Enhancing Student Motivation in Process Control via Interactive Learning Tools

Abstract

Teaching an undergraduate process control course for chemical engineering students can be very challenging due to the advanced Control mathematics content in the course syllabus. Conventional class room teaching of Process Control is known to cause fear and lack of motivation among students. We reform the current teacher-focused style of teaching to an interactive mode of teaching resulting in a boost in the intrinsic motivation of students in the course. This paper focuses on how adaptation of Tablet PC, use of multiple choice questions and traditional tutorial sessions have been reformed to enhance interactive learning in Process Control. It is shown that the adopted methods have resulted in significant improvement in the degree of satisfaction and performance index of students as compared to previous offerings of Process Control. We use course evaluations, quantitative and qualitative surveys to demonstrate the effectiveness of the teaching reformations.