Enhancement and assessment of a non-traditional engineering design course

At Northern Arizona University, an interdisciplinary sophomore design course - EGR 286 - has undergone a fundamental shift in its innovative and award-winning course structure. This shift is part of a Hewlett Foundation-supported development effort to encourage recruitment and retention of engineering students, with an emphasis on under-represented student populations. The course revitalization is centered upon enabling more direct student participation in design projects. It begins with two-person design teams that design, build and test weekly projects involving LEGO® parts, sensors, and the Robotic Command eXplorer (RCX). Control of the automated systems requires programming in both RoboLab (a Lab View™ derivative) and in the "Not Quite C" (NQC) environments. The course develops in the semester to finally encompass larger design teams of fourteen students, with each team designing a complex, autonomous, robotic-styled system. An important part of this course development is the integration of assessment procedures that record the students" perception of learning and enthusiasm. We present an overview of the course enhancements and objectives. Assessment categories include the students" self-efficacy in their ability to design/build/test electro-mechanical devices, as well as their level of enthusiasm and motivation towards engineering as a chosen career. The assessments are accomplished before and after the course revisions for comparison.