Introduction
Retention of engineering students is a concern for universities across the nation. More than half of STEM students don’t achieve their STEM degrees, as they fail out of their early STEM classes [1]. Specifically, while electrical engineering and computer engineering majors do a better job of attracting students, particularly underrepresented groups, at higher levels than other engineering disciplines, both fields still see sharp declines when comparing the number of students who start in the majors with the number of those same students who graduate [2].
While there are many ways to support students in electrical and computer engineering, improving one key student and instructor resource can improve student outcomes, engagement, and self-efficacy in succeeding in engineering courses -- textbooks. Converting textbooks from analog to digital and adding engaging, research-based interactivity with tracking provides two key benefits: 1) Students can receive instant feedback to reinforce understanding, and 2) instructors can easily pinpoint student misconceptions to focus on to ensure student success in courses. zyBooks are online interactive textbooks developed by STEM instructors that provide both of these benefits and more.
What are zyBooks?
zyBooks were developed based on research in cognitive theory [3] and instruction [4],[5], and instructional design [6],[7], and research that has shown that interactive learning materials improve student learning outcomes in STEM fields [8],[9],[10]. zyBooks have embedded question sets with feedback, animations, interactive tools, and homework, so students can learn by doing. Making the zyBooks platform intuitive for both students and instructors was also a critical part of development, so that instructors and students can focus their time on what’s important – teaching and learning – rather than on learning a new complicated platform. zyBooks are collaboratively authored by teams of professors and content developers. Another variation of books, called zyVersions, are interactive texts in the same format as zyBooks, but based on traditional, well-established and trusted traditional textbooks.
zy Pedagogy: Say, Show, Ask
zyBooks online interactive textbooks use a pedagogy described simply as “Say, Show, Ask” for managing cognitive load, engaging students, and mixing/matching content for learning.
Say: In each section, a concept is presented in concise, focused text. This reduces cognitive load and allows more of the content to be covered in an active way through the animations and learning questions that follow.
Show: Textbook illustrations try to convey a lot of complicated and detailed information, requiring students to review the figures while remembering information. zyBooks eases this cognitive load through the use of animations, which are used for two purposes: 1.) to unveil information to foster understanding of complex systems by explaining relations between objects and 2.) to explain dynamic processes [11]. With animations, the figure can be broken down into smaller components, so a learner can focus on just one portion at a time, before another component is added and linked to the previous.
Ask: In zyBooks, learning questions are another way of reading, wherein the student learns a concept by working through incrementally harder questions that start from a known concept. We call these activities "participation activities." Participation activities come in the form of multiple-choice questions, short answer questions, and matching questions. Multiple-choice questions have the benefit of distractor (wrong) choices and explanations. Distractors represent common misconceptions, and explanations explicitly explain why a choice is wrong or right to correct misconceptions and reinforce correct understanding. For short answer learning questions, such as numeric responses to calculation questions, an incorrectly answered question results in feedback giving the student a hint to point them in the right direction to solving the problem.
Figure 1. Multiple Choice question with answer-specific feedback.
Figure 2. Short Answer question with incorrect and correct answer feedback.
Participation activities are often followed and complemented by "challenge activities." While learning questions are formative assessments, challenge activities are summative assessments designed to test students’ understanding and ability to apply what they’ve learned. Challenge activities are composed of multiple problems at increasing levels of difficulty and/or complexity, to provide a scaffolded assessment experience for students. Students are given easier questions first, to build their confidence and practice before moving on to more difficulty questions. The challenge activities are intended to be assigned as part of homework. Values change algorithmically, so different students will not receive the same values, and must solve the problems on their own. If a student gets a problem level wrong, they are provided a detailed solution explanation to help them figure out where they went wrong. They then can try a similar but different problem at that same level, to apply what they learned from the solution explanation. Students must complete each level in a challenge activity before they can move on to the next.
Figure 3. Challenge activity with 4 levels. The first level starts more simply, to build student confidence in practice, and each level adds complexity and/or difficulty, with the final level as the most complex or difficult.
Assignment, Tracking and Reporting - Easing the burden on instructors and TAs
Most students need incentive beyond “it will help you learn” to engage with learning materials. To help instructors incentivize their students, the zyBooks platform was developed with assignment, tracking, and reporting functions. For each zyBooks textbook section, an instructor can assign the animations and learning questions for points, or the Challenge Activities, or both. zyBooks can also integrate with most LMSs (such as Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, and Sakai), so that students can access their learning materials, and instructors can retrieve their points tracking, all in one place.
Instructors can view reports of the progress of the class as a whole, and drill down into the progress of individual students. The platform captures information such as the completion rate of activities and time on task. With this information, instructors can be better informed about the progress of their class in real-time. Instructors are then enabled to make decisions on where to focus lectures, assignments, and other learning activities.
Figure 4. Instructor view of analytics. Instructors can see summary statistics for the entire class and individual students.
Research-based for proven results
Conducting and utilizing education research is a core tenet at zyBooks, both for content development and for understanding the efficacy of our products.
For example, knowing that students use Ohm's Law as a crutch in circuits analysis courses, we intentionally designed problems to mask circuit elements to emphasize the learning and application of Kirchhoff's laws [12]. We also regularly analyze student responses and time on problems to understand common misconceptions for future problem development [13], [14], [15].
Figure 5. The second level of this challenge activity masks circuit elements to encourage use of Kirchhoff voltage law. The final level includes circuit elements for students to see the application in a regular circuit.
Across our engineering books to date, we've found that students have increased engagement with their reading. Particularly when reading is tied to their grade, students spend time watching and rewatching animations [16] [17] and make earnest attempts at completing their problems [18], [19], [20]. Papers pending publication this summer will show that due to this increased engaged reading, student surveys show a statistically significant increase in self-efficacy about their ability to solve engineering problems. Prior research has found a strong relationship between students' self-efficacy and success in their major [21].
Conclusion
Interactive textbooks are a way to better support electrical and computer engineering students in their courses by providing engaging activities for students to practice course concepts and skills for potential reading and homework credit. Because these activities have been developed based on educational research, we have seen 1) better student engagement with reading compared to static textbooks, and 2) improved student outcomes, particularly in increased self-efficacy and course retention.
The following ECE courses have products available on the zyBooks platform, and can be mixed and matched and combined among these and with other zyBooks products to meet individual course needs:
Discrete Math (zyBook)
Programming in C++ (zyBook)
Programming in C (zyBook)
Troubleshooting Basics (zyBook)
Introduction to Computer Systems and Assembly Programming (zyBook)
Introduction to MATLAB (zyBook)
Circuit Analysis (Algebra- or Calculus-based, zyBooks and zyVersions)
Digital Design (zyBook)
Computer Organization and Design (RISC-V, MIPS, or ARM zyVersions)
Programming Embedded Systems (zyBook)
Engineering Signals and Systems (zyVersion)
Control Systems Engineering (zyVersion)
Introduction to Robotics (zyText)
Robot Modeling and Control (zyText)
If you're interested in evaluating zyBooks for your courses, the above and the complete zyBooks catalog can be found at https://www.zybooks.com/catalog/.
If you'd like to learn more about our research or partner with us to better understand how electrical and computer engineering students learn and succeed in their courses, please contact us at research@zybooks.com.
References
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[11] N. Sambamurthy, A. Edgcomb, F. Vahid, "Animations for Learning: Design Philosophy and Student Usage in Interactive Textbooks," in ASEE Annual Conference, Tampa, 2019.
[12] N. Sambamurthy and A. Edgcomb, “A Systematic Literature Review of Misconceptions in Linear Circuit Analysis,” in ASEE Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, 2018.
[13] N. Sambamurthy, A. Edgcomb, and Y. Rajasekhar, “Student Usage of Interactive Learning Tools in an Online Linear Circuit Analysis Textbook,” in IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, 2019.
[14] Y. Rajasekhar, A. Edgcomb, and F. Vahid, “Student Usage of Digital Design Interactive Learning Tools in an Online Textbook,” in ASEE Annual Conference, Tampa, 2019.
[15] N. Sambamurthy, E.Kazakou , and Y. Rajasekhar, “Student Usage of Interactive Learning Tools in an Online Linear Circuit Analysis Textbook,” in ASEE Virtual Annual Conference, 2021.
[16] S. J. Stone, B. Crockett, K. S. Xu, and M. W. Liberatore, "Animation Analytics in an Interactive Textbook for Material and Energy Balances," in ASEE Annual Conference, Minneapolis, 2022, doi: https://peer.asee.org/41361.
[17] S. J. Stone and M. W. Liberatore, "Attitudes Toward and Usage of Animations in an Interactive Textbook for Material and Energy Balances," in ASEE Virtual Annual Conference, 2021, doi: https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--36728.
[18] M. Sarraf, M. Atkins, J. Welter, Y. Adibi, N. Sambamurthy, and L. Fogg, “Student Earnestness in Online Circuit Analysis Textbook When Answer Is Available,” in ASEE Annual Meeting, Baltimore, June 2023.
[19] C. Gordon, F. Vahid, and L. Lysecky, “Understanding and Promoting Earnest Completion in Online Textbooks,”
in ASEE Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, June 2022.
[20] J. S. Yuen, A. Edgcomb, and F. Vahid, "Will Students Earnestly Attempt Learning Questions
if Answers are Viewable?" in ASEE Annual Meeting, New Orleans, 2016, p. 16595,
doi: https://doi.org/10.18260/p.27205.
[21] N. A. Mamaril, E. L. Usher, C. R. Li, D. R. Economy, and M. S. Kennedy, “Measuring Undergraduate Students’ Engineering self‐efficacy: A validation study,” Journal of Engineering Education, vol. 105, no. 2, pp. 366–395, 2016. doi:10.1002/jee.20121