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

Shane Brown, Washington State University; Cara Poor, Washington State University

Tagged Divisions

Council of Sections

Page 14.714.6assessment process, suggests that the ICPT program has a strong potential to have significantbenefit to students and tutors. It appears that students see tremendous value in the tutors and thattutors learn from their experience. More research is needed to investigate the efficacy of thisprogram on important student outcomes. Two new research projects on the WSU ICPT havealready begun, one focused on the impact of the program on student social capital, and the otheron peer tutoring and students’ self-efficacy in mechanics.Social capital consists of the resources embedded in social networks that are accessed bymembers of that network. Initial results of the project on social capital indicate that studentsview the ICPT program as an

Conference Session

Best Zone Paper Competition

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Hanson, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Patrick Brophy, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Council of Sections

situation as similar to previous projects. Field (14 of 106). This is one of the least preferred strategies. It means that the problem is discovered during or after construction. Other (17 of 106). This category includes all of the other strategies used to discover a problem. Many of them are procedural (e.g., check model code used in the jurisdiction).Of the seven categories, four can be taught (comparison, rule of thumb, visualization,and extreme). Rules of thumb pertain primarily to design where choices aboutmembers are made, and visualization pertains primarily to choices in structural system.Identifying extreme results can be done with minimal experience. Therefore, theauthors focused on teaching

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

department can provide objective,direct feedback. Disadvantages to this process include the extensive time involved and theintimidation factor that outside individuals can often have on students.Embedded IndicatorsDirect assessment of student performance in a course directly tied to a specific program outcomeis referred to as an embedded indicator. This type of information reflects a direct assessmentmethod and can provide quite useful information. To be clear, embedded indicators do not referto course grades, and we will discuss those separately. Embedded indicators relate to studentperformance on a particular activity, such as an exam question, project, or report, and correlate toa particular outcome. Courses that are more relevant to a particular