A Peer-to-Peer Mentoring Approach for Sensor Technology Education for Civil Engineering Students

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In this project, a modular courseware to introduce sensors technology to civil engineering students is being developed. The course is based on self-paced modules that students learn and then pass on what they have learned to the other students. The direct benefit of the proposed course is to broaden the breadth of the civil engineering curriculum to include the emerging area of sensing and monitoring that touches every specialization within the major. The modular self-paced format of the course allows students to acquire as much as they desire in a just-in-time fashion.The development of the course will be directly linked to the other courses that are being offeredin the department as well as research projects that are being performed by the faculty of thedepartment. The linkage between the material in this course to the materials from other coursesserves to reinforce how new technology fits into the traditional material. Using research projectsas subjects for the modules of the proposed course has the additional benefit of introducingcutting-edge research ideas to undergraduate as well as graduate students. The course also servesas a way to train beginning graduate students to become research assistants for many researchprojects.Intellectual Merit: The proposed course uses a different pedagogical approach to deliver thematerial to the students. Instead of the lecture-examination mode, students in this class learn froma hands-on experimentation approach. In addition, students who have recently learnt the materialcan reinforce their learning by passing on their knowledge to the new students. Learning efficiency is another benefit of the proposed approach as students learn only what isneeded when they need it. This just-in-time learning approach is more efficient in learningbecause students typically are not ready to learn when they go to classes. By combining theirreadiness with the hand-holding from their peers who have recently finished the material, students can learn the material in a much shorter amount of time while retaining more of the material.Broader Impacts: The hands-on nature of the learning modules and the self-paced learning stylethat they are intended for opens the material to students with varied learning styles. This isespecially important for the material being delivered in this course as the content is traditionallyconsidered to be in the domain of electrical engineering, but the students are in civil andenvironmental engineering. The proposed format will appeal to a wider audiencewith different backgrounds. This course will help reform the Civil and Environmental Engineering department at the University of Maryland. The same modules can easily be adopted by other similar departments at other universities. It can also serve as a model for other departments of the engineering college.