A teaching strategy for advanced manufacturing courses

In this paper, the author presents an experiment for teaching advanced manufacturing courses with the objective to maximize the learning experience based on course outcomes. A CAM course was selected to run the experiment on the students in two male sections and two female sections. The course's outcomes were drafted based on the mechanical engineering program's objectives. Their focus is on fulfilling as many of the program outcomes as possible. The level of fulfilling a program objective by a course outcome is then also monitored. The strategy focuses on increasing the hands on experience of the students as well as introducing more computer and technology content in the course. Every activity will be evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively. Based on the progress in a regular semester, the students' performance is monitored and a calibration of theory versus practical experience is done accordingly. Initial results reveal that the sooner the practical part of the course is introduced the better the results will be for both understanding the practical as well as the theoretical part of the course.