iMechanica - using iMechanica in teaching Engineering Mechanics - Comments

New Grading System posted

Henry Tan — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 13:15:20 -0400

New Grading System posted, please comment on it! Thanks.

Who would volunteer to setup a 1st year student Blog?

Henry Tan — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 09:33:56 -0400

Who would volunteer to setup a 1st year student Blog (Mechanical/Aerospace)?

You will be the first in iMechanica in doing so. References:
http://imechanica.org/node/1719
http://imechanica.org/node/1695

John, Thanks for many

Henry Tan — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 09:26:01 -0400

John,
Thanks for many good comments (I would like to give you many marks for this post, however the newly updated Rule of the Game would not allow me do that).

To the 2nd suggestion:
I will propose a new grading policy this afternoon. I will seek students' opinions before I put it in Thursday's class.

To the 4th suggestion:
Actually the good thing for iMechanica is that everyone has the right to set his own Blog! You definitely can initiate a 1st year student Blog! I will surely encourage you to do that, please be the FIRST!

Dear Rafael, I have

Henry Tan — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 08:49:19 -0400

Dear Rafael,

I have noticed the flaw after reading the survey and all the comments online.
New grading policy is coming to

ensure students learn everything lectured in the class, and
encourage more after class self-learning.

I noticed that you commented a lot to improve the teaching, which I really appreciate.

Thanks, Henry.

Suggestions

John Leong — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 22:41:31 -0400

1. I suggest that a specialized system/website be set up for questions and certain topics, that only allows a user to see other people's posts after they themselves post answers. That way, everyone has a chance to get points from the question/topic. This should reduce plagiarism and encourage students to try the questions themselves since they cannot see other opinions and discuss it till they at least give an answer of their own. The moderators will still need to see if a student just puts a useless post to see other people's posts, and not award points for those. This will help set a "bare minimum" for students to get slightly above average marks if they finish just the work provided, and still maintain the reward for "going the extra mile" for others who participate more and dig up facts from the resources and opinions on iMechanica by themselves. Only truly lazy students who don't bother to try commenting won't benefit from this. I don't know any coding so to make this website/system, so we will require some one else's help.

2. A more subjective point scheme might be better. Where a post can get a maximum 5 points based on content (plagiarism is avoided by following suggestion 1) Anybody who posts valid points get 3 marks and those who managed to get several very good points get 4 and very outstanding points get a 5 (this is just an example of how it might be graded). This will take a lot of effort from moderators and is just a suggestion.

3. A more official way of keeping track of points is necessary. It can be incorporated into the specialized website/system.

4. There should be more specific sections for 1st year students, 2nd year students and so on so that we can find posts related to us (like questions and topics for our level, if we are maintaining it on this site) easier as I see a lot of posts that are too advanced for us freshies (I am a 1st year Mechanical engineering student) and I find it difficult to find posts that we can constructively comment on. Of course access to other posts will be avialable but that will be only for further knowledge's sake.

Another suggestion would be to follow the 3rd option on the survey we took on Friday. Which is to still maintain part of the old system (i.e take an exam) but still using the new system since by just throwing the new system at us in it's current unrefined form is risky and it has gained a lot of opposition. As Mr. Henry Tan mentioned, this is the first time this sort of system has been implemented so some tweaks will have to be made.

Just to summarize what I do understand about the system:

1. All the main teaching would be done during lectures (just like the old style of learning. iMechanica only provides questions and topics for assessment, the notes (and other resources) as well as discussion.

2. There is a limit to the marks gained per week that will prevent any "iMechanica addicts" from scoring over the top. Despite an addict or two, if your participation is around the class average or slighty better, you still get 8-10 marks at the end of the week.

A few pros of this system (of the top of my head):

1. We now have a worldwide support group for our Mechanical Engineering. Ask people from different uni's their opinion for topics.

2. We now have access to a lot of cool facts and applications of mechanical engineering (I was watching the talcum powder patterns when an iron plate vibrates at diffrent frequencies. Fascinating. Wouldn't have known about it without the site.) Text books do not update in real time.

3. We can avoid a "shout-fest" (unless 2 users are immature enough to post one sentence flames at each other). I do not know whether it will happen around here but sometimes a verbal discussion degrades to everyone just jumping to defend their own view the moment they hear an objection. Here, it is easier to see some one else's point of view when it is typed out because we get to reread the person's comment and we need to think before actually replying.

Personally, I am quite willing to try this new system but I believe there are still bugs to work out if we are going to make it an effective teaching technique. So far, I have mostly seen posts on "why this system will not work" so I am trying to post something on "how we might get this system to work".

Whatever the final outcome, whether we keep this new system, revert to the old one, integrate both or some other option is taken, I give my support to Mr. Henry Tan for trying to be innovative.

P.S I know the topic for this thread is pro and cons but I am not sure whether there is a thread for suggestions. Sorry if this is in the wrong thread

Always a new Question

Rafael Moraes — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 15:43:28 -0400

i understand the idea of always being a new quesiton: n+1 is always available...or is it? Is there a specific question for each student, so is 1<=n<=170??? and even so, people who have the chance to reach a computer sooner that the others can answer more than one question...taking up other people's chances of answering first, still being unfair.

Another dilema, is as u state, there are too many people for you to control and assess each of our works... but u have to read all of our posts anyways...so technically, its just a more interesting way to do the same checking. lastly, i still do not understand how commenting on people's answers will prepare me with the core basic mechanics which i will use in my 3rd and 4th year of university.

once again, i appologize if i seem too negative and pessimistic.

let's talk about this

Henry Tan — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 07:36:58 -0400

Good post that let me know what's your concern.

let's talk about this in the second hour of today's class, Renold/C2.

Newton's law

Henry Tan — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 07:33:37 -0400

I will explain why I believe the Newton's law is not that simple, or easy to understand. I have more to say than in the traditional books. I will lecture that today afternoon 3-4pm, Renold/C2.

I also disagree

Phil Guy — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 16:10:19 -0400

Although I prefer the traditional method of teaching I can see the aim of looking for a new method. However, I don't really believe this to be a suitable way for many reasons. I do not want to repeat my views as most have already been mentioned by others but being the first to answer would have been impossible for me today as I had to leave university after our lecture at 12:00 and head straight to work. Therefore I had no access to a computer until at least 8:30 this evening!

i don't agree with you

umair.ahmed — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 15:51:14 -0400

I think David is right and I agree with him, because it is not a good method of teaching and we all are used to the traditional method as mentioned before. In my opinion you can plan tests and quizzes on the WebCT like every other course and provide us with this kind of forum to discuss our problems, but the discussion should not be marked only the tests and quizzes should be marked. We should also have an exam at the end of the semester, as the point system you devised is quite insane and doesn't have any thing to do with the understanding of the subject matter. It simply doesn't help students to go to a blog and write something and get points.

Frankly I agree with Dave,

Richard G. Pugh — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 15:23:02 -0400

Frankly I agree with Dave, that there is no feasable way for this kind of method to work. Most students are used to the standard:

-Be taught in lectures.

-Periodic testing of knowledge recieved in lectures through examinations and other work which also allows for further reading outside of knowledge presented in lectures.

-Final exam to test all knowledge aquired throughout the year.

You keep saying how you want the course to be more involving and creative than other courses, it's the lectures where you can get creative, involving the pupils in whichever way you see fit. However, judging from todays lecture you have alot of students in your lectures as you said yourself, and so involving students fairly would be very hard to do.

Personally I seem to cope well, and somewhat enjoy more typical ways of learning as mentioned above. Also, you've set a question on cross products which many people, myself included, wouldn't have covered yet as we have only done M1 at A level, if that, and so many people will not be sure how to approach these questions. I know we can find out in other places, but it sort of seems like the kind of thing that should be taught in lectures as it's pretty basic and necessary stuff. You also mentioned about Q2 that "Newtons Law isn't that simple", but yet provide no further explanation. What everyone has done is used the knowledge we acquire at A level to tackle the problem, and from what i can see generally 100% accurately as far as we are aware. If, like you say, Newtons Laws aren't that simple then this again are things that should be covered in lectures ideally before setting questions on it. Also, as far as i'm aware we aren't using Newtons Laws to solve that question but rather SUVAT equations, which to my knowledge didn't involve Newton, but i could be wrong.

Hope most of that made sense, Richard.

learn mostly through classroom lectures, notes and references

Henry Tan — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:20:50 -0400

You will learn mostly through my classroom lectures, the lecture notes and references that I will post for each class.

The class website at iMechanica is a tool to practice the knowledge learned and to stimulate learning. If you miss the chance to be the first for question n, there is always question n+1 waiting for you. And the best is to comment on other’s solution, trying to point out the mistake/error, or find out other ways for the solution. There are lots of problems in Hibbeler’s web as the link is provided in http://imechanica.org/node/1937.

very challenging opinions

Henry Tan — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:02:06 -0400

very challenging opinions to me. I will answer you soon.

you posted very good opinions

Henry Tan — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:53:35 -0400

According to the current rule that I proposed (http://imechanica.org/node/1931), 1 point to your post. However, I believe that is not fair because you posted very good opinions.

Can somebody suggest a more fair method for giving points? Thanks.

I will delete random posts

Henry Tan — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:47:48 -0400

As said in the Assessment/points (http://imechanica.org/node/1931) section. The instructor and tutors reserves the right to nullify trivial posts. Actually I will delete random posts.

using iMechanica in teaching Engineering Mechanics

Henry Tan — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 13:43:07 -0400

New Grading System posted

Why iMechanica?

iMechanica is an appropriate website for teaching/learning Engineering Mechanics for the following reasons:

iMechanica is a community for people involved in engineering mechanics.
One (instructor) - to - one (student), one-to-many, and many-to-one methods of teaching/learning are possible.
Peer review and peer observation of teaching/learning is available.
Instructor can be wrong. iMechanica provides an open site for discussions.
Viewing traditional lecture material from different perspectives is feasible.
iMechanica can give students a general view of what is engineering mechanics, which is especially important for 1st year students majoring in mechanical/aerospace engineering.

Tutors

Three PhD students, Mr. Shengke Zhi, Mr. Qi Dong and Mr. Ricardo Mondragon, are hired as tutors for the tutorials.

Each week there are two hours (11-12am Thursday; 3-4pm, Friday) for lecture. During 4-5pm, Friday, 8-10 stduents are selected, based on their performance on iMechanica, to meet with tutors and the instructor. Students will be asked for questions or encouraged for discussions related to their posts at iMechanica. This also provides a mechanism to prevent plagiarism.

PASS

PASS (Peer-Assisted Study Sessions) is a student mentoring scheme in which second and third year undergraduate students run study sessions for first year students. Students are sometimes reluctant to take their questions directly to lecturing staff, especially if the questions relate to very basic material. PASS sessions provide an opportunity for students to seek help and advice from fellow students who have faced the same problems themselves.

The aim of the scheme is to help new undergraduates make the transition to the more independent style of study expected at university, and to help them gain a solid grasp of the important foundational material covered during the first year.

PASS Leaders are senior students who have been successful in their academic work and who are employed to assist other students with their work. Student Leaders co-ordinate and lead drop-in sessions, support tutors in tutorials and workshops and facilitate students' learning on a one-to-one basis.

Assessment

New Grading System posted, so ignore this section

The assessment of the course includes two parts, one is from the laboratory (20 marks), the other is based on students’ performance at iMechanica, which is given on a weekly basis. The assessment is designed to encourage students to learn mechanics with interests and to be creative.

(1) Weekly basis
The assessment is done on a weekly basis (this Thursday 1pm - next Thursday 1pm), self-marked and posted online by students, and checked by tutors. Each week a student can be awarded 10 marks in maximum. There are totally 12 weeks for the semester. The maximum final marks can be achieved is 20 (laboratory) + 12 * 10 (from iMechanica) = 140, however, this is unusual. A student fails if the final mark is below 56. Therefore a stduent need to earn at least 4-5 marks per week in order to be safe in passing the course.

The current criterion for fail, 56 marks, may be changed depending on the results in the first 2 weeks. It will be finalized at the end of the second week.

Below is a explanation of how marks (maximum 10marks/week) are awarded. Marks are awarded based on the points collected.

(2) Points
Point are calculated on a weekly basis (this Thursday 1pm - next Thursday 1pm). The number of points for answers/comments to posted questions are usually specified, such as in question sets. Otherwise 1 point each post. The instructor and tutors reserves the right to nullify trivial posts.

(3) Weekly-mark
Weekly-mark is calculated based on the collected points during the week. Suppose the total number of students taking the class is N, and each student collected point p_i. Let M = sum(p_i,i=1..N). The weekly-mark for student i, mark_i, can then be calculated as
mark_i = 10 * p_i * N / M.
For example, if the class have N=10 students, and each student has accumulated 25 points, then M=250. Every student is therefore awarded 10 marks.
In another case, if student A has 5 points only, B has 45 points, and all the others have 25 points, then student A has 5 marks, and all others have 10 marks (notice that 10 marks is the weekly maximum, as said in section 1).

(3) Competition mechanism
The above marking system involves a strong competition mechanism. If the whole class is active (therefore M is high), a student with low point (p_i) much pickup in order to get a good mark. This action will increase M and therefore decrease all other’s marks. Therefore, in this marking system all students have to be active.

(4) Continued learning enforced
The limit for the maximum weekly-mark, 10, is set to prevent the case that an excellent student may gain a high mark in just a few weeks and stop further learning.

(5) Honors
Authors of excellent/creative posts may be invited to give short lectures.
Each week, top 5 students (according to the points collected) will be listed.
Top 5 best students (according to the final marks) will be honored on the course website.

(6) Guidance to students on plagiarism and other forms of academic malpractice

Other courses taught at iMechanica
Engineering Sciences 242r: Fracture Mechanics of Thin Films and Composite Materials

Some useful lecture notes

Some references:
Zhigang: What and how we should teach in the time of the Internet and Globalization?
Michelle: We must not forget to teach the fundamentals
Zhigang: Why do people become registered users of iMechanica?
Dhruv: CALLING ALL STUDENTS! (and everyone else)
Shengke: Teaching Mechnical Engineering in iMechanica is an Engineering topic or an Education one, or even a Management Strategy