Engineering students and educators have a new approach to learning. A professor from Kettering University, Dr. Bassem Ramadan, has teamed up with fellow colleagues Dr. Merle Potter and Dr. David Wiggert, both Professor Emeritus at Michigan State University (MSU) to incorporate several new aspects of learning for engineering students in their textbook Mechanics of Fluid.
The article from Kettering University reports, “We are trying to facilitate how the new generation of engineering students learns,†he said. “They may have different learning styles than we did due to new technologies. Textbooks in the past were written for instructors, not really for students, he explained. “Many of them skipped steps and presumed prior knowledge. We wrote this for the students, we want them to find this book and the accompanying multimedia package really useful in their engineering education.â€
Using multimedia technologies in the classroom and online is not entirely new. Many major textbook publishers have begun distributing digital versions of their textbooks and interactive supplementary materials online, and for free. Whether Ramadan, Potter and Wiggert will be releasing the textbook online is uncertain. However, it would come as no surprise if they did considering their approach to this textbook. Hopefully, engineering students will find the Mechanics of Fluids Fourth Edition and all of its additional materials to be helpful and engage them in new and exciting ways.
The depth that multimedia interactivity has been explored and incorporated into this textbooks makes it an anomaly in the engineering textbooks market. Additionally, students typically respond well to having greater influence in the pacing of their studies. Engineering students may find the supplementary materials for this textbook to allow them to pace themselves more efficiently. Students also enjoy different types of learning mediums that allow their brain to be stimulated in ways unlike plain text. Video tutorials and animations are sure to be welcomed by engineering students young and old.
“These supplemental materials make our textbook unique in the market, and make it stand out,†he added.
Are you an engineering student or instructor? Please let us know what you think about the state of engineering textbooks in today’s academic environment in the comments section.