Students' Understanding of Human-Centered Design and the Impact of Service Learning

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)提供资金的。这项授予普渡大学的工程教育研究奖将雇用研究人员，以加深对未来工程师所需关键技能的理解，以及衡量这些技能的评估工具。服务学习在工程教育中呈现出巨大的教学潜力，被用作本研究的背景。这个项目的主要成果将是对以人为中心的设计方法的发展在理论上的理解。服务学习经验与其他设计课程的比较将为大学提供将服务学习机会作为课程或课外体验的决定。该项目的结果还将为设计课程提供信息，以潜在地利用服务学习经验的好处。这项研究的结果将对整个设计教育产生影响，并增强教师创造符合当今全球经济中工程认证委员会、国家工程院和行业领导者所要求的属性的体验的能力。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This engineering education research award to Purdue University will employ researchers to develop a deeper understanding of key skills required by future engineers as well as assessment tools to measure these skills. Service-learning, which presents enormous pedagogical potential in engineering education, is used as the context of this study. The major outcome of this project will be a theoretically grounded understanding of the development of human-centered approaches in design. The comparison of service-learning experience and other design courses will inform universities decisions about including service learning opportunities as curricular or extra-curricular experiences. The results of the project will also inform design curricula to potentially capitalize on the benefits of the service learning experience. The findings of this research will have impact across design education and enhance the ability of faculty to create experiences that meet the attributes being called for by engineering accreditation boards, the National Academy of Engineering, and industry leaders in today's global economy.