Fostering Learning Principles of Engineering Design

We contend that it is imperative that we recognize the internalization of the principles of engineering design as a career sustaining competency. Accordingly, we have piloted a pre-capstone course called Principles of Engineering Design. In this course we aim to empower the students to internalize the principles of engineering design, learn through doing (reading, designing, building, testing, and post-project analysis), learn to frame, postulate, and implement a plan of action for their Spring 2016 Capstone projects, and transition from being a student to a junior engineer in a company. In this course through a scaffolded set of assignments and activities, we provide an opportunity for students to internalize the principles of engineering design. In Fall 2015 we introduced our students to a problem which involved designing, building, and testing a device capable of navigating a track filled with various sections of “difficult” terrain and pop a buried balloon. Through periodic in-class and out-of-class activities we were able to assess learning and coach the budding engineers. In keeping with Kolb’s experiential learning construct, activities include requiring students to write “learning statements” after lectures, assignments, and at the end of the semester. Learning statements are structured to enable students to articulate learning in the context of an authentic, immersive experience. These statements are evaluated for content and the depth of insight expressed therein and then returned to the students with comments. In this paper, we cover the salient features of a course AME4163 – Principles of Engineering Design and the findings from an analysis of the learning statements. In our work we find evidence that students in project-based design courses are not being evaluated based on the actual learning taking place in the course, which we suggest is caused by a discrepancy between typical methods of instructor evaluation and the lessons learned by students over the course of a project. This conclusion is based on our finding that there is no relationship between student submitted learning statements and the grades that they achieved. Consequently, we suggest that the way students in project-based design courses are evaluated must be changed to reflect learning that takes place as a result of doing and reflection.

[1]  Spencer P. Magleby,et al.  Designing a Senior Capstone Course to Satisfy Industrial Customers , 1993 .

[2]  Barbara M. Moskal,et al.  Assessment in Engineering Education: Evolution, Approaches and Future Collaborations , 2005 .

[3]  Cynthia J. Atman,et al.  Engineering Student Attitudes Assessment , 1998 .

[4]  Michael Frasciello.  Embedded Technical Communication Instruction: Understanding High-Context Writing in a Pre-Professional Engineering Program , 2015 .

[5]  Thomas J. Brumm,et al.  Assessing and Developing Program Outcomes through Workplace Competencies , 2006 .

[6]  N. Fouad,et al.  Competency Assessment Toolkit for Professional Psychology , 2009 .

[7]  D. Kolb.  Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development , 1983 .

[8]  G. Lynn,et al.  The Role of Personality in New Product Development Team Performance , 2002 .

[9]  R. J. Eggert.  ENGINEERING DESIGN EDUCATION: SURVEYS OF DEMAND AND SUPPLY , 2002 .

[10]  Henry A. Etlinger.  A retrospective on an early software projects course , 1990, SIGCSE '90.

[11]  Hassan Pournaghshband.  The students' problems in courses with team projects , 1990, SIGCSE '90.

[12]  Murray R. Barrick,et al.  Relating member ability and personality to work-team processes and team effectiveness. , 1998 .

[13]  Zahed Siddique,et al.  The Development of Competencies in a Design Course from a Student Perspective , 2014 .

[14]  Brian Jay Kokensparger.  Using compositional writing samples to explore student usage patterns in a learning management system , 2013 .

[15]  Yi-fang Brook Wu,et al.  eLearning assessment through textual analysis of class discussions , 2005, Fifth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT'05).

[16]  Mien Segers,et al.  New Assessment Forms in Problem-based Learning: The value-added of the students' perspective , 2001 .

[17]  Bob Lahidji.  Competencies In Manufacturing Engineering Technology Programs From Employer’s Point Of View , 2000 .

[18]  Wim Ravesteijn,et al.  Training complete engineers: Global enterprise and engineering education , 2001 .

[19]  Mark Laingen.  Assessing engineering students' demonstration of workplace competencies in experiential learning environments through internships and cooperative work experiences , 2014 .

[20]  Farrokh Mistree,et al.  Learning How to Design: A Minds-On, Hands-On, Decision-Based Approach , 1995 .

[21]  Carl Reidsema,et al.  Assessing reflective writing: Analysis of reflective writing in an engineering design course , 2009 .

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

[23]  Mark Bush,et al.  An Australian study of generic competencies required by engineers , 2011 .