Cross Disciplinary Perceptions of the Computational Thinking among Freshmen Engineering Students
Rami J. Haddad, Youakim Kalaani · 2015
In this paper, we analyzed the perception of Computational Thinking among engineering students from three different engineering disciplines (Electrical, Mechanical, and Civil) and correlated their performance with their discipline. The goal of this analysis is to determine whether structuring discipline-specific Computational Thinking courses is more beneficial than the current setting which allows for student multidisciplinary interaction. This analysis was quantitatively verified by assessing the students' performance in over 40 different sections of Computing for Engineers course taught over two years period (2012-2014). Our sample consisted of 861 students (142 Civil, 484 Mechanical, and 235 Electrical). Students’ performance was assessed using quizzes, assignments, lab projects, and exams. We statistically analyzed students' performance and presented our findings which are thought to help the structuring of Computational Thinking courses in multidisciplinary engineering programs.