A Software Suite for Self-Paced Learning

Abstract

The faculty of engineering at McMaster University is very diverse with students coming from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds and nationalities. There is an expected level of prerequisite knowledge for courses in the program, especially for subjects in mathematics and physics. Yet, a significant number of students struggle to reach the same level of prior knowledge as their peers due to a lack of educational resources or due to language barriers. Entering lectures without the expected baseline understanding of the concepts increases the risk of cognitive overload because these students exert additional mental effort in retaining the pre-lecture information along with the lecture content. As a solution to this problem, we present a suite of web-based interactive programs that are accessible to the students outside the class. The Software Suite will provide supplementary material to assist with self-paced learning in a 3rd year undergraduate engineering course, i.e., Finite Element Analysis, at McMaster University’s W Booth School of Engineering Practice and Technology. It will enable students design and analyze various engineering applications, namely, Spring System, Trusses, Beams, Frames, and Heat Transfer along one or two dimensions. The purpose of the interactive platform with several programs is to actively engage the students with this cognitive tool to cement their understanding of the concepts instead of passively perceiving it as a tutor or repository of information.