Team-forming and its Impact in First Year Engineering

Abstract

During the Fall 2014 term at theUniversity of Waterloo, the first-year MechanicalEngineering course was re-designed to implement teambasedlearning. In order to improve student's job searchchances, the method of team-forming was based upon theco-op hiring process. The first two weeks of tutorials weredesigned in a way that mirrored the co-op process andprepared students with resume writing and interviewingskills. This led to a significant increase in the number ofstudents who received interviews, were ranked, and werehired by mid-semester. Attendance at tutorials improved,and timely assignment submission in a parallel coursewas improved. All of these measures indicated greaterlevels of student engagement compared with precedingcohorts.