Research Initiation: Assessing the Impact of Digital Badging in Makerspaces on the Formation of Engineers

学术创客空间为工程专业的学生提供了原型设计、实验和协作的手段，使学生能够获得常见工程任务的经验。参与这些空间可以帮助学生感受到与工程专业的联系，并建立他们的工程身份，这可以影响招聘，保留和坚持。然而，创客空间并不总是吸引和留住不同的学生，因此学生从参与这些空间中获得的利益可能不平等。在这项研究中，一个创客空间微认证计划，学生获得数字徽章，因为他们掌握了数字设计和3D打印等制作技能，将被探索作为一种战略，以促进公平的学生参与创客空间。数字徽章使学生的能力可见，无论是对获得证书的学生，还是对他们的同龄人和教师，帮助学生获得对他们技能的认可，并帮助他们对自己作为工程师的身份感到更安全。这项研究将探讨创客空间的数字徽章如何影响工程专业学生的身份发展，探索创客空间作为学生成为工程师的补充途径的潜力。此外，这项研究产生的促进公平参与创客空间的新战略将有助于工程教育工作者支持创新和包容性工程劳动力的发展。该项目将评估创客空间中的数字徽章作为一种教学策略，通过开发工程身份和技能来支持专业形成。本研究试图回答两个关键的研究问题：数字徽章如何影响学生对工程的归属感和工程身份的发展？数字徽章如何影响学生参与创客空间？为了探索这些问题，工程设计课程的一年级学生将在大学创客空间获得数字徽章。本研究采用混合方法，结合学生的工程身份和归属感的定量调查措施和学生访谈的归纳编码，以确定学生与创客空间和数字徽章活动的经验主题。该研究将提供：1）评估数字徽章对学生在创客空间开展活动的类型和频率的影响; 2）通过探索创客空间中的认证如何支持不同人群的学生身份形成，增加学生专业形成的知识; 3）探索学生对徽章相关性的看法如何影响他们参与徽章活动以及由此产生的专业形成;和4）在西班牙裔服务机构的第一年工程课程中更深入地了解工程身份发展。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

Academic makerspaces provide engineering students with the means to prototype, experiment, and collaborate, allowing students to gain experience with common engineering tasks. Participation in these spaces can help students to feel connected to the engineering profession and to build their engineering identity, which can impact recruitment, retention, and persistence. However, makerspaces do not always attract and retain diverse students, so students may benefit unequally from participation in these spaces. In this study, a makerspace micro-credentialing program, where students earn digital badges as they master making skills such as digital design and 3D printing, will be explored as a strategy to promote equitable student engagement in makerspaces. Digital badges make student competencies visible, both to students who earn the credential and to their peers and instructors, helping students gain recognition of their skills and helping them feel more secure in their identity as engineers. This study will explore how digital badging in makerspaces impacts identity development in engineering students, exploring the potential of makerspaces to act as a complementary pathway for students to become engineers. Additionally, new strategies to promote equitable makerspace involvement resulting from this study will help engineering educators support the development of an innovative and inclusive engineering workforce. This project will evaluate digital badging in makerspaces as a pedagogical strategy to support professional formation through the development of engineering identity and belongingness. This research seeks to answer two critical research questions: How do digital badges impact the development of students’ sense of belonging in engineering and engineering identity?; and How do digital badges influence students’ participation in makerspaces? To explore these questions, first-year students in an engineering design course will earn digital badges in a university makerspace. The study uses a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative survey measures of students’ engineering identity and sense of belonging and inductive coding of student interviews to identify themes in students’ experience with the makerspace and digital badging activities. The study will provide: 1) Evaluation of the impact of digital badges on the types and frequency of activities students undertake in makerspaces; 2) Increased knowledge of student professional formation by exploring how credentialing in a makerspace supports student identity formation for diverse populations; 3) Exploration of how students’ perceptions of badge relevance affect their engagement with badging activities and their resulting professional formation; and 4) Deeper understanding of engineering identity development in first-year engineering courses at a Hispanic-serving institution.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.