Performance assessment of undergraduate vibrations course

Abstract

"Vibrations" and "Dynamic Systems and Control" are two of the required upper-level engineering courses in the undergraduate Mechanical Engineering program at Baker College. Both courses have the "Introduction to Differential Equations" as one of the pre-requisite courses. "Vibrations" however is not required to be completed before "Dynamic Systems and Control". This paper analyzes student performance in the two courses in order to determine if "Vibrations" should be made a pre- or co-requisite to "Dynamic Systems and Control". This could help students to better understand and learn the more challenging "Dynamic Systems and Control" course. In both courses Matlab is extensively used as simulation tool. "Vibrations" also includes two or three hands on experimental laboratories where students measure the behavior of single degree and two degrees of freedom systems. The paper will describe the assessment tools used in each course, provide a comparative analysis of student performance over the past few years, and conclude with recommendations and future plans. © 2011 American Society for Engineering Education.