Dedicated to the advancement of engineering education through the development, assessment, and dissemination of active learning products (ALPs)…
What is the Purpose of the ALPs web site?
The ALPs web site is dedicated to the advancement of engineering education through the development, assessment, and dissemination of active learning activities. Recent pedagogical research has resulted in an extensive knowledge base of instructional practices. These practices, while promising, have yet to be fully explored across STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) curricula. In fact, innovations based on many of the individual pedagogical theories, such as the Kolb Learning Cycle and Scaffolding, have yet to be fully integrated and tested within many core engineering courses or course sequences.
The ALPs web site and associated materials provides a stepping stone toward such integration. Three components are essential to this purpose: materials that assist instructors in designing their personalized active learning activities; materials that may be used to design assessments to test the effectiveness of active learning activities in the classroom; and a variety tested active learning products that are available to students and instructors.
What are "ALPs"?
ALPs, Active Learning Products, are structured and tested activities for use inside and outside the classroom. ALPs seek to address the multiple learning styles and personality types of students, they seek to make students an active participant in the teaching and learning process, and they are composed of coordinated hands-on activities with physical manipulatives, multi-media-based activities, cooperative learning experiences, investigation activities, and thought experiments.
What can I find and learn on the ALPs web site?
The top menu of the ALPs web site provides the basic structure for navigation.
- "ALPs Design" presents a general description and methodology for designing ALPs. Instructors seeking to design their own ALPs for the classroom can use the materials in this section as a starting point.
- “ALPs Assessment” presents a basic methodology and assessment instruments to evaluate the impact of ALPs developed in the classroom. Instructors may use these materials to assess ALPs they obtain from this web site, from other sources, or from their own designs.
- “ALPs Content” includes a number of ALPs that have been developed for engineering subjective matter. The focus of the content in this area is currently on Mechanics of Materials ALPs. These activities were developed as part of a National Science Foundation CCLI grant, Award Number: DUE-0442614: Title: An Active Learning Approach to Mechanics of Materials Using Hands-On Activities, Written Content, and Multi-Media Courseware.
- “Publications” and “Resources” provide downloadable publications, reference lists, software, and web links. These menu items also include a web list of sites that provide tools for assessing the learning styles and personality types of students in a given classroom.
- “About Us” and “Contact Us” provides a brief biography and history of the developers of the ALPs materials, in addition to contact information.