Final Report: Incorporating an Open Educational Resource into the Applied Fluid Mechanics Laboratory Course to Enhance Civil Engineering Education

Abstract

In this project an open educational resource (OER) was developed and incorporated into the applied fluid mechanics laboratory course. The objectives of this OER were to: 1) provide students with adequate and consistent educational resources, 2) assess the benefits of utilizing free and open course material to enhance engineering students’ technical skills and engagement, and 3) reduce the financial barriers to engineering education. The applied fluid mechanics laboratory course is an essential component of water resources engineering programs, but it is challenging to find standard course materials that help students comprehend and connect with experimental procedures. The OER allows all engineering students to benefit from free, perpetual access to the course content in the forms of customized lab manuals, educational videos, and an interactive lab report preparation toolkit, which eliminated the need for dedicated textbooks. A web-based multimedia e-book was created on Pressbooks, and it is publicly available to students and educators in other universities. The OER was implemented in fall 2018 at the University of Texas at Arlington. The students’ learning experiences and the effectiveness of course materials were gauged by circulating survey forms to the students enrolled in the course at the end of 2018 spring (traditional lab) and fall 2018 (open educational resource) semesters. Data related to some control variables were collected for the purpose of performing a statistical analysis. Students’ grades for lab reports, quizzes, and the final exam were also compared. The statistical analysis showed that the grades of the students who used the OER as reference material were higher than those of the students who had the same instructor the previous semester but were taught using traditional teaching materials. Teaching with OER also reduced the amount of time spent by students on the course, which indirectly reduced the cost of their education. The results of this study signify the effectiveness of the OER in enhancing engineering education.