Making Sense of Design: A Thematic Analysis of Alumni Perspectives

In this paper, we present the findings of a thematic analysis on how alumni make sense of design in light of their undergraduate experiences in the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program. These findings are part of a larger embedded, sequential mixed-methods study on the overall alumni experience in EPICS and how this experience prepared them to enter the workplace. In this large-scale study, we interviewed a diverse range of alumni (n = 27), which were purposefully sampled from participants of a previous survey (n = 523). Our semi-structured interview protocol was informed by both the survey responses of alumni and the objectives of this larger investigation. As EPICS is a design course, the topic of design was explicitly probed throughout the survey. Moreover, interview participants often recounted how their design experiences in EPICS informed their current design experiences. Through the thematic analysis, we recognized themes related to design to be quite pervasive in the interview accounts. The objective of this particular paper is to articulate how authentic design experiences, such as EPICS, affect alums in how they understand and practice design in their careers. We discuss the multiple and also common ways that alumni understand and enact design because of their experiences in EPICS. The dominant way in which the participants understood design was as a cyclical, iterative process (i.e., lifecycle) – following the life of a designed artifact, system, or process. However, the alums demonstrated a lucid yet subtle recognition that the knowledge of design is shared by many stakeholders, including design teammates, customers, employers, etc. We discuss these findings in detail, and we elaborate on how their perspectives of design might inform how they do design.

[1]  William C. Oakes,et al.  Work in progress: Understanding professional competency formation in a service-learning context from an alumni perspective , 2012, 2012 Frontiers in Education Conference Proceedings.

[2]  James J. Duderstadt,et al.  Engineering for a Changing World - A Roadmap to the Future of Engineering Practice, Research, and Education (Flexner) , 2008 .

[3]  Cynthia J. Atman,et al.  Comparing freshman and senior engineering design processes: an in-depth follow-up study , 2005 .

[4]  Mary Besterfield-Sacre,et al.  The ABET “Professional Skills” — Can They Be Taught? Can They Be Assessed? , 2005 .

[5]  Johnny Saldaña,et al.  The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers , 2009 .

[6]  Edwin Hutchins,et al.  The technology of team navigation , 1990 .

[7]  K. Paterson,et al.  Development for the other 80% Engineering Hope , 2008 .

[8]  David Kazmer,et al.  Service-Learning Projects in Core Undergraduate Engineering Courses , 2008 .

[9]  John W. Creswell,et al.  Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research , 2006 .

[10]  Ann F. McKenna,et al.  Educating Engineers: Designing for the Future of the Field , 2010 .

[11]  Robin Adams,et al.  The Informed Design Teaching and Learning Matrix , 2012 .

[12]  Nedjeljko Frančula.  The National Academies Press , 2013 .

[13]  William C. Oakes,et al.  2005 Bernard M. Gordon Prize Lecture * : Integrating Engineering Education and Community Service: Themes for the Future of Engineering Education , 2006 .

[14]  Gordon Ellis,et al.  Grand challenges for engineering , 2009, IEEE Engineering Management Review.

[15]  Cynthia J. Atman,et al.  Engineering Design Processes: A Comparison of Students and Expert Practitioners , 2007 .

[16]  Cynthia J. Atman,et al.  A comparison of freshman and senior engineering design processes , 1999 .

[17]  Carla B. Zoltowski,et al.  Students' Ways of Experiencing Human‐Centered Design , 2012 .

[18]  B. Flyvbjerg.  Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research , 2006, 1304.1186.

[19]  P.C. Pedersen,et al.  Experiential learning with a global perspective: overseas senior design projects , 2002, 32nd Annual Frontiers in Education.

[20]  Louis L. Bucciarelli,et al.  Designing Engineers , 1994 .

[21]  Matthew M. Mehalik,et al.  What Constitutes Good Design? A Review of Empirical Studies of Design Processes* , 2006 .

[22]  J. Duderstadt.  Engineering for a Changing World , 2010 .

[23]  Juan C. Lucena,et al.  When Students Resist: Ethnography Of A Senior Design Experience , 2002 .

[24]  V. Braun,et al.  Using thematic analysis in psychology , 2006 .

[25]  Robin Adams,et al.  What Does it Mean to Design? A Qualitative Investigation of Design Professionals' Experiences , 2012 .

[26]  Catherine T. Amelink,et al.  Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Research Methods in Engineering Education , 2009 .

[27]  Spencer P. Magleby,et al.  A Review of Literature on Teaching Engineering Design Through Project‐Oriented Capstone Courses , 1997 .

[28]  Daniel D. Frey,et al.  Engineering design thinking, teaching, and learning , 2006 .