Adoption of Active Learning in a Lecture-Based Engineering Class

In 1999, the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT expanded its repertoire of active learning strategies and assessment tools with the introduction of muddiest-point-in-the-lecture cards, electronic response systems, concept tests, peer coaching, course Web pages, and Web-based course evaluations. This paper focuses on the change process of integrating these active learning strategies into a traditional lecture-based multidisciplinary course, called Unified Engineering. The description of the evolution of active learning in Unified Engineering is intended to underscore the motivation and incentives required for bringing about the change, and the support needed for sustaining and disseminating active learning approaches among the instructors. Presented at the ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Boston, MA, USA, 06-09 November 2002. Available here through the courtesy of the American Society of Engineering Education.