Integration of Information Literacy Skills to Mechanical Engineering Capstone Projects

Farshid Zabihian; Mary L. Strife; Marian G. Armour-Gemmen

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Conference: 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Seattle, Washington
Publication Date: June 14, 2015
Start Date: June 14, 2015
End Date: June 17, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-692-50180-1
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Reimagining Engineering Information Literacy: Novel Perspectives on Integration, Assessment, Competencies & Information Use
Tagged Division: Engineering Libraries
Page Count: 22
Page Numbers: 26.998.1 - 26.998.22
DOI: 10.18260/p.24335
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/24335
Download Count: 509

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Paper Authors

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Farshid Zabihian West Virginia University Institute of Technology

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Farshid Zabihian, Ph.D., P.Eng.
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
West Virginia University Institute of Technology

Education:
Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Ryerson University, 2011
M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, 1998
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Amir Kabir University of Technology, 1996

Authored or coauthored more than 70 papers in Journals and peer-reviewed conferences.

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Mary L. Strife West Virginia University

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Mary Strife has been an engineering/sciences librarian for over 32 years, working at Cornell, Syracuse University, the University of Rochester, and SUNY Institute of Technology, Utica/Rome. She has been at West Virginia University for 20 years and currently serves as Director of the Evansdale Library and Senior Engineering Librarian.

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Marian G. Armour-Gemmen West Virginia University

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Marian Armour-Gemmen has been the Patent & Trademark librarian at West Virginia University Libraries since 2003. In this capacity she assists inventors throughout the state of West Virginia. She is also the bibliographer for Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering as well as for Civil & Environmental Engineering. Previously she worked as the head of the Physical Sciences Library and as an associate in the Government Documents department. She is a past president of the Patent & Trademark Resource Center Association. She holds a M.L.I.S. from the University of South Carolina, a M.A. from the University of Michigan, and a B.A. from Calvin College.

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Abstract

Integration of Information Literacy Skills to Mechanical Engineering Capstone ProjectsInformation literacy is an important component for engineers, especially in their pursuit of life-long learning. Teaching engineering students how to search for information and use itappropriately should be an important part of every engineering design project. It has beenreported that design engineers spend about 30% of their time searching for information.Experience has shown that even senior level students have not received proper training, eitherdirectly or indirectly, in information literacy (IL). They usually search for information intuitivelyin inappropriate places. For mechanical and aerospace engineering students at this institution, theMechanical Engineering System Design I and II (MAE 480 and 481) courses are probably thelast opportunity to teach students about IL. Introducing information literacy into the curriculumof the senior Mechanical Engineering capstone project certainly assisted the students with theirresearch and helped them be better and more effective users of information. In this project,information literacy outcomes were added to the course syllabus and activities and assignmentswere designed to instruct to better select the best information for their projects and evaluateacquired IL- related skills. Three librarians, two of whom were at a distance, were integrated intothis course. The librarians guided the students across all facets of available informationresources including intellectual property. While the delivery for this particular class waschallenging: resources had to be adapted to those available at a different institution, one librariantraveled to the site, and the other librarian presented a lecture via ooVoo, these challenges wereovercome. The students’ feedback and course evaluation tools have confirmed an improvementin the IL-related skills in the students. The results of the post-test as well as student responsesindicate that the instruction was effective. Our hope is that other senior engineering designclasses will see it fit to bring librarians into the mix in helping students to “an understanding ofprofessional and ethical responsibility” as well as “a recognition for the need for, and an abilityto engage in life-long learning” (ABET standards f and i).

Citation
Format

Zabihian, F., & Strife, M. L., & Armour-Gemmen, M. G. (2015, June), Integration of Information Literacy Skills to Mechanical Engineering Capstone Projects Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/p.24335

TY - CPAPER
AB - Integration of Information Literacy Skills to Mechanical Engineering Capstone ProjectsInformation literacy is an important component for engineers, especially in their pursuit of life-long learning. Teaching engineering students how to search for information and use itappropriately should be an important part of every engineering design project. It has beenreported that design engineers spend about 30% of their time searching for information.Experience has shown that even senior level students have not received proper training, eitherdirectly or indirectly, in information literacy (IL). They usually search for information intuitivelyin inappropriate places. For mechanical and aerospace engineering students at this institution, theMechanical Engineering System Design I and II (MAE 480 and 481) courses are probably thelast opportunity to teach students about IL. Introducing information literacy into the curriculumof the senior Mechanical Engineering capstone project certainly assisted the students with theirresearch and helped them be better and more effective users of information. In this project,information literacy outcomes were added to the course syllabus and activities and assignmentswere designed to instruct to better select the best information for their projects and evaluateacquired IL- related skills. Three librarians, two of whom were at a distance, were integrated intothis course. The librarians guided the students across all facets of available informationresources including intellectual property. While the delivery for this particular class waschallenging: resources had to be adapted to those available at a different institution, one librariantraveled to the site, and the other librarian presented a lecture via ooVoo, these challenges wereovercome. The students’ feedback and course evaluation tools have confirmed an improvementin the IL-related skills in the students. The results of the post-test as well as student responsesindicate that the instruction was effective. Our hope is that other senior engineering designclasses will see it fit to bring librarians into the mix in helping students to “an understanding ofprofessional and ethical responsibility” as well as “a recognition for the need for, and an abilityto engage in life-long learning” (ABET standards f and i).
AU - Farshid Zabihian
AU - Mary L. Strife
AU - Marian G. Armour-Gemmen
CY - Seattle, Washington
DA - 2015/06/14
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Integration of Information Literacy Skills to Mechanical Engineering Capstone Projects
UR - https://peer.asee.org/24335
DO - 10.18260/p.24335
ER -