Nostalgia for Virtual Routines Harness Unexpected Entrepreneurial Actions in Engineering

Barbara Karanian; Annika Speer; mariam salloum; Mona Eskandari

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation Division Technical Session 4
Page Count: 23
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--40860
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/40860
Download Count: 373

Abstract

How interpersonal expressions are separate yet integrated into expectations for entrepreneurial collaboration during in-person classroom scenarios is a major question in engineering education informed by applied cognitive and social sciences. In contrast, students taking classes during the pandemic age of remote work developed start-up actions to engage on a team through a shared vision and attempted ways to pivot and change from an impact that could not be predicted ahead of time. Studies suggest students tackled learning to collaborate through task and process content individually while physically separated from their classmates retrospectively not prospectively. Thus, without explicit practice or preparation new routines were unknowingly established for collaborating from a distance. In the present study we extend our preliminary analysis of 150 engineering students at a public university in California. We identify the characteristics from stories about virtual collaboration during classes with an entrepreneurial collaboration component. Using a novel combination of validated projective story-cue methodology and a survey, participants were prompted during both the pandemic restricted remote classes and in-person to imagine their expectations for collaborating in an entrepreneurial classroom by projecting two ways: as if it was in an in-person setting or as if it was a virtual setting. A goal of the continued study is to extend the analysis to compare and contrast the original findings comparing Winter 2021 student responses (during a virtual educational mode) to Fall 2021 (during an in-person educational mode) using a cohort of engineering students at the same public university. Findings revealed: (1) Operationalizing all the time interfered with the excitement of first meetings and leaving a space for iterative promise, (2) Women were the ones that women and men imagined led the operationalizing work during a virtual educational mode before a return to in-person, (3) Compassion was amplified for students organizing groups with care, “I know what it feels like to be a straggler left behind because it happened to me,” and (4) Shock of the 2020 and 2021 pandemic diminishes over time with prophetic stories of a new, lasting kind of collaboration effect, “It’s difficult to make sure that everyone is actually willing to sit next to someone else in the room, many are still acting awkward and distant with each other.” Results suggest that nostalgia (missing the past or sentimental longing) for remote work during in-person classes causes difficulty integrating individual and interpersonal expectations for collaborative and communicative work in engineering education. We compare Winter 2021(virtual) and Fall 2021 (in-person) evidence with one organizing question: How do in-person vs. virtual environments inhibit or invite collaboration in the classroom during early creative and in start-up actions with the intent of something new?

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Karanian, B., & Eskandari, M., & Speer, A., & salloum, M. (2022, August), Nostalgia for Virtual Routines Harness Unexpected Entrepreneurial Actions in Engineering Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40860

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - How interpersonal expressions are separate yet integrated into expectations for entrepreneurial collaboration during in-person classroom scenarios is a major question in engineering education informed by applied cognitive and social sciences.  In contrast, students taking classes during the pandemic age of remote work developed start-up actions to engage on a team through a shared vision and attempted ways to pivot and change from an impact that could not be predicted ahead of time. Studies suggest students tackled learning to collaborate through task and process content individually while physically separated from their classmates retrospectively not prospectively.  Thus, without explicit practice or preparation new routines were unknowingly established for collaborating from a distance.  
In the present study we extend our preliminary analysis of 150 engineering students at a public university in California. We identify the characteristics from stories about virtual collaboration during classes with an entrepreneurial collaboration component. Using a novel combination of validated projective story-cue methodology and a survey, participants were prompted during both the pandemic restricted remote classes and in-person to imagine their expectations for collaborating in an entrepreneurial classroom by projecting two ways:  as if it was in an in-person setting or as if it was a virtual setting.  A goal of the continued study is to extend the analysis to compare and contrast the original findings comparing Winter 2021 student responses (during a virtual educational mode) to Fall 2021 (during an in-person educational mode) using a cohort of engineering students at the same public university.  Findings revealed: (1) Operationalizing all the time interfered with the excitement of first meetings and leaving a space for iterative promise, (2) Women were the ones that women and men imagined led the operationalizing work during a virtual educational mode before a return to in-person, (3) Compassion was amplified for students organizing groups with care, “I know what it feels like to be a straggler left behind because it happened to me,” and  (4) Shock of the 2020 and 2021 pandemic diminishes over time with prophetic stories of a new, lasting kind of collaboration effect, “It’s difficult to make sure that everyone is actually willing to sit next to someone else in the room, many are still acting awkward and distant with each other.” Results suggest that nostalgia (missing the past or sentimental longing) for remote work during in-person classes causes difficulty integrating individual and interpersonal expectations for collaborative and communicative work in engineering education.  We compare Winter 2021(virtual) and Fall 2021 (in-person) evidence with one organizing question: How do in-person vs. virtual environments inhibit or invite collaboration in the classroom during early creative and in start-up actions with the intent of something new?
AU  - Barbara Karanian
AU  - Mona Eskandari
AU  - Annika Speer
AU  - mariam salloum
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Nostalgia for Virtual Routines Harness Unexpected Entrepreneurial Actions in Engineering
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/40860
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--40860
ER  -

Nostalgia for Virtual Routines Harness Unexpected Entrepreneurial Actions in Engineering

Paper Authors

Barbara Karanian Stanford University

Mona Eskandari University of California, Riverside

Annika Speer University of California, Riverside

mariam salloum University of California, Riverside

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