IUSE: Exploration of Journaling to Assess Design Learning

这个改进本科STEM教育（IUSE）项目将有助于提高本科工程专业学生在设计过程中开发和记录新想法的能力，也将帮助工程学院评估和评估学生产生和发展设计想法的能力。 在美国，新发明的发展被认为是创造新产业和就业机会的关键因素，从而改善地方和国家经济。 然而，目前，工程教育并没有公认的方法来衡量学生的思维能力。常规课程作业和考试的分数包括传统的思维学习评估，与工程设计的产生和发展想法的能力没有很强的联系。 该项目的重点是开发设计日志的做法，作为一种手段，以提高在工程设计项目的背景下的想法生成能力。 方法和指标，通过教师可以分析和评估设计日志条目也将developed.Design日志通常被认为是一种有效的方法来开发和记录相关的技术工件和系统的发展思路。 历史上许多著名的发明家都有广泛而详细的设计日志。然而，今天的工程专业学生通常不愿意在设计项目期间进行有效的日志记录。这项工作将有助于开发设计日志的做法，吸引学生，并提供有效的学习经验。此外，还将制定日志评估实践，以便设计讲师能够提供及时有效的设计反馈和输入，特别是在构思过程中。在这个项目中检查的研究问题包括：在设计课程中，以何种方式可以使用日记，以有效地评估个人和团队设计方案中的个人构思性能和学习;设计日记条目如何反映团队构思过程中个人的设计参与程度;不同的学习风格方法是否能预测设计课程中学生日记行为的变化？设计是工程师所需的通用技能，该项目的结果将提高学生创建和记录设计的能力以及教师评估设计学习的能力。该项目包括努力将这项工作的结果传达给更广泛的工程教育界。

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.