Pay it Forward: Use of a Course-Based Discussion Platform to Deepen Content and Professional Knowledge in an Engineering Project Course

This innovative practice paper describes how an implementation of a course contributions grade improved the learning experience and contributed insightful perspectives and knowledge that will also benefit future cohorts. Research shows that student participation during class can improve the learning experience, yet active participation remains a challenge given the limitations and preferences of everyone involved. Therefore, instructors continuously ideate tactics to allow students to feel motivated to participate, such as the opportunity to earn credit for their effort and describing how their effort will lead to developing skills in areas such as analysis and communication. The practice detailed in this paper applies tactics such as student communications are guided by a non-trivial grading requirement with instructions on what constitutes a contribution to the course, participants embrace inclusive and equitable opportunities for contributing during class meetings and through our online discussion platform, fostering a sense of community where informal positive interactions are not only allowed but actively encouraged, and course staff continuously participate and support the students' contributions providing context to the connection of their ideas with the professional skills they are developing. This practice was implemented in a multidisciplinary engineering senior design course, where for the most recent cohort of 92 students, over 80% contributed on three or more occasions per semester, improving the learning experience for all stakeholders, and to a greater extent and unbeknownst to the students, providing an enduring impact by shaping a comprehensive and insightful course knowledgebase of student perspectives that transcends their academic term. This paper describes the common challenges instructors face with students actively participating in the class, how the mix of innovations presented address these challenges, and includes example contributions and interactions with analysis of their impact towards the current and future course cohorts. The translation of this practice contributes to the educational goals of enabling students to have the ability to effectively communicate and work within a team, to exercise professionalism, and to apply their knowledge. This paper offers recommendations to inspire instructors to enable active contributors in their classes and advance the research of maximizing student course contributions.