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Student Experience is User Experience: Understanding Student Experience through the MPRC

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Conference

2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Minneapolis, MN

Publication Date

August 23, 2022

Start Date

June 26, 2022

End Date

June 29, 2022

Conference Session

Educational Research and Methods (ERM) Division Poster Session

Page Count

10

DOI

10.18260/1-2--41034

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/41034

Download Count

269

Paper Authors

biography

James Pembridge Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Daytona Beach

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Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Univeristy

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Olivia Roa

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Abstract

This work-in-progress paper examines students’ perceptions regarding their experiences in their registered academic departments. The Microsoft Product Reaction Cards (MPRC) and User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) are standardized usability questionnaires that are often used in the user experience field to gather qualitative data to better understand user perceptions of a product or system. Both instruments utilize a list of positive and negative adjectives that can describe interactions and use of a product or process. While student experience has been used for feedback on several aspects of engineering education, instruments like the MPRC and UEQ provide an alternative perspective from human factors that can provide a more structured framework for examining that experience.

The objective of this paper is to better understand how the user experience questionnaires can be adapted to engineering education. The research questions for the paper include: RQ1. How do students describe their experience with respect to the UEQ and MPRC adjectives? and RQ2. How do these adjectives align with student experiences in engineering education?

These research questions are studied through the use of student surveys and follow up interviews completed by students enrolled in an engineering department. In the survey, students chose adjectives from the MPRC list that they felt best described their individual experiences in an engineering department. Students then participated in a semi-structured interview to further discuss why those adjectives were chosen and to provide context and experiences related to it.

Findings indicate a trend of positive adjectives selected to describe students’ experiences with their stories to show why they feel that way. Many of these positive experiences were based on connections made with students within the department as well as the friendly environment that the faculty fosters. These findings provide a first step in creating a user experience tool to evaluate student experience in engineering departments.

Pembridge, J., & Roa, O. (2022, August), Student Experience is User Experience: Understanding Student Experience through the MPRC Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41034

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