Development and implementation of a common freshman course for general engineering students at the University of Arkansas

The College of Engineering at the University of Arkansas developed a syllabus for a common engineering class for freshmen general engineering majors.The class was designed to be a common freshman experience and to prepare students for the second-semester in-department freshman course.The course was structured around modules with common components, including basic theory, computational complexity, outcome uncertainty, and written communication of process and results.Two sections of the course were taught in the Fall semester of 2004.Student performance and satisfaction indicated that several modules and components were successful, while others were not.