ChE 2026 Spring Seminar Series – Matthew Liberatore, PhD

Details

Speaker: Matthew Liberatore, Trine University

Title: Do engineering students read textbooks? Learning analytics when using an interactive textbook

Abstract:
Current university students are digital natives and have generally grown up in a phone-based world. Thus, we are developing educational strategies at the interface of technology and education that place students in the center of the learning process. Here, interactive textbooks are one technology that has potential to energize the formation of engineers and engage different types of learners.

An interactive, web-native textbook for a material and energy balances course (the first course in most chemical engineering curricula) engages students in activities that support the learning of engineering concepts and problem-solving techniques. By using animations and interactive learning questions, the static and wordy content common for engineering textbooks is avoided. Also, auto-graded, randomized homework problems help minimize the use of static solutions manual posted online or outsourcing to generative artificial intelligence tools. Students and faculty receive feedback in real time and accumulate reading and homework scores. Big Data generated by students using the book can test hypotheses and lead to new insights related to engagement and learning. Seven years of student reading participation will be presented to prove or disprove the hypothesis that engineering students read the textbook. Additional hypotheses based on the tenets of deliberate practice leverage the completion and attempts on auto-graded problems. Overall, we hope our studies inspire more faculty to examine the impact of interactive textbooks and other new technologies on engineering education.

Biography:
Matthew W. Liberatore is a Professor and Department Chair in the McKetta Department of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering at Trine University in Angola, Indiana. He previously served on the faculty at the University of Toledo and at the Colorado School of Mines. Professor Liberatore earned his B.S. degree from the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, all in chemical engineering. His expertise lies in the unique rheology measurements of complex fluids as well as engineering education research related to novel uses of technology and big data. He has author