Presentation
Student Perceptions of Connections between Statistics Class and Co-op Work Experience
2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
(2014)
Abstract
One of the potential benefits of co-operative work experiences for engineering students is to provide an authentic learning experience. By seeing the relevance of their coursework in the workplace, students are more motivated to learn the material and better able to apply it in the future. Researchers have found that students often have difficulty making this connection. Instructors who are not familiar with industrial practice may have difficulty seeing and sharing these associations.This paper will focus on connections seen by students at a technically focused university. The students at this university are required to spend a significant amount of time in co-op work assignments. Students in a sophomore engineering course, Statics, were given an assignment to write an essay in which they reflected on the links between their co-op work assignment and their Statics course. The specific essay prompt was developed by a mechanical engineering professor, with input from an English professor who has experience with reflective writing assignments. Students were instructed to describe their co-op employer and work assignment, discuss class content from the Statics course, and then reflect on the relationship between the two. The essay prompt stated that they could discuss both connections through the class content and the general problem-solving skills that they learned in the course.After completion of the assignment, students were asked for consent to include their essay in a research project. The collection of assignment essays for which the students gave consent was analyzed to determine the students’ opinions regarding the strength of the relationships between their co-op assignments and the work they were doing in the Statics course. The result of this essay analysis is discussed in the context of relevant literature and presents recommendations to instructors so they are better able to provide an authentic experience for the students.
Disciplines
Publication Date
June 15, 2014
Comments
ASEE PEER pp. 24.1118.1 - 24.1118.16
© 2014 American Society for Engineering Education
Citation Information
Diane L. Peters and Joy Arbor. "Student Perceptions of Connections between Statistics Class and Co-op Work Experience" 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition (2014) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/diane-peters/16/