A study was conducted at three primarily undergraduate institutions with civil engineering programs (a public university in the Southeast; two private universities, one in the Northeast and the other in the Central United States). A background knowledge probe (“pre-test”) and course knowledge survey (“post-test”) were developed based on key concepts in geotechnical engineering to assess the knowledge gained in undergraduate geotechnical engineering courses. Two sets of pre- and post-tests were developed: one for an introductory course in geotechnical engineering /soil mechanics, and the other for a second course in geotechnical engineering (on foundations, slope stability, and earth-retaining structures). The pre-tests were administered over a span of four semesters (twice in both Geotechnical Engineering I and Geotechnical Engineering II) to measure students’ prior geotechnical knowledge and to identify student misconceptions at the beginning of each semester. The same short-answer test (post-test) was administered on the last day of semester to assess knowledge gained as a result of the course experience. Detailed statistical analyses were performed using the collected data and preliminary results show that the students gained significant understanding on the various concepts in geotechnical engineering over the course of the two semesters. Additionally, the pre- and post-test instrument was used to measure the effectiveness of various pedagogical approaches at these institutions, as well as the logistics by which these courses are offered.
Dr. Simon Ghanat is an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at The Citadel (Charleston, S.C.). He received his Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Arizona State University. His research interests are in Engineering Education and Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering. He previously taught at Bucknell University and Arizona State University.
Dr. James Kaklamanos is Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass. Jim received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Tufts University, along with a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the same institution. He specializes in geotechnical engineering, and his published work has included research on site response analyses; ground-motion prediction equations; uncertainty in earthquake engineering; and engineering education, focusing on undergraduate geotechnical engineering courses. At Merrimack, Jim has taught courses in geotechnical engineering, foundation engineering, earth retaining structures and slope stability, earthquake engineering, mechanics of materials, and engineering probability and statistics.
Katerina Ziotopoulou was born and raised in Athens, Greece. She joined the Charles E. Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech as an Assistant Professor in August 2014 after finishing her Ph.D. studies at the University of California, Davis. Before moving to the United States, she completed her undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering with an emphasis in Geotechnical Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens, Greece in 2007.
For her doctoral research, Katerina worked on the development, implementation, calibration and validation of a constitutive model for liquefiable soils and to that end worked closely with the Division of Safety of Dams of California and Fugro West Inc. She is currently teaching the undergraduate classes of Introduction to Geotechnical Engineering and Computer Methods in Civil Engineering as well as a newly developed graduate course on Numerical Modeling in Geotechnical Engineering.
Dr. Immanuel Selvaraj is an associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Evansville, IN. He holds a PhD degree from Auburn University and a licensed professional engineer.
Dennis John Fallon is presently Distinguished Professor of Engineering Education at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. He received his BSEE from Old Dominion University (ODU) with honors in 1970, and his MSCE and PhD. from North Carolina State University in 1972 and 1980, respectively.
An active member of the Southeastern Section of American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), Dr. Fallon has held numerous positions within the organization including President of the Southeastern Section from 1996 to 1997 and then again from 2003 to 2004. He was appointed Fellow of ASEE in June of 2010. He has also served for three years as the National Campus Representative and Chair of the CE Division of the National ASEE. In addition, he served a three-year term as Newsletter Editor of the CE Division. He served a two-year term as the Zone II representative on the National ASEE Board of Directors.
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