Integrating Active Learning with Simulation: Development and Testing of a New Approach to Learning Signal Timing

This paper reports on the development and assessment of novel traffic engineering education tools that are based on educational models that favor laboratory or hands-on type learning. The mobile signal timing training tool (MOST) presented in this paper is a new paradigm in two respects. First, it involves hands-on experience with “real” traffic controllers. This is important because many entry level traffic engineers have had little direct experience with a traffic controller. The hands on experience provides those traffic engineering professionals with the opportunity to experiment with different control plans and test different scenarios in the office prior to field implementation. Second, the course material has a strong technical foundation, based on traffic flow fundamentals, which can be evaluated using a high quality simulation environment. A significant benefit of this approach is learning the interaction between intersection design parameters and different traffic flow characteristics. The assessments that were conducted during the classroom testing of the course materials indicated that the most dramatic improvements were observed in the group with the highest proportion of signal technicians. Groups with large representation of engineers showed almost as large increase in knowledge. When tested in a classroom environment with undergraduate civil engineering students, the course materials showed high teaching efficiency as indicated by exams scores and students’ self assessment survey results. This educational tool has quantitatively demonstrated that the educational model used is an important component in signal timing education.