Work in Progress: Developing an Online Textbook and Research Tool for Freshman Engineering Design

This paper explores the development of and pilot study done on an online textbook and research tool, based on the book, "how to model it", by Starfield, Smith and Bleloch. In many engineering design texts, the solution(s) to design problems are provided in the pages following the proposed problem. With this online system, students are able to read only a portion of the text, and then must complete one or more tasks for which they submit a response to the system. This approach forces the students to begin practicing the engineering design process, rather than simply reading about someone else\´s design process. As a research tool, the computerized method of data gathering addresses the issue of increasing sampling frequency without much larger investment in research time, as no transcription is required. The small pilot study showed students\´ responses included data on their design process thinking as well as their proposed solution to the problems