An innovative method of teaching: A researched survey - Based term assignment

Abstract

The teaching process should be organized in such a way that learners can take responsibility for their own learning processes. Educational analysts often argue that one problem with classes, is that they are still dominated by the simple lecture format. Teaching innovations are defined as small changes in education that enable students to convert time to knowledge more quickly. In this paper, as an alternative, conduction of an innovative teaching method is introduced and demonstrated. The main findings of a research administrative questionnaire based survey conducted by students are presented. For the Building Service Systems course, junior architectural students are assigned to conduct a residential building survey and the analyzed results are considered as their term project grade. As the innovation in this method, students are asked to provide pictures to verify their answers. Each survey is double checked and accepted only when specific requirements are met. Some related diagrams and sketches are required as a proof that students understood the course material practically. © © 2007 by ASME.