MechRef meets students where they are

For the past few years, Associate Professor Mariana Kersh has led an interdisciplinary collaboration to develop online reference pages for select MechSE courses. The initiative that began with MechSE has since scaled to include the departments of Aerospace Engineering, Bioengineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and the Siebel School of Computer Science and Data Science.

“This project represents an opportunity to bring innovative ideas for increasing student learning and re-sparking the curiosity that many students bring to college but which sometimes dims in the midst of the many demands of being a college student,” Kersh said.

Now wrapping up its third year of funding from the Strategic Instructional Innovations Program (SIIP), “Developing Open Educational Resources for Fundamental Engineering Mechanics Courses” represents extensive community involvement, with a team of MechSE faculty that includes Professor Matthew West, Teaching Assistant Professor Kellie Halloran, Teaching Assistant Professor Tom Golecki, Lecturer Brian Mercer, Assistant Professor Nikhil Admal, Assistant Professor Callan Luetkemeyer, Teaching Assistant Professor Kevin Wandke, and Assistant Professor Shelby Hutchens alongside Teaching Assistant Professor Wayne Chang from the Department of Aerospace Engineering. Graduate student Mikayla Hoyle is also a key member of the team, alongside industrial engineering alumnus Chris Raymond-Bertrand and graduate student Melany Opolz—both former team members.

The project’s mission is to “create quality and freely accessible on-line educational materials that enhance student curiosity and connection and creates value for both student and instructor.” The site’s content was created using a Community of Practice model, which centers on instructors and staff committed to the collaborative development of educational resources.

“One of the exciting aspects as a project lead has been the ability to engage the entire community of practice—from undergraduates to faculty—all of whom bring unique insights into the educational process,” Kersh said.

“I think [the pages] have allowed students to see the bigger pictures of where these topics are falling and how they’re connected,” Halloran said. “As we’ve added more classes, it’s been cool to then link to those. I think it’s been really helpful for students to see the bigger picture of the MechSE curriculum and how their classes fit into their broader education.”

When Halloran first joined MechSE’s faculty in the fall of 2024, she began teaching statics (TAM 210/211).

“There’s a pretty large community of practice around statics, dynamics, and solid mechanics in mechanical engineering, and I was invited to join,” she said. “Part of that community of practice is working on the SIIP project that [Kersh] was leading.”

More than a decade before Kersh started the SIIP project, West had worked to develop online reference pages for introductory dynamics (TAM 212).

“When I was a student, I used those pages,” Halloran recalled of her own experience in TAM 212. “Even as a grad student, I was referencing back to them because they were just so helpful and really succinct and clear.”

Raymond-Bertrand, now a PhD student at Virginia Tech, had a similar experience with West’s original pages.

“I recalled being in TAM 212 and that those were very useful at the time,” he said. “I knew this was an awesome project. I’ve seen firsthand how useful they can be.”

Raymond-Bertrand had been a course assistant for statics and introductory solid mechanics (TAM 251) for three semesters when he was approached by Mercer to create new quiz and homework questions on PrairieLearn for the upcoming fall semester. Midway through the summer, Mercer invited him to work on developing and maintaining the reference pages.

“I saw the semester that they were implemented, and then in the next semester after that, it seemed like there was already a cultural shift,” he said of students adopting the pages into their study routines. During the semester when the pages were first implemented, he and other teaching staff spread the word among students during office hours. After that, he said, the nature of students’ questions changed.

“Students already knew exactly where to look for information, so when they came to office hours, it was always to ask more in-depth questions,” he said. “They stopped asking how to find formulas or [for us to] reiterate basic information.”

For students, the pages are an appealing alternative to traditional textbooks, with succinct, easily referenced content at no cost.

“The pages act as a middle ground between an equation sheet and a textbook,” Halloran explained. “They’re not a replacement for lectures. We found that students will pull them up during office hours or while they’re working on homework, and they’ll use them in quizzes and exams.”

“A lot of students don’t use the textbook, and this is a problem across universities everywhere,” said mechanical engineering PhD candidate Mikayla Hoyle. “But we’ve seen students using these webpages, especially in the few days before a quiz is due.”

Hoyle, who is advised by Kersh, has worked as a TA with the reference pages group since the project was first funded through SIIP.

“In the second year of the project, we decided to overhaul the pages [that West had put together earlier], give them a new look, make them look a bit more modernized, and expand them to more classes,” she recalled.

Hoyle worked alongside fellow graduate students to go through class notes for statics, dynamics, solid mechanics, and thermodynamics.

“The idea was that students already knew what the subject was about, so it wasn’t starting the content from the ground up, but rather starting in the middle,” she said. “They’ve seen the content before, so here’s the bare minimum they would need to jog their memory about the concept.”

Hoyle now manages a team of undergraduate students who work on maintaining the pages and making updates to remain current with course curricula. 

“I wish I had had something like this when I was an undergrad,” she said. “The pages are so helpful and the TAs use them a lot to help students learn.”

Halloran hopes that the pages will strengthen connections across the Grainger College of Engineering—and beyond. “I think our ultimate goal is to be able to link across departments,” she said. Raymond-Bertrand echoed this vision. “I would like to see the reference page model spread to other schools,” he said.

For Kersh, the future is bright. “We are excited about our next steps in working with community partners to ensure that the pages are accessible and relevant for students within and outside of Illinois—in particular, those coming through our pathway programs,” she said. “It’s been a lot of fun to work with a great team of creative and enthusiastic individuals, and we’re ready to see where this goes next.”