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Applying User Experience (UX) Methods to Understand Identity Development in Doctoral Engineering Students

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Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

Graduate Studies Division (GSD) Technical Session 7: Developing Graduate Students' Competencies and Identities

Tagged Division

Graduate Studies Division (GSD)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

17

DOI

10.18260/1-2--42282

Permanent URL

https://strategy.asee.org/42282

Download Count

77

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Paper Authors

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Kelli Cargile Cook Texas Tech University

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Kelli Cargile Cook is a Professor and Founding Chair of the Professional Communication Department at Texas Tech University. Previously, she served as Professor and Director of Technical Communication and Rhetoric at Texas Tech and as Associate Professor at Utah State University. Her scholarship focuses on online education, program development and assessment, and user-experience design.

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Fabiola Liliana Carrion-Anampa Texas Tech University

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Fabiola Carrion-Anampa is a Master's student in the Mass Communication program at the College of Media and Communication at Texas Tech University. She got her Bachelor’s degree in Social Communication from Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM). Her research interests are intercultural communication, diversity in the workplace, and the depiction of underrepresented communities in the media.

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Diego Alejandro Polanco-Lahoz Texas Tech University

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Diego A. Polanco-Lahoz is a Ph.D. student, from the program of Systems and Engineering Management, in the Department of Industrial, Manufacturing & Systems Engineering at Texas Tech University. He received his BS in Industrial Engineering from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (PUCV). His research interests are organizational factors research, organizational assessment/performance measurement, and engineering education.

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Jennifer A. Cross Texas Tech University

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Jennifer Cross is an Associate Professor in the Department of Industrial, Manufacturing & Systems Engineering at Texas Tech University. She received her BS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Arkansas and her MS and PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech, where she also served as a Postdoctoral Associate in the Enterprise Engineering Research Lab. Her research interests are organizational assessment/performance measurement, teams, performance improvement methodologies, and engineering education.

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Mario G. Beruvides P.E. Nanyang Technological University

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Dr. Mario G. Beruvides is the AT&T Professor of Industrial Engineering and Director of the Laboratory for Systems Solutions in the Industrial Engineering Department at Texas Tech University. He is a registered professional engineer in the state of Texas. He holds a BS in mechanical engineering and an MSIE from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida and a PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Virginia.

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Abstract

This work-in-progress (WIP) research addresses gaps in current understanding of engineering doctoral student identity development. Specifically, the research will explore the application of user experience (UX) methods to explore several issues involved in the process of developing engineering identity in doctoral students (primarily, researcher identity): the differences that may be present in the process of identity formation of on-campus versus on-line doctoral students, other factors (e.g., gender, ethno-racial background, previous professional experience, etc.) that may also be contributors to researcher identity formation, and how insights generated from longitudinal user experience methods such as (UX) methods, (journey mapping, and other insights) inform doctoral program design and assessment. The research will contribute to fill three key gaps in current literature: 1) the limited existing longitudinal research on the topic of engineering identity development; 2) the limited existing research on engineering identity development in doctoral students, and 3) the limited existing research on the process of engineering identity development. The practical impacts from this study will be related to understanding the way engineering doctoral programs are designed and how this design may improve student mental health and attrition rates and bridge the gender and ethno-racial gaps in graduation rates, making doctoral education a more viable career path for engineers in all walks of life. To address the research concerns this research employs UX methods to document and understand the experience of identity development in doctoral engineering students. UX studies evolved to engage with, discover, and explain users’ more holistic experiences. They were first applied in manufacturing, industrial engineering, and automotive design [1]. Until recently, UX methods have rarely been applied in academic research, including programmatic assessment and curriculum design. Drawing from the many methods available to UX researchers, the methods in this research were chosen to capture doctoral engineering student perceptions of their own identity development process and the interaction between this process and doctoral program design, among other factors. From the many methods used in UX research, our study employs user profiles, personas, journey mapping, surveys, and focus groups. SPSS and Excel are being used as tools for analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data collected with these mixed methods. The purpose of the proposed paper and presentation will be to provide conference attendees with insights into UX methods as a means of research and assessment and offer preliminary findings from the research in progress, in particular the journey mapping data collection. Doctoral students created journey maps to identify program experiences that ranged from highly positive to highly negative in their personal identity development as engineering researchers. Among the most frequent experiences identified as developmental were courses, projects and assignments, and individual research; less important but nevertheless key experiences were mentorship, scholarship, and external factors. Over the next two years, additional data will be collected to determine how students' experiences may be modified as they progress through their doctoral programs. References [1] B. Nunnally and D. Farkas. UX research: practical techniques for designing better products. Boston, MA: O'Reilly Media, Inc., 2016.

Cargile Cook, K., & Carrion-Anampa, F. L., & Polanco-Lahoz, D. A., & Cross, J. A., & Beruvides, M. G. (2023, June), Applying User Experience (UX) Methods to Understand Identity Development in Doctoral Engineering Students Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--42282

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2023 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015