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Work in Progress: "I’m Not Your Standard Student": Examining the Rationales for Studying MDE or IDES Programs through Usability Interviews

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Conference

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Tampa, Florida

Publication Date

June 15, 2019

Start Date

June 15, 2019

End Date

June 19, 2019

Conference Session

Experiences of Multidisciplinary Engineering Students

Tagged Division

Multidisciplinary Engineering

Page Count

9

DOI

10.18260/1-2--33579

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/33579

Download Count

343

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Paper Authors

biography

Brianna Benedict McIntyre Purdue University, West Lafayette

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Brianna Benedict is a Graduate Research Assistant in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. She completed her Bachelor's and Master's of Science in Industrial and Systems Engineering at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University. Her research interest focuses on interdisciplinary students' identity development, belongingness in engineering, and recognition.

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biography

Robin Adams Purdue University, West Lafayette

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Robin S. Adams is an Associate Professor in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University and holds a PhD in Education, an MS in Materials Science and Engineering, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering. She researches cross-disciplinarity ways of thinking, acting and being; design learning; and engineering education transformation.

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Abstract

This Work-in-Progress paper in the Multidisciplinary Engineering Division begins to explore how undergraduate students use program websites to identify and select an engineering education program that supports their diverse interests. Traditional disciplinary engineering curricula are often perceived as limiting for some students. However, multidisciplinary engineering or interdisciplinary engineering studies education programs provide opportunities for students to pursue engineering as a career that aligns with their interest, career goals, and a space to establish a sense of belonging. Prior studies have broadly examined what influences students to select engineering as a major; however, little work has explored what influences students in their decision making to transition to an interdisciplinary engineering education program. In this work-in-progress paper, we describe our preliminary findings from a usability study using the program websites to elicit responses about what influences students’ identification with multidisciplinary engineering or interdisciplinary engineering studies programs. These user experiences begin to provide insight into how students use websites to identify multidisciplinary engineering or interdisciplinary engineering studies program as an academic home, student rationale for changing their degree, instead of staying in a traditional engineering program, and suggestions on how program websites can be improved to support prospective students with their decision to select an interdisciplinary engineering education program.

McIntyre, B. B., & Adams, R. (2019, June), Work in Progress: "I’m Not Your Standard Student": Examining the Rationales for Studying MDE or IDES Programs through Usability Interviews Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--33579

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