Measuring student engagement in thermodynamics courses

This paper will discuss an on-going NSF-CCLI grant that addresses improvements in student pedagogy and educational materials for the engineering thermodynamics curriculum by completing development of an online material titled “Engaged in Thermodynamics”. The Engaged material is a textbook supplement based on actual engineering facilities and equipment. During Fall 2012 an engagement Opinionnaire was administered in two separate, and distinct, thermodynamics courses. Results indicate a student perception that preparing better for a course leads to improved performance in the course. However, there was no correlation between students´ desire to learn and the amount of questions they ask in class. Regarding student interest, the results indicated it was higher for the course that used the Engaged material. Additional data collection and student focus groups will be ongoing.