Comparison of Student Performance in an Online with traditional Based Entry Level Engineering Course

The purpose of this study is to compare course performance over time between online and traditional classroom students enrolled in an entry level engineering course.The Introduction to Engineering Course is a three semester-hour course.It provides an introduction to the engineering profession, to engineering problem solving, to concepts of design process, to group work, and to oral and written communications.The student performance, student satisfaction, and instructor experiences were compared in the two class formats.In addition, the study documented the benefits and limitations of the two delivery alternatives.The students' perception of the instructor and the course with respect to content and delivery were evaluated.The students' comparative perceptions of their experiences within the online course versus a traditional course were also analyzed in the survey.Student suggestions for improvement of the course were also collectedThe results show that students appreciated the fact that online courses provide them with convenience and flexibility, self-paced learning, and the opportunity to earn credit while not on campus.The students found the greatest drawback of online courses to be the ease with which one can fall behind, with a distant second being slow internet connections that affected ease of course material access, followed by the lack of student-teacher interaction.The students did not consider the online course to be easier than the traditional course, nor did they find the intellectual challenge to be less than in a traditional course.