Collaborative Research: Research: Understanding and Improving Design Activity Engagement in the Engineering Capstone Experience

协作研究：研究：理解和改进工程顶点体验中的设计活动参与度

• 批准号: 2138019
• 负责人: Shane Brown
• 金额: $ 34.52万
• 依托单位: Oregon State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-01 至 2025-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2138019&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Understanding; Improving; Design

This project will focus on improving the ways that engineering students and professionals learn to design solutions that benefit a wide range of people who use these solutions. Engineering students come to learn engineering design through an intensive project-based course known as their capstone course, a process critical to their formation as engineers. In these courses, students often emulate industry practices by designing projects within a team, in a process intended to be similar to what they might experience in the workplace. However, research in engineering education and practice continues to show that much design learning happens after students graduate with their engineering degrees. Might engineering students be better equipped to practice high-quality design in the workplace if they were more engaged in their capstone course? And how might capstone courses be designed in a way that motivates students to learn design with a deeper connection to the process? This project will address these critical questions through an in-depth study of engineering students and professionals and a sustained plan to equip engineering design instructors in preparing students for the workplace.There is little knowledge of the specifics of how engineering students engage in capstone courses and how their engagement is driven by identity and motivation needs. The objective of this project will be to investigate how and why civil and mechanical engineering students and practicing engineers engage with engineering design activity. In particular, this project will be characterized by the following objectives: 1) Develop a model of design activity engagement and identity motives of students and professionals, 2) Expand our model to account for resistance and synergies, alignment and tension between academic and workplace settings and across disciplines, and 3) Advance holistic and authentic engagement of students in multiple academic settings through extensive collaboration with and training of engineering faculty. The capstone design experience is particularly unique because explicit and implicit goals focus on simulating the engineering design experience to the extent possible. How and why students engage in engineering design in capstone courses is therefore foundational to understanding and improving the efficacy of capstone courses. We will use constructivist grounded theory (CGT) to examine the how and why of this phenomenon in four important settings. The rationale for this research is that understanding differentially how students and engineers in different disciplines engage in design is a critical step in enhancing our understanding of engagement in academic and workplace settings and results can broadly inform efforts to enhance student engagement. This project is further characterized by the formation Engaged Design Learning Institute (EDLI), where we will enroll a cross-institutional cohort of 8-10 capstone instructors to support them in their design instruction and to develop contextually relevant insight on how the research findings may be applied by educators.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目将重点改进工程专业学生和专业人士学习设计解决方案的方式，使使用这些解决方案的广泛人群受益。工程专业的学生通过一门以项目为基础的密集课程来学习工程设计，这门课程被称为他们的顶点课程，这对他们成为工程师至关重要。在这些课程中，学生通常通过在团队中设计项目来模仿行业实践，其过程与他们在工作场所可能经历的过程相似。然而，工程教育和实践的研究继续表明，许多设计学习发生在学生获得工程学位毕业之后。如果工程专业的学生更多地投入到他们的顶点课程中，他们是否能更好地在工作场所实践高质量的设计？如何设计顶点课程，激励学生在学习设计的过程中建立更深层次的联系？该项目将通过对工程专业学生和专业人士的深入研究，以及一个持续的计划来解决这些关键问题，使工程设计教师为学生准备好工作场所。对于工程专业学生如何参与顶点课程的具体情况，以及他们的参与是如何受到身份和动机需求的驱动，人们知之甚少。这个项目的目的是调查土木和机械工程专业的学生和实习工程师如何以及为什么参与工程设计活动。特别是，该项目将以以下目标为特征：1)开发设计活动参与和学生和专业人员身份动机的模型；2)扩展我们的模型，以考虑学术和工作场所环境之间以及跨学科之间的阻力和协同作用、一致性和张力；3)通过与工程学院的广泛合作和培训，促进学生在多种学术环境中的整体和真实参与。顶点设计经验是特别独特的，因为明确和隐含的目标集中在尽可能模拟工程设计经验。因此，学生如何以及为什么在顶点课程中参与工程设计是理解和提高顶点课程效率的基础。我们将使用建构主义扎根理论（CGT）来研究这一现象在四个重要背景下的方式和原因。这项研究的基本原理是，理解不同学科的学生和工程师如何参与设计是提高我们对学术和工作环境参与度理解的关键一步，结果可以广泛地为提高学生参与度的努力提供信息。这个项目的进一步特点是成立了参与式设计学习学院（EDLI），在那里我们将招收一个由8-10名顶级教师组成的跨机构队列，以支持他们的设计教学，并就如何将研究成果应用于教育工作者发展与背景相关的见解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Understanding Capstone Design Activity Engagement in Mechanical Engineering

了解机械工程中的顶点设计活动参与

• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: ASEE 2023 Annual Conference Proceedings
• 作者: E. Clement, S. Oman

Methodological Commitments in Grounded Theory: Experiences of a Novice Researcher

扎根理论中的方法论承诺：新手研究者的经验

• DOI: 10.1109/fie58773.2023.10342904
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: IEEE
• 作者: Clement, Elliott;Huff, James L.;Brown, Shane
• 通讯作者: Brown, Shane