Designing A Student Success Framework with Zachman Architecture

Benjamin Edward Chaback; Bryan Watson

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Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: July 12, 2024
Conference Session: Student Division Technical Session 3: Student Experiences and Support
Tagged Division: Student Division (STDT)
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/47137

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Paper Authors

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Benjamin Edward Chaback Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University orcid.org/0000-0003-3791-743X

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Benjamin (Ben) Chaback is a master’s thesis student in systems engineering and currently serves as the Program Coordinator of Undergraduate Research at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He uses modeling and systems architecture to investigate undergraduate engineering education and is working towards creating sustainable systems for student success. Ben is a member of the Council on Undergraduate Research and is a facilitator for the Safe Zone Project and the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research at Embry-Riddle. He is passionate about student success and finding ways to use research experiences to promote student growth, learning, and support.

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biography

Bryan Watson Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University orcid.org/0000-0003-2222-6716

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Bryan Watson, PE earned his Ph.D. at the Georgia Institute of Technology and his B.S. in Systems Engineering at the United States Naval Academy in 2009. After graduating, Bryan joined the nuclear Navy, serving as a submarine officer onboard the U.S.S Louisville and at the Naval Prototype Training Unit from 2009-2017. Significant milestones include earning the Master Training Specialist Certification (the military’s highest instructor accreditation), Nuclear Professional Engineer Certification, two Naval Achievement Medals, the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, and a Naval Commendation Medal for his work troubleshooting and repairing the Moored Training Ship 635’s reactor and electrical distribution faults. Following his transition from active duty, Bryan earned his PhD as a member of both the Computation and Advancement of Sustainable Systems Lab, where he developed a new method for distributed system demand estimation, and at the Sustainable Design and Manufacturing lab, where his work focused on increasing System of System resilience. Bryan’s work has been published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, Journal of Mechanical Design, and IEEE’s Systems Journal.

At Embry-Riddle, Bryan’s current work is focused on investigating the use of biologically inspired design to increase the resilience of modern system. The goal of their work is more reliable services to users, increased user safety, and increased sustainability for connected manufacturing, energy, and infrastructure systems.

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Abstract

This WIP research applies a new framework for student success due to the crucial need for holistic engineering student development. Institutions emphasize retention, grades, and research but often give less attention to social, mental, and physical student development in engineering programs. At institutions, however, discussions about student well-being, development, and involvement are beginning to be examined. Accordingly, methods to facilitate academic balance are in the early stages of development. In systems engineering, problems are often approached through creating a conceptual model to help increase and improve comprehension and understanding of the work. As student success is a complex topic with many different components that interact throughout, modeling can help give insights into the pieces that are within the control of engineering departments to work on. A potential effective strategy is the development of systems architecture to begin designing an engineering student success framework. This WIP research employs a Zachman architecture framework to design the proposed student success framework. The goal is to enable higher education engineering programs to further consider holistic student success. Zachman architecture consists of six components that will evaluate parts of student life in this framework. These components include data, function, network, people, time, and motivation. The architecture also evaluates six perspectives: scope, business model, system model, technology model, detailed representations, and functioning enterprise. The design of this framework begins from ABET’s seven metrics on student success, with the Stanford Life Design Lab’s findings also integrated to create the elements of the architecture. The framework explores a combination of design thinking and the Odyssey Plan methodology. This can be used for holistic student development (e.g., grades, networking, identity) and exploring different career pathways. These tools can be utilized as a part of the framework and help students better understand the reasons for involvement in campus opportunities, know the return on investment of time spent in campus activities, and improve understanding on how to develop a holistic student life during their time in engineering programs. The presented framework is in development, and additional applications require evaluation. It should be evaluated first at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University for a preliminary test of the framework, and then expanded to more engineering institutions for further validation. Additionally, it can be expanded to encompass domain-specific engineering at a more granular level to potentially help students fit their studies and development closer to their intended field. Lastly, there should be an evaluation over several years of their time at a university to see how closely they have followed it and how impactful it has been throughout their engineering program.

Citation
Format

Chaback, B. E., & Watson, B. (2024, June), Designing A Student Success Framework with Zachman Architecture Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://strategy.asee.org/47137

TY - CPAPER
AB - This WIP research applies a new framework for student success due to the crucial need for holistic engineering student development. Institutions emphasize retention, grades, and research but often give less attention to social, mental, and physical student development in engineering programs. At institutions, however, discussions about student well-being, development, and involvement are beginning to be examined. Accordingly, methods to facilitate academic balance are in the early stages of development.
In systems engineering, problems are often approached through creating a conceptual model to help increase and improve comprehension and understanding of the work. As student success is a complex topic with many different components that interact throughout, modeling can help give insights into the pieces that are within the control of engineering departments to work on. A potential effective strategy is the development of systems architecture to begin designing an engineering student success framework.
This WIP research employs a Zachman architecture framework to design the proposed student success framework. The goal is to enable higher education engineering programs to further consider holistic student success. Zachman architecture consists of six components that will evaluate parts of student life in this framework. These components include data, function, network, people, time, and motivation. The architecture also evaluates six perspectives: scope, business model, system model, technology model, detailed representations, and functioning enterprise. The design of this framework begins from ABET’s seven metrics on student success, with the Stanford Life Design Lab’s findings also integrated to create the elements of the architecture.
The framework explores a combination of design thinking and the Odyssey Plan methodology. This can be used for holistic student development (e.g., grades, networking, identity) and exploring different career pathways. These tools can be utilized as a part of the framework and help students better understand the reasons for involvement in campus opportunities, know the return on investment of time spent in campus activities, and improve understanding on how to develop a holistic student life during their time in engineering programs.
The presented framework is in development, and additional applications require evaluation. It should be evaluated first at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University for a preliminary test of the framework, and then expanded to more engineering institutions for further validation. Additionally, it can be expanded to encompass domain-specific engineering at a more granular level to potentially help students fit their studies and development closer to their intended field. Lastly, there should be an evaluation over several years of their time at a university to see how closely they have followed it and how impactful it has been throughout their engineering program.
AU - Benjamin Edward Chaback
AU - Bryan Watson
CY - Portland, Oregon
DA - 2024/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Designing A Student Success Framework with Zachman Architecture
UR - https://strategy.asee.org/47137
ER -