Assessing the Learning Gains of Manufacturing Students in an Integrated Hands-on Curriculum

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The lack of hands-on experience is one of the major competency gaps in engineering education. This project lead by Wayne State University is addressing this problem through continued work on the Manufacturing Integrated Learning Lab (MILL). The MILL model for engineering education uses team based projects, coordinated across multiple courses, culminating in the design and making of a functional product. The unifying theme is the design and fabrication of a functional product that students encounter repeatedly from different perspectives in several different courses. The MILL curricula has shown excellent learning gains at the sites where it has been implemented. In this project the hands-on MILL model will be expanded to additional institutions including Macomb Community College, Henry Ford Community Colleges and Prarie View A&M, one of the Historically Black College and Universities (HBCUs). The assessment methods developed to measure student learning gains in the MILL program will be tested in this expanded implementation. Results regarding the learning gains for students in MILL-type curricula, along with a unique standardized assessment incorporating a realistic physical manipulative, will prepare the MILL Model for a national scale-up. This project will demonstrate a flexible, effective, low cost and readily transferrable manufacturing engineering curriculum model that prepares a diverse and skilled workforce that meets industry needs. This project will use psychometrically validated standardized testing to evaluate and validate attainment of target hands-on competencies. This is an innovative use of standardized testing for programmatic evaluation. This approach can document attainment of specific targeted learning outcomes. By comparing performance on the test instrument between intervention groups and comparison non-intervention groups, the project will document the learning gains attributable to the MILL Model intervention. The project will deploy this instrument at the four MILL implementation sites as well as three additional comparison sites. A repeated measures MANCOVA will be conducted to assess the magnitude of the effectiveness of the MILL Model in increasing student learning outcomes in engineering competencies. Analysis of the comparative performance of the two groups will be undertaken to ascertain the learning gains attributable to implementation of the hands-on MILL Model curriculum. The pool of available psychometrically validated assessment items will also be expanded during the course of the project. This effort to assess the learning gains of a large and diverse set of manufacturing engineering students in an integrated hands-on curriculum will yield information critical to meeting industrial needs for appropriate skilled manufacturing engineers. The use of a validated standardized test incorporating a physical manipulative to evaluate attainment of hands-on engineering abilities will also help to inform the development of assessment tools for hands-on activities throughout the STEM disciplines.