Olewnik, A., & Alfadhli, H., & Wickham, L., & Cummings, A., & Yerrick, R. (2021, July), Engineering Problem Typology-based Reflection and Communication of Undergraduate Engineering Experiences: Professional Engineers’ Evaluation of Students’ Mock Interview Responses  Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37071

\bibitem{asee_peer_37071}
  Olewnik, A., \& Alfadhli, H., \& Wickham, L., \& Cummings, A., \& Yerrick, R. (2021, July), \emph{Engineering Problem Typology-based Reflection and Communication of Undergraduate Engineering Experiences: Professional Engineers’ Evaluation of Students’ Mock Interview Responses}
  Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference.
  10.18260/1-2--37071

Andrew Olewnik, Hala Alfadhli, Lucas Wickham, Ashley Cummings, and Randy Yerrick.  "Engineering Problem Typology-based Reflection and Communication of Undergraduate Engineering Experiences: Professional Engineers’ Evaluation of Students’ Mock Interview Responses".  2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference, 2021, July.  ASEE Conferences, 2021.  https://peer.asee.org/37071 Internet.  08 Dec, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_37071}
  Andrew Olewnik, Hala Alfadhli, Lucas Wickham, Ashley Cummings, and Randy Yerrick.
  "Engineering Problem Typology-based Reflection and Communication of Undergraduate Engineering Experiences: Professional Engineers’ Evaluation of Students’ Mock Interview Responses".
  \emph{2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference, 2021, July}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2021.
  https://peer.asee.org/37071 Internet.  08 Dec, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_37071
author = "Andrew Olewnik, Hala Alfadhli, Lucas Wickham, Ashley Cummings, and Randy Yerrick"
title = "Engineering Problem Typology-based Reflection and Communication of Undergraduate Engineering Experiences: Professional Engineers’ Evaluation of Students’ Mock Interview Responses"
booktitle = "2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access"
year = "2021"
month = "July"
address = "Virtual Conference"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/37071}
number = {10.18260/1-2--37071}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Introduction: An important and recognized challenge for undergraduate programs is to provide engineering students with experiences that provide insight on what it means to be an engineer in practice. However, for such experiences to be truly meaningful to professional formation, students must also be capable of internalizing and effectively communicating insights from those experiences. Unfortunately, student engagement with technical and professional competencies often occur in disconnected contexts, leaving students underprepared for discussing their experiences. Development of technical competencies occurs in the context of the classroom while consideration of professional competencies is only attended to in preparation for career fairs and interviews.

Focus: In this study, we explored the role of reflection on students’ abilities to communicate their engineering experiences in professional terms. Students participated in formative reflection about specific professional competencies scaffolded around engineering problem typology (PT). These reflection sessions occurred as students worked on a co-curricular group project team. The question that frames this research is: What effect, if any, does professional competency reflection scaffolded around problem typology have on students’ ability to synthesize and communicate their experiences?

Methods: Toward answering these questions we conducted mock interviews pre-/post-PT based professional competency reflection with undergraduate engineering students. The mock interviews comprised five behavior-based interviews questions. Prior to the mock interviews, students were instructed to complete a summative reflection intended to help them recall and synthesize their experience in professionally relevant terms. For the pre, students were asked to consider a previous team-based experience. For the post, students referenced their recent co-curricular experience. Interview responses were transcribed and professional engineers evaluated three of the interview questions for 12 pre/post interviews. Evaluations were blind; evaluators did not know which students they were evaluating nor whether they were reviewing pre or post responses.

Results: Analysis showed that evaluation scores of the post MI responses are higher than the pre MI responses. We found that the differences were statistically significant for the overall score, question 1 (project context and results), and question 2 (teamwork question) but not for question 3 (oral/written communication). Through qualitative analysis of evaluator open responses and interview transcripts we identify specific features of student responses that changed from pre to post mock interviews.

Implications: The findings from this study demonstrate that there is significant value in getting students to consider both technical and professional competencies concurrently as they work through project-based experiences in academic settings. Importantly, this study shows that a little reflection can go a long way in improving student outcomes. This supports an argument that professional competency reflection as a regular feature in the engineering curriculum can help students to better prepare for communicating their relevant experiences and may help students to better appreciate the professional relevance of class-based experiences.
AU  - Andrew Olewnik
AU  - Hala Alfadhli
AU  - Lucas Wickham
AU  - Ashley Cummings
AU  - Randy Yerrick
CY  - Virtual Conference
DA  - 2021/07/26
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Engineering Problem Typology-based Reflection and Communication of Undergraduate Engineering Experiences: Professional Engineers’ Evaluation of Students’ Mock Interview Responses
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/37071
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--37071
ER  -