Conference Session

Best Zone Paper Competition

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rashmi Jain, Stevens Institute of Technology; Keith Sheppard, Stevens Institute of Technology; Elisabeth McGrath, Stevens Institute of Technology; Bernard Gallois, Stevens Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Council of Sections

sequence at Stevens known as the Design Spine3. The first five courses are core designcourses taken by students from all intended disciplines; the last three are taken in the discipline - a juniorcourse followed by a 2-semester capstone senior year project. In most cases the core design courses arelinked to concurrent engineering science courses, thus providing context for the latter. The Design Spineis a key vehicle to develop a number of threads that build both technical and so-called “soft”competencies. The latter include communications, creative thinking, teaming, economics of engineering,problem solving, project management etc. It should be noted that the first four design courses have beentaught by adjunct engineers, either practicing or

Conference Session

Best Zone Paper Competition

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kristi Shryock, Texas A&M University; Helen Reed, Texas A&M University

Tagged Divisions

Council of Sections

tools is that wording must be clear enough to be equally understood by allparties, and improperly worded surveys can cause a bias with your results. By adding open-ended questions to the survey, this can sometimes diminish these problems.4Direct Interviews and/or InputInterviews can be regarded as both indirect and direct methods of assessment, depending on theimplementation. Interviews held between the department head and graduating seniors where thediscussion focuses on their favorite class, favorite professor, etc. would be considered an indirectmethod since opinions or self-reporting is expressed. However, bringing industry members toobserve student performance during a senior capstone course design review would be considereda direct method