Use of the traditional lecture format to teach software tool syntax and procedures is not engaging. Students find it difficult to take effective lecture notes and may not schedule time to practice with materials demonstrated by the instructor until several days after the lecture. The addition of active learning exercises to the lecture, enabled through use of a mobile LAN of wireless-equipped laptop computers, should improve the students' learning of course material as it better enables students to follow along with the lecture. This paper will discuss the effect of using laptops on student learning in ENGR 106, Engineering Problem Solving and Computer Tools, at Purdue University in the spring of 2002. A pilot was conducted with a class size of 48 students. To control for the effect of class size, a separate section of equal size was taught using the traditional lecture format. To minimize lost time at the start and end of each class to deploy the laptops, the lecture schedule was amended from two 50-minute lectures to a single 110-minute lecture per week. Results show that while students in both of these small classes were more satisfied with the course and performed better in meeting selected learning objectives than students placed in a larger lecture section, there were some performance measure differences that do support the use of laptop computers in the lectures. New assessment measures and preliminary results for the Spring 2003 implementation of the pilot will be discussed.
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