(232b) Persistence and Practice of Spreadsheet Skills Using an Interactive Textbook
AIChE Annual Meeting
2020
2020 Virtual AIChE Annual Meeting
Education Division
Computing and Data Science in ChE Education: In Honor of Fred Justice's Contributions to the Education Division
Wednesday, November 18, 2020 - 8:15am to 8:30am
Spreadsheets provide a framework for chemical engineers to effectively complete calculations and represent data graphically. Since spreadsheets have existed for decades, many products, e.g., Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets, are available across computing platforms. Many formulas, functions, and tasks are common across programs and platforms, so education related to spreadsheets can be generalized. Spreadsheets Essentials, published by zyBooks â a Wiley brand, is an interactive textbook that record student interactions. Reading is an interactive experience with animations, matching and multiple choice questions, as well as static definitions and tables. Across three cohorts, reading rates above 90% were observed when a small fraction of the final course grade was provided as an incentive. Students perform various spreadsheet functions and write formulas using over 120 auto-graded, randomized problems. Success on these auto-graded questions was discussed previously and will be expanded upon across multiple cohorts. In addition, a case study will be presented examining a new âcopy sheetâ button that was available for the 2020 cohort. The frequency of copy sheet clicks will be examined for basic spreadsheet skills as well as advanced topics, such as solver, interpolation, numerical integration, error, statistics, and matrix operations. Examining both attempts before correct and success across questions and cohort will quantify the utility of the new copy sheet feature.