IMPLEMENTATION AND STUDY ON INNOVATIVE NEW TEACHING METHODS TO ENHANCE LEARNING OF MECHANICAL PRINCIPLES MODULE AT UNDERGRADUATE LEVEL

This paper is an outcome of the motivation and need to address wide spectrum of teaching and learning styles that are recognized by the students.  It is the order of the day that the student’s are encouraged in self-learning, engaged learning, peer to peer learning etc., forproviding better exposure and ambience for easy understanding of the basic concepts. In this context, Mechanical Principles module that is taught at undergraduate level at the Department of Mechanical engineering at Caledonian College of Engineering, Oman is considered for implementing new teaching tools.  This is a core module in mechanical engineering where the teaching involves a large group of students which require addressing pedagogical teaching and resource challenges. Various strategies are developed in order to enhance the teaching and learning experience of students such as change in layout of their seating arrangements inside the class room, use of soft tools for wider learning, open ended lab to improve the practical skills, use of CCE learn for online access of course documents, online quizzes for more interactive learning as well as access for students to video lectures &EBrary sources in addition to the traditional teaching. Survey conducted towards the level of satisfaction of students indicates that a majority of students appreciate different teaching and learning methods other than the traditional ones. The present work that is carried out for Mechanical principles module can be extended to other related modules. Definitely any useful teaching learning tools used in addition to the conventional methods of teaching creates attention to student community and enhances their theoretical and practical exposure.