Students and faculty in the Department of Electrical, Computer, Software, and Systems Engineering are some of the more prolific researchers in the Embry-Riddle family. The department's research expenditures are nearly one-half those of the entire College of Engineering, with support from federal agencies including NSF, FAA, and NOAA as well as industry partners. The department is heavily involved in projects managed by ERAU's NEAR Lab and by the COE's Eagle Flight Research Center.

Strategic department research directions include three areas critical for the future of aerospace. These are:

  • Detect and avoid technologies for unmanned aircraft systems;
  • Assured systems for aerospace, including cybersecurity and development assurance;
  • Modeling and simulation for aviation and aerospace.

Detect and avoid technologies enable unmanned aircraft systems to "see and be seen" by other aircraft and by air traffic controllers on the ground. Of particular challenge is detect and avoid of uncooperative aircraft, those aircraft that aren't equipped to announce their position either automatically or in response to interrogations from the ground.

Assured systems are those that are robust in the face of cybersecurity challenges, with assured development being system design approaches that yield assured systems without high overhead.

Modeling and simulation for aviation involves everything from the logistics of getting passengers onto aircraft to planning how to get all air traffic around predicted bad weather without upsetting arrival times and locations.

Peer Review within a Learning Management System (LMS) in a Face-to-Face (F2F) Course

PI Wendi Kappers

The purpose of this research study is to investigate student collaboration and the effectiveness of peer review on the part of the reviewer to increase understanding of information literacy. Focus upon the Learning Management System (LMS) to support automation of peer review activities is a secondary purpose.

This research paper describes the use of peer review to improve information literacy. Peer-reviewed assignments for learning have been seen favorably within the literature. The articulated benefits range from students feeling more engaged, having expressed less anxiety, or found to be better equipped to perform in unfamiliar areas outside their current learning environments. However, minimal research examines the benefits specifically for the feedback provider (reviewer) when a more modern tool, such as the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) is used. During the fall 2015 semester, a study was conducted to examine the peer review process from the vantage point of the reviewer when mitigated by an LMS. Since peer review is seen as a social activity, this study is guided by a social constructivism teaching framework to investigate peer review activities for (a) linear relationships to that of a perceived social element inclusion, (b) changes in learning from the perspective of the reviewer rather than the receiver of feedback, and (c) improvement in perceived information literacy. Additionally, this research examines Canvas attributes as identified by Sondergaard & Mulder(1) (2012) of (a) Automation, (b) Simplicity, (c) Customizability, and (d) Accessibility, which support statements from the literature that indicate a lack of investigation of more modern peer review tools. Survey results, both qualitative and quantitative, were analyzed across three different peer-reviewed assignments for this examination. Of the 91 respondents, representing a 32 percent response rate, descriptive analysis revealed themes ranging from Changes in Student Efforts to Valued New Perspectives; whereas, expected Active Learning and Social Benefits slightly contradicted the positive tone that was originally found in the thematic review. Overwhelming positive ratings were collected regarding the use of the LMS to support and implement a peer-reviewed assignment. Perceived affects upon the peer reviewer, and how these types of assignments can support the proposed Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc. (ABET) General Criterion 3 Student Outcomes and General Criterion 5 Curriculum currently under revision are discussed. Lastly, these data are represented for use as an evaluation baseline for future planned investigations and for other faculty and course developers, who are considering implementation of peer-reviewed activities within first-year program courses

Research Dates

08/26/2015