Improving Engineering Students’ Cognitive and Affective Preparedness with a Pre-Instructional E-Learning Strategy

During the 2006–2007 academic year, five faculty members from the College of Engineering at Boise State University initiated a curriculum augmentation project using new instructional technologies with the intention to help improve undergraduate engineering students’ cognitive and affective preparedness for their classroom learning. The instructional technologies used in the project were a pre-instructional strategy and a self-paced e-learning method. The main question addressed in this project was: Will a pre-instructional e-learning strategy help engineering students cognitively and affectively prepare for their classroom learning? This paper is a report of the project, describing the analysis, design, and development of a multimedia e-learning module for an engineering curriculum, the implementation of the e-learning module as a pre-instructional strategy in two engineering courses, and the evaluation of the effectiveness of using the pre-instructional e-learning strategy on engineering students’ cognitive and affective preparedness for classroom learning. It also provides a list of lessons learned from the project.