The emphasis is on translating open-ended problems into algorithm development and implementation to solve basic numerical problems. Topics include introduction to basic engineering problems and their conceptualization through mathematical models, and introduction to algorithm development and implementation into a computer program. (Laboratory 6 hours)

ENGR 17 is a gateway (bottle neck) course to upper division for engineering students. The course has been taught in the traditional format. The course was first redesigned base off of the edX MOOC, this lead to a hybrid flipping the course, online assignments, practice problems, and online exams. These changes increased student engagement through new course activities and in-class / online discussions.

This course is redesigned because vast majority of students who take this course are lost at very early stage. This can be attributed to their inadequate math skills and lack of understanding with respect to basic physics fundamentals mentioned earlier. The rapid pace of the quarter system is another issue for a slow learner. The redesign fully exploited the web technology. The web technology tremendously increases the information availability to a plethora of devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones. Several smart device applications such as mutlisim touch and partisim can considerably enhance student's understanding of circuit dynamics.

Fluid Mechanics I (ME 311) is the last course in the engineering mechanics sequence (statics, dynamics, fluids) which is required by both mechanical and civil engineering majors. Like statics and dynamics, ME 311 is characterized by high enrollment and high repeat rates - since Fall 2007, approximately one-third of ME 311 students have received repeatable grades (W, D or F), with another third receiving C's. This project will create various supplemental materials including modular video tutorials, recorded in-class lectures, self-assessment quizzes on Blackboard, and the curation of videos that demonstrate fluid mechanics concepts.

This course is redesigned because vast majority of students who take this course are lost at very early stage. This can be attributed to their inadequate math skills and lack of understanding with respect to basic physics fundamentals mentioned earlier. The rapid pace of the quarter system is another issue for a slow learner. The redesign fully exploited the web technology. The web technology tremendously increases the information availability to a plethora of devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones. Several smart device applications such as mutlisim touch and partisim can considerably enhance student's understanding of circuit dynamics.

Mechanics is the foundation of all engineering programs. Statics, Dynamics and Strength of Materials are the three essential courses of engineering mechanics. In the last two years, with the help of CSU course redesign program, we have done a significant amount of work in redesigning the Statics and Dynamics courses. Strength of Materials is the next course in this sequence. We have approximately 550 students taking this course every year. The current failure rate in this class is 35%. However, another 35% of the students receive a "C" grade in this class, meaning about 70% of all our students receive a grade of "C" or lower. Redesigning this course will complete the engineering mechanics sequence and help improve our overall student success.

Hundreds of engineering students enroll in Linear Analysis 1 each quarter, as it is a required class for their majors. This support class has been streamlined to incorporate what is typically two quarters' worth of material (Linear Algebra and Ordinary Differential Equations) into one quarter. The density and quantity of material in Linear Analysis 1, while crucial to each student's success in his or her respective major, make the course difficult for both the professor and the students. The fast pace does not allow students to absorb concepts deeply and instructors have insufficient time to cover the depth and breadth of topics. This course redesign will restructure the students' learning environment in multiple ways, using technology to provide frequent and immediate feedback, more available resources, and more time in class for active, engaged learning assignments.

Historical and recent data demonstrates that students perform poorly in this fundamental required engineering course. Quizzes and examinations demonstrate poor comprehension of statics concepts and / or poor understanding of overall problem-solving strategies taught during lecture. It is believed that additional contact time in the form of Supplemental Instruction (SI) will improve student comprehension and overall performance in the course.

The course covers a variety of topics related to signal and systems analysis. Our experience from the last three offerings of the course is that the students have a hard time understanding the theoretical concepts as the course offers no means of physical understanding of those concepts. Implementation of the course topics in practice requires some degree of creativity for which we found additional technologies useful. To understand signals and systems and their role in engineering, students will use their programming skills to implement their knowledge from the course in simulation (MATLAB) and engineering design (Arduino). Students will be responsible for hands-on assignments that involve signals and systems analysis. The redesign will substantially help the students to experience engineering design and analysis, and go beyond the limits of classic theoretical discussions.

EE 321 is a high demand electronics course for non-electrical engineering majors that historically has had poor student performance. A winter 2016 section of the class will be offered in the "flipped" teaching style thereby creating opportunity for increased student engagement during class. In class time will be used for individual problem solving, as well as, group problem solving and hands-on activities. Class preparation includes watching 10 to 15 minute concept videos and completing low-stake on-line self-quizzes.

This course is a junior level course which is a required course for Civil Engineering students. Furthermore, Mechanical and Computer Science engineering students also take this course to fulfil their requirements of a statistics class. In the past, student performance in the course has been weak due to the difficulties in understanding the subject matter and developing an understanding of correct applications of statistical methods under various circumstances in engineering context. Students come into the class with the misconception that this would be another math class. However, the challenge is to understand how to relate the theory to specific examples. Additionally, delivering all material in-class is a challenge given the course is only 2 units. The objective of this course redesign is to develop in-class activities that will help students grasp the knowledge of statistics through specific examples. Furthermore, online material (e.g. lecture and problem solving videos, interactive activities, learning modules) will be developed to supplement in-class instruction.

It has been observed that students lack the required solving-problem and logical-thinking skills to be able to identify patterns in numerical method problems that can be generalized and implemented into a computer program. In the current pedagogical approach, students learn the tools but have little time to practice them and do not develop logical-thinking skills that are required to be successful in the course. Through this course redesign, elements of project-based learning will be incorporated to the course.

The project intends to extend develoment of a previously created software tool to help the students understand the contents of EEE 142. In the mentioned tool, students can take advantage of a graphical user interface for creating different components of an electric power networks in order to design and analyze systems in steady-state, particularly for "Power Flow" studies. The previously released tool has been very well received by the students, and through their comments, students have provided valuable feedback for improving the tool.

Geotechnical Engineering Design is an upper division technical area course designated as 'Design Course' offered to the undergraduate students in Civil Engineering at California State University, Fresno. The course has suddenly seen a jump in failure rate after tablet computers were inducted in the classroom instructions. It was felt that main reasons behind high DFW grades were i) Students motivation to get a free tablet computer without being accountable for their learning; and ii) Disengagement with the classroom instructional materials. While 'free tablet' motivation issue is already being addressed by making systemic policy changes at the university level; the disengagement issue can be addressed on the instructional level. Therefore, the aim of course redesign is to increase student engagement level and use the technology (tablet computers) more efficiently. It is planned to include short instructional videos in a partially flipped classroom setup.

With this course redesign proposal, we hope to improve students' ability to analyze and design circuits. As part of this project, we will (1) develop videos that go over more challenging homework assignments and (2) develop pre-lecture homework assignments.

This course has a very high rate of failure. From 260 students who took this course in the year 2014-15 19 percent, or 49 students, failed to receive a passing grade. One of the reasons for the high rate of failure in this course is that it is being taught by traditional methods, which mainly use verbal teaching style. More than 90 percent of the course content is being taught either by spoken words or by written words. This is while most of the students are visual learners. They like to see pictures, diagrams, videos, and animations. Besides, students prefer to see practical applications rather than abstract theory. The traditional methods of teaching this course do not address the needs of the majority of students who are visual learners. The redesigned course will help the majority of students who are visual learners. It will help the students who learn by seeing pictures or videos, as well as those who learn by relating the theory with real world applications.

To transform a core undergraduate courses (IE 416) in Industrial Engineering's (IE) Bachelors degree program, and one core graduate course (EMT 549) in the Engineering Management Master's degree Program to hybrid classes. To this end, online modules as well as online homework will be developed to completely transform the course to the hybrid mode. Additionally, supplementary materials for each online video e.g. scripts, handouts or PowerPoints will be designed and prepared.

Learning microscopic traffic simulation for a Virtual Lab redesign. In addition, supplemental materials will be developed for student engagement and peer instruction. This course redesign aims to design a virtual lab particularly to support CE223L lab teaching. The goal is to build a virtual, visualized, simulation and game-based lab which can provide enough opportunities for students to practice major theories taught by the lecture course. The basic idea adopts the "campus-as-a-living-lab" idea suggested by the CSU Chancellor's Office to first design a multimodal transportation simulation environment and then have students experience fundamental theories in transportation engineering through playing this simulation/game.

This project will redesign the course to enhance student mastery and improve pass rates. Failure to master this course undermines a student's preparedness and often sours their interest in the rewarding branch of Engineering.

Spanish Reading is a course that fulfills the Foreign Language Graduation Requirement at CSUS. The current course would benefit from redesign strategies that will allow students to focus on the learning of vocabulary and grammatical rules through online video-lectures while leaving synchronous and asynchronous online time for practicing reading skills within a cultural context. Of all of the language courses, this is the one that could be offered totally online because students do not need to develop conversational strategies in Spanish, as it is the case with SPAN 1B, an elementary Spanish course that also fulfills the Foreign Language Graduation Requirement.

Engineering doesn't come easily to everyone. Many concepts in Mechanics of Solids such as Mohr's circle and moment of inertia among others have been confusing to students. In order for students to grasp these important concepts, instructors, in traditional way of teaching, had to spend a great amount of time to explain these concepts and practice through exercises repeatedly which took away valuable time to introduce other necessary concepts/components. Besides, it is observed that students often miss the global picture and connections between various concepts due to the large amount of topics in the course. In an attempt to resolve these problems, highly interactive and concept-rich mobile knowledge apps and synergistic "in-person" controllable remote laboratory will be used to engage students and stimulate active learning. In addition, a common concept map idea which combined the principles of mind maps, concept maps and heuristics will be adopted as a main flow to design and connect different mobile knowledge apps and the illustrated concepts to help students relate various concepts. Furthermore, a mobile remote shake table (earthquake simulator) laboratory which allows the students to remotely participate and conduct hands-on experiments through smart portable devices such as smartphones and tablets will be developed to help students relate theories to real-life engineering problems and increase the students' persistence by engaging students and stimulating active learning.

I redesigned a traditional upper-division, required writing course into a student-centered, "flipped" hybrid model that includes a series of twelve, sequenced, teaching videos and a Quality Matters certified online learning environment. Preliminary steps included launching a YouTube channel with Closed Captioning for an integrated weekly guest speaker series, developing a digital study guide that eliminated one required textbook, and integrating publisher developed adaptive learning series (McGraw Hill's Connect).

With the increase in the number of students to 100 per class, it would be next to impossible to apply the same mentorship in class for solution developments, oral presentations, written report preparations, etc. A possible solution is to use the technology to allow better observation and participation in all aspects as they prepare their projects.

Because this course is the last core course students take in the thermal-fluids sequence of courses and because of its multidisciplinary nature it is typically the most difficult part of thermal/fluids sequence. This project will create various supplemental materials including modular video tutorials, recorded in-class lectures, self-assessment quizzes on Blackboard, and the curation of videos that demonstrate heat transfer concepts. The course will be redesigned to use the flipped classroom strategy for the students to work together after viewing the lecture videos. The purpose is to increase student engagement and improve student success in order to pass with at least a C.

This typically is the first course students take at the 300 level for the major. It is a bottleneck class with over 20% of CHE 302 students receiving repeatable grades (W, D or F). In this project, the following technological and pedagogical activities are pursued:
1. A set of video tutorials covering topics that students found difficult, are created and uploaded to internet, allowing students to review the course supplemental material anytime, anywhere. Practical examples and industrial type problems relevant to Chemical Engineering will be used to illustrate the fundamental concepts.
2. Clicker self-assessment questions are used to evaluate the students' grasp of material in classroom.
3. Several discussion topics are developed to implement active group learning in the classroom.

Thermodynamics I is typically the first course students take in the 300 level courses. It is a bottleneck class with over 20% of students receiving repeatable grades (W, D or F). In this project, the following technological and pedagogical activities are pursued: Integrating a set of video tutorials covering topics that students found difficult; the use of practical examples and industrial type problems relevant to Chemical Engineering; and, employing Clicker self-assessment questions in the classroom. In addition, several discussion topics developed to implement active group learning in the classroom.

The redesign was focused on developing video examples of critical concepts of the course because of abstract and complex concepts that is most effectively clarified by using example problems. Because of the fast pace of the quarter system solving several example problems during in class time is prohibitive. Introducing video examples provided an opportunity for the students to have additional resources at their disposal to learn the difficult concepts of the course, which are encouraged and required by the instructor. The videos are posted so that students are able to watch them outside of class.

Implement the proven practice of supplemental instruction.

IME 314 at Cal Poly Pomona covers a wide range of concepts from variability to probability, discrete and continuous probability distributions, statistical analysis and summarizing datasets, parameter estimation, confidence interval, test of hypothesis, analysis of variance and finally an introduction to regression analysis. By adopting and adapting the flipped classroom technique, I will improve the coherence of the subjects discussed in this class.

ECE 3070 is the core course for both Computer and Electrical Engineering students. This course is characterized by high enrollment and high repeat rates. In this course redesign, I am planning to make online supplementary video tutorials to help students to refresh the materials from the prerequisite courses. The supplementary video will be also created to cover some of the basic and important concept of the course. Students can watch the videos before coming to class. Then, I will discuss and teach the topics covered in that specific video in the class and expand the materials as needed. This pedagogical strategy will have the potential to make class time more engaging and increase the student learnings.

Making short videos of some difficult topics and posting on the LMS so students are able to review at their convenience. Interactive Matlab simulation modules demonstrating key principles. In-class small group problem based learning activities. Online office hours via web conference tool.

An introductory CAD course, a high number of students fail the course because of difficulties in understanding the 2D sketches and then visualizing components of a 3D part model created from the sketches. The course redesign will introduce new online exercises in order to improve student conceptualization and visualizations of the 3D parts, and then, the construction of the 3D model. The progressive difficulty of the exercises should gradually increase student expertise therefore improving their confidence in CAD. The proposed online exercise program will improve the teaching the principles, as well as, improve the work done in the laboratory sister course, MECH 100L.

Student success in this course is low due to: 1) lack of preparation in study skills, 2) low level math and computer skills, 3) relative unfamiliarity with the discipline of construction, terminology, materials, processes, etc., 4) the need to learn visualization in order to see 2D and 3D relationships. The combination of all these factors makes it imperative to create course specific supplemental instruction that allows the students to prepare at their own speed and come to a flipped classroom well prepared to ask questions and practice the freshly learned skills.

This project is a multi-campus project in which a remotely accessible mobile laboratory system developed at San Francisco State University will be used by engineering students at Cal Poly Pomona. The goal of the remote system is to offer students the opportunity to validate theoretical results in a challenging engineering course with a real-world mechanical system. The mobile laboratory imposes no costs for students. A significant goal of this project is to perform a controlled assessment of the student impact of this remote laboratory to validate subsequent steps such as scaling the remote lab to other CSU campuses. Student assessment will be performed by teaching two concurrent sections of the course (one using the mobile lab, and one not using it) and acquiring survey data.

The project is intended to improve the teaching and learning experiences in this high attrition course. The plan is to selectively deploy flipped classroom methods, add appropriate online material, develop video support, and gain perspectives about the needs and relevance of the course for the students.

The repeatable grades rate of thermodynamics at CSUF has been consistently between 26% - 36% over the last two years, making it the class with the highest failure rate every year in the mechanical engineering department. This project will focus on creating instructional videos and therefore allocating more time for students to practice in the classroom. Results will be analyzed by comparison with another session of this class taught by the same instructor in the same semester but in a traditional way.

The main objective of this course redesign is to 1) improve the students' performance in ENGR 323 through technologies and high impact practices, and 2) better prepare students for their career success in structural and earthquake engineering.

Two pedagogical methods and practices will be implemented to address these in this course redesign: 1) collaborative assignment and projects for student groups both inside and outside classroom. 2) supplemental instruction/augmentation.

The goal of this redesign is to incorporate active learning into the course through a modified flipped pedagogy. More time will be spent by students outside of class to be introduced to the concepts and class time will be spent actively applying those concepts with instructor and peer guidance. Students will also be exposed to assignments involving virtual laboratories outside of class to see the physical realities of the concepts and problems that are being solved in the class. This is aligned with the ABET student learning outcomes of a) an ability to apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering, b) an ability to analyze and interpret data (corresponding to virtual labs), and e) an ability to identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems.

Student success in electrical engineering is built on mastery of foundational circuit analysis concepts such as Kirchhoff's laws and the Thevenin and Norton theorems. However, the course topics in which these concepts are taught comes very early in the student's post baccalaureate career. Many students at this level have not yet developed sufficient skills such as effective note taking, building conceptual frameworks that integrate new ideas with existing knowledge, and the need to utilize concepts from prerequisite courses. This paper describes web-based supplemental materials, which is developed at our university. Students may review and practice these foundational circuit analysis concepts at any time during their academic career. We intend to improve learning and retention by providing engaging interactive online resources such as lectures notes, examples, simulations, and practice problems. These learning materials are completely online and free to help beginning electrical engineering students learn, and it can also be accessed by students in subsequent courses to refresh their knowledge of these topics at any time.

Circuit analysis is a core course for most engineering disciplines. This Proven Course Redesign project aims to improve student progression though the course while simultaneously reflecting the various discipline flavored perspectives. The course uses a combination of locally created materials and the MIT 6.002x course delivered by the edX platform. Locally created materials include videos that present problem tutorials, lectures, and online assessment.

To stimulate the students' interest in engineering and enhance their design skills, EE244 has been redesigned using Collaborative Project-based Learning (CPBL) pedagogy. CPBL employs a variety of instructional strategies for effective content delivery and to support differentiated learning. In the redesigned EE244, 40% of the class time is dedicated to lecturing, and the rest is used for various active learning components including interactive/collaborative problem-solving, inquiry-based activities, hands-on design projects, direct assessment, etc. Multi-year assessment data consistently shows that CPBL has a very positive impact on students' learning outcomes and increases their interest in engineering field

The Introduction to Circuit Analysis I course is the first EE/CompE course that our students take. It is a sophomore level course. Students must receive a C or better in the course in order to move forward to the other EE and CompE courses in the two undergraduate degree programs. Coming from a diverse background with a varied skill set, our students are introduced not only to a new technical area but also a new way of thinking, that is, using a systems approach to analyzing simple as well as complex electrical circuits using basic, fundamental engineering principles. Thus, the course may appear difficult (current D, F and WU failure rates are in the 40% range) and the goal of this Course Redesign Project is to bring additional, supplementary learning methods to enhance the academic environment and provide a learning methodology that students may employ in many of their other engineering courses.

The objective of this proposal is to implement a few simple, proven strategies to improve student learning and success rate. Our implementation strategies include making learning meaningful through real world connections, challenging them to higher standards, providing appropriate tools and effective resources. Resources we provided include online tutorials of prerequisite materials for review before the class, clear course objectives for each session along with class worksheets, online tutorials for important concepts for review after the class, real word examples for each major concept (from current news if possible) and practice quizzes with feedback. Links to some of the short video clips we created are attached.

Programming for Mechanical Engineers (ME 209) at CSU Northridge is an introductory required course for all Mechanical Engineering students, which focuses on programming with Visual Basic Application for Excel. Most entering Mechanical Engineering students do not have any background in programming, and tend to struggle with the logic and organization required in programming. Four to five sections of ME 209 are offered each semester, and at least one section is offered in the summer for a total annual enrollment of 200 to 240 students. The course emphasizes the solution of mechanical engineering problems using systematic methodologies. Topics include the use of flowcharts, variable types, the Excel/VBA environment, decision and looping structures, program debugging and effective programming practices. In general, the students are expected to apply the knowledge learned in ME 209 to subsequent courses and in their professional careers post-graduation. Recent senior exit interviews identified ME 209 as a course that should be considered for redesign to enhance student's learning and success. I developed comprehensive set of tutorials to supplement in-class or online instructions. In addition, I am in the process of developing supplemental videos to the lecture discussions and tutorials. The uniqueness of the newly developed materials, namely, is that tutorial and videos are concept-based and proficiency-focused rather than general coverage of the material.