Assessing Student’s Stakeholder Awareness Skills in an Introductory Engineering Design Course through Systems Thinking Scenarios

Mengyu Li; Andrea Goncher; John Alexander Mendoza-Garcia

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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: Systems Engineering Division (SYS) Technical Session 1
Tagged Division: Systems Engineering Division (SYS)
Page Count: 10
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--42307
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/42307
Download Count: 112

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Paper Authors

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Mengyu Li University of Florida

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Mengyu Li is an Instructional Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) at the University of Florida (UF). She teaches numerous undergraduate and graduate-level ISE courses, including Systems Design, Systems Architecture, Senior Design, Models for Supply Management, etc.

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John Alexander Mendoza-Garcia University of Florida orcid.org/0000-0002-4943-6222

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John Mendoza-Garcia is an Instructional Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering Education in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering at the University of Florida. He received his Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Purdue University, and

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Andrea Goncher University of Florida

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Andrea Goncher is an Assistant Instructional Professor in Engineering Education at the University of Florida. Her work focuses on teaching and learning projects in human centred design and humanitarian engineering. Her research interests include text analytics, international higher education, and engineering design education.

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Abstract

Engineering students need to be trained to deal with complex engineering problems and be capable of developing solutions that meet the needs of stakeholders at different levels, from direct users to regulation entities. Stakeholder awareness is defined as a construct concerning with the ability to identify and include relevant stakeholders. A successful engineer should be able to identify various stakeholders, understand their roles, and effectively communicate with them to facilitate the identification and implementation of possible solutions. Therefore, it is important to fostering the development of such skill in an introductory engineering design course. The aim of our study reported in this paper is to properly assess students’ level of the stakeholder awareness skill and identify the area(s) of development (gaps). The results provide us with insights to develop effective teaching strategies to address these gaps.

Study participants were tasked to complete a scenario-based assessment proposed by Grohs, et al. (2018) that focuses on systems thinking and problem-solving as engineers by responding to a scenario that addressed technical and social contexts. The activity focuses on participants’ responses to a given scenario and the prompts intended to guide respondents in a systems-thinking approach. Data was collected electronically and analyzed using qualitative coding methods by applying the assessment tool rubric to evaluate student responses using systems thinking constructs from the framework. We rated stakeholder awareness according to the rubric which rates a respondent’s ability to identify stakeholders across the group categories and the nature of engagement with the stakeholder.

Preliminary results show that most of the participants (approx. 90%) scored high identifying more than one group of stakeholders. However, a lower percentage (35%) of participants talked about collaborative interaction with the different stakeholders and had trouble describing the process of planning a response to the problem.

This study is contributing to laying out the foundation of our overarching project in which we are seeking to develop teaching content that focuses on systems thinking skills by providing a solid understanding of the current systems thinking skill baseline level among university engineering students. Results from this study will also inform the systems thinking community and enrich the literature on human-centered design that discusses how engineering students understand and navigate design problems in complex systems at a design course.

Citation
Format

Li, M., & Mendoza-Garcia, J. A., & Goncher, A. (2023, June), Assessing Student’s Stakeholder Awareness Skills in an Introductory Engineering Design Course through Systems Thinking Scenarios Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--42307

TY - CPAPER
AB - Engineering students need to be trained to deal with complex engineering problems and be capable of developing solutions that meet the needs of stakeholders at different levels, from direct users to regulation entities. Stakeholder awareness is defined as a construct concerning with the ability to identify and include relevant stakeholders. A successful engineer should be able to identify various stakeholders, understand their roles, and effectively communicate with them to facilitate the identification and implementation of possible solutions. Therefore, it is important to fostering the development of such skill in an introductory engineering design course. The aim of our study reported in this paper is to properly assess students’ level of the stakeholder awareness skill and identify the area(s) of development (gaps). The results provide us with insights to develop effective teaching strategies to address these gaps.

Study participants were tasked to complete a scenario-based assessment proposed by Grohs, et al. (2018) that focuses on systems thinking and problem-solving as engineers by responding to a scenario that addressed technical and social contexts. The activity focuses on participants’ responses to a given scenario and the prompts intended to guide respondents in a systems-thinking approach. Data was collected electronically and analyzed using qualitative coding methods by applying the assessment tool rubric to evaluate student responses using systems thinking constructs from the framework. We rated stakeholder awareness according to the rubric which rates a respondent’s ability to identify stakeholders across the group categories and the nature of engagement with the stakeholder.

Preliminary results show that most of the participants (approx. 90%) scored high identifying more than one group of stakeholders. However, a lower percentage (35%) of participants talked about collaborative interaction with the different stakeholders and had trouble describing the process of planning a response to the problem.

This study is contributing to laying out the foundation of our overarching project in which we are seeking to develop teaching content that focuses on systems thinking skills by providing a solid understanding of the current systems thinking skill baseline level among university engineering students. Results from this study will also inform the systems thinking community and enrich the literature on human-centered design that discusses how engineering students understand and navigate design problems in complex systems at a design course.
AU - Mengyu Li
AU - John Alexander Mendoza-Garcia
AU - Andrea Goncher
CY - Baltimore , Maryland
DA - 2023/06/25
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Assessing Student’s Stakeholder Awareness Skills in an Introductory Engineering Design Course through Systems Thinking Scenarios
UR - https://peer.asee.org/42307
DO - 10.18260/1-2--42307
ER -