Response to Student Feedback Form

This is in response to the comments provided by students in this class on the “Student Feedback Form” distributed March 17, 2003. Note that items in italics indicate changes I will try to make. Items in bold are recommendations to students to help them get more out of the class.

Responses here are based on 22 surveys returned to me. There are 24 students in the class.

What is going right? 15 in the class specifically identified the panels as being very informative and useful to you. We have two more panels of speakers planned (CEE graduate students and “young engineers”) plus three presentations by CEE faculty representing the 3 undergraduate CEE tracks so I hope you will all find these upcoming presentations helpful and informative.

What’s going wrong? 7 of you indicated that the workload was in excess of what you thought was appropriate for a one-credit course. This is a substantial fraction of the class and I recognize this as a possible problem. I have already removed the book review from the class assignment list in an effort to correct the workload. The next 5 weeks of the course will have very minimal weekly workload for you. For each class, you’ll need only to prepare a written question relevant to that week’s speaker(s). The workload that remains for all of you is as follows:

Attend each week’s class, turn in prepared questions for each class
Meet with your groups as determined by you and members of your group as necessary to prepare your semester project materials. This means preparing:

An oral presentation of your work (about 10-12 minutes long)
A written presentation of your work (about 7-10 pages for 3-person groups, proportionately more for larger groups)
A web page of your work (please see me if you are having trouble with the mechanics of web page construction.)

There is NO Final Exam

I am hopeful that when integrated over the entire semester, you will all find the workload appropriate for the course. My primary concern is that you all attend each week’s meeting since the panels or other presentations are the major element of the course. The purpose of the semester project is to foster increased interest/enthusiasm in Civil Engineering for each of you through focused study on a specific topic, to develop good group-collaboration skills, and to hone your presentation skills across different media. These skills will serve you well throughout your studies and into your career.

What would help you get more out of this course? Many of you indicated that having more panels and learning about the curriculum would be helpful. This is good news because this is precisely what’s planned for the next 5 weeks! Some of you have indicated learning more about specific items like job availability, knowing what a typical day is like as a civil engineer, guidance on choosing a track of study in CEE, etc. This is where the panels/presentations will give you an important opportunity. Please be sure to prepare (AND THEN ASK!) questions when the question segment of the period arrives. If you don’t have time to ask the question during the classroom period, there should be time immediately afterward. If there is still not time, please let me know and I will try to answer the question or put you in touch with someone who can answer it.

What have you learned in this course that you have found particularly interesting or exciting? Various items were cited:

Panels
That jobs exist beyond graduating, even now during the economic downturn
Many of you indicated interest in learning about the FE/PE (licensing) issues

My comment: I’m pleased you’ve found these items interesting. I think the remaining panels and curriculum presentations will broaden this list to include many more items.

To this point in the semester, what has been taught that is still confusing or unclear and needs more coverage in class?

There were two main sources of confusion:

What are the expectations for the final project? Please read my comments in the “What’s going wrong?” section. This addresses a little more concretely the expected duration of the final presentation/length of the final paper. Unfortunately, as the first class, I do not have examples from past classes to show you. Try to keep in mind that the purpose of the semester projects is to study a specific CEE topic in some depth. Your goal in these studies is to dig deep enough that you are truly understanding how the topic involves civil engineering. You may not yet have the background to understand the solutions to these topics, but you should work hard to understand the engineering nature of these problems. Your written, oral, and web presentations should all work hard to convey an understanding of these problems at a level that a person outside of the Civil Engineering profession can understand. You should also identify the coursework/tracks that are relevant to your topic. Try to be as explicit as possible. Indicate how “course ENxx xxx” is relevant to your topic. For example the “Bridge” group might identify ENES 102 as important to bridge design because it is in ENES 102 that one learns how to determine forces, bending moments, stresses, etc. distributed throughout a structure.
How does the new curriculum affect me? I have several responses:

There will be three presentation on each of the three study tracks starting April 14. Please be sure to attend all three curriculum presentations.
I’ve posted several links on our class web page related to the curriculum. Please review these now, and return to each specifically before each curriculum track presentation. The links you’ll want to visit are located under the “Resources” heading towards the bottom of our class web page.
ASK QUESTIONS! Come to the curriculum presentations armed with questions that you must know the answer to in order to choose a track (e.g. Who are the likely employers in the Environmental and Water Resources field? What does the typical day in the life of a transportation engineer look like? What does “Project Management” mean in the context of Civil Engineering?)
See your mentor. Go to the “Civil Engineering Mentoring” link (also located under the “Resources” heading of the class web page. Read about our mentoring program and then arrange for an office visit with your mentor. If you don’t know who your mentor is or you are not currently declared as a Civil and Environmental Engineering major, please see me and I can help you.

Please express any comments/concerns you have about the class in general.

The main concern some of you listed were re-iterations of the workload expectations for the course which I have addressed above under the “What’s going wrong?” heading. Please see my response to this issue addressed under that heading.

As a reminder to all of you – if you have specific questions about the course concerning expectations, grading, or broader questions about the department or profession, please see me and I will try to answer these questions for you or direct you to somebody who can. Your job as a student is to ask questions if something is unclear or goes unaddressed. Please see me during my office hours (MWF: 2pm - 4pm, or by appointment at other times).