IUSE: Exploration of Journaling to Assess Design Learning

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This Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) project will help enhance the ability of undergraduate engineering students to develop and document their new ideas during the design process and will also help engineering faculty to assess and evaluate the ability of students to generate and develop design ideas. In the United States the development of new inventions is considered a critical element in creating new industries and jobs, thus improving local and national economies. However, at present, engineering education does not have well-recognized methods to measure student ideation ability. Scores from regular course homework and exams which comprise a traditional assessment of ideation learning are not strongly linked to competence in generating and developing ideas for engineering designs. The project focuses on development of design journaling practices as a means to improve idea generation ability in the context of engineering design projects. Methods and metrics through which faculty can analyze and evaluate design journal entries will also be developed.Design journalizing is generally recognized as an effective method to develop and record ideas related to the development of technological artifacts and systems. Many celebrated inventors throughout history maintained extensive and detailed design journals. However, engineering students today are generally disinclined to engage in effective journaling during design projects. This work will help to develop design journaling practices that engage students and provide effective learning experiences. In addition, journaling assessment practices will be developed so that design instructors can provide timely and effective design feedback and input, especially during the ideation process. The research questions examined in this project include: in what ways can journaling be used in design courses to effectively assess individual ideation performance and learning in both individual and team design scenarios; how do design journal entries reflect the level of design engagement for an individual during a team ideation process; and do variations such as different learning style approaches predict variations in student journaling behavior in a design course? Design is a universal skill needed by engineers and the results from this project will improve the ability of students to create and document designs and faculty ability to assess design learning. The project includes efforts to communicate the results of this work to the broader engineering education community.