EVALUATION OF EFFECTIVENESS OF JUST-IN-TIME TEACHING AND PEER INSTRUCTION METHODS IN CIVIL ENGINEERING COURSES

摘要

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of just-in-time-teaching and peer instruction methods in a typical required junior level civil engineering geotechnical course sequence. These methods are compared with more traditional methods including computational problem sets, pre-class reading assignments, and publishing of lesson objectives. The analysis presented uses data from 8 different course offerings over a four year period and includes data from 296 individual student assessments. These 8 course offerings were taught by 3 different instructors. Students report computational problem sets are the most valuable learning tools of those assessed. Additionally, just-in-time-teaching and peer instruction were perceived by the students to be the next most valuable learning tools. Importantly, student perceived just-in-time-teaching kept them on-schedule and resulted in less cramming as compared with other courses taken at the same time.