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Homework problems are assigned to give students the educational experience of solving problems without having access to their solutions and engineering textbooks provide excellent problem sets for homework assignments. Publishers supply solution manuals as a resource for the instructors, with most manuals providing detailed solutions for each problem in the textbook. Since most engineering textbooks solution manuals are currently in digital format, they are readily available to students. This paper provides information on how students get access to solution manuals and gives examples of indicators that students are using solution manuals in completing their homework assignments. It shows the effect of solution manuals on student performance by comparing grade distributions in thermodynamic courses whose students had access to the solution manual with those when most students completed their homework assignments on their own. It is shown that the percentage of unsuccessful attempt in rigorous thermodynamic courses (grades of D, F, and W) increases when students have access to the solution manual. Other contributing factors influencing student lack of success are also highlighted. Alternate methods for assigning homework problems as well as various grading policies used to improve student success are described. The latest method in assigning homework problems as well as a new grading policy has shown significant improvement in student performance and success.

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The relationship between the depth of knowledge gained in a course and grades issued from various instructors teaching the same course is examined in this paper. One way to gage the depth of knowledge gained by students completing a particular course is to track their performance in the follow up courses in which a full understanding of the prerequisite topics are essential. A course sequence in thermodynamics is an ideal vehicle for such an examination, since a complete knowledge of the materials covered in the first course is essential for the successful completion of the second course. Between fall semester 1994 and fall 2012, the first course in thermodynamics was offered 55 times and taught by nine instructors. An examination of grade distributions in this course shows that there are small variations in student passing rates for a given instructor from semester to semester. The grade distributions, however, display significantly wider variations of student passing rates among the instructors who have taught the course. Average student passing rates have been as low as 36% for the sections taught by one instructor and as high as 81% for the sections taught by another instructor. On the surface it is not clear whether the higher passing rate is the result of superior teaching skills or due to a more lenient grading policy. Therefore, the same grade awarded by different instructors, might not be a good indication of the knowledge gained by students completing the course. This paper examines students' performance in a second course in thermodynamics. This study tracks groups of students that have taken the first course in thermodynamics from one instructor and examines their performance in the second course in thermodynamics.