IMPROVING PERFORMANCE AND ENGINEERING EXPERIENCE IN THE UNDERGRADUATE MANUFACTURING PROCESSES COURSE

Technological and organizational changes in today’s industry require that undergraduate engineering students progress smoothly into engineering practice after completing a bachelor’s degree in engineering. In order to cope with such changes, it is necessary to advance relevant curriculum components in a bid to incorporate current industry requirements. In this paper we share our experiences in teaching and advancing an undergraduate course, Manufacturing Processes (MECH 230), which is offered at junior level in the department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Qatar University. We identify and describe a combination of methods of teaching and learning manufacturing processes. The implemented methods for advancing the course in Manufacturing Processes were selected for two reasons; (i) to support students’ learning environment and thus improve students’ academic performance, and (ii) to increase students’ engineering experience at junior level and thus raise their professional engineering practice at an early stage in their undergraduate studies. A total of 40 students participated in this research. Data was collected based on a quasi-experimental design in which two groups of students were subjected to pre-test post-test evaluations. Students in the control group were exposed to the Inquiry Based Learning (IBL), as specified in Qatar University’s College of Engineering polices. In line with advancing curriculum components, students in the experimental group were exposed to a combination of teaching methods that include; Project Based Instruction (PBI), Role Playing (RP), and Product Dissection Method (PDM). During the semester, students were assessed through a variety of methods that include: quizzes, assignments, group activities, examinations and a term project. Students were also required to complete course survey forms as well as evaluations of the various learning activities they went through. Data were collected from both groups by means of various assessment tools. Results of data analysis indicate that although IBL still play an important role in students’ learning, a carefully selected combination of learning methods and activities can improve students’ understanding of course materials as well as improve students’ ability to function as professional engineers when challenged to solve problems in the real world of engineering.