INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGINEERING DESIGN

Traditional engineering education focuses heavily on the development of analytical skills. Logical and convergent thinking are rewarded, both by the nature of the problems given and the way they are graded. Also, grades are computed from weighted sum of homeworks, exams, and other assignments. The only score that is recorded is the aggregate score for each assignment. This single score hides the strengths and weaknesses of an individual. Even if some of the exercises, or parts thereof, were designed to test skills relevant to design, such as idea generation, such record keeping does not keep track of how each student is doing in various aspects of the course. More importantly, the Instructor does not know directly how well the exercises, projects, etc. are related to the course objectives. This study enumerates and characterizes a set of design skills which could be used in developing design exercises and the basis for an alternative grading system.