Work in Progress: Qualitative Differences in Learning Processes and Skill Development Across Engineering Capstone Teams
- Conference
- Location
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Virtual Conference
- Publication Date
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July 26, 2021
- Start Date
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July 26, 2021
- End Date
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July 19, 2022
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Design in Engineering Education
- Page Count
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13
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--38192
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/38192
- Download Count
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342
Paper Authors
Caroline Clay Arizona State University
Caroline Clay is a graduate student pursuing her PhD in Engineering Education Systems and Design at Arizona State University. As an undergraduate at James Madison University, she studied how engineering students learn in informal learning environments and makerspaces, with an emphasis on how students learn in structured and unstructured settings. After participating in the University Innovation Fellows program Caroline also completed an honors thesis that studied how students learn to become changemakers. Upon completing her doctoral program, Caroline plans to work in the intersection between entrepreneurship, engineering, and education.
Johannah Daschil
Johannah Daschil is a senior engineering major minoring in political science and math at James Madison University. Daschil is a continuously curious individual who is always asking question of how and why. This curiosity has driven Daschil to explore the bridges between engineering and political science, particularly the influence of gender in the decision making processes of both disciplines. Daschil currently works on a research project to understand how learning occurs in informal learning processes such as making and the influence of gender on learning.
Melissa Wood Aleman James Madison University
Dr. Melissa Aleman (Ph.D. University of Iowa) is Professor of Communication Studies at James Madison University and has published research using qualitative interviewing, ethnographic and rhetorical methods to examine communication in diverse contexts. She is particularly interested in multidisciplinary studies of communication, culture, and learning in makerspaces, as well as broadening participation of women and underrepresented minority students and faculty in STEM fields.
Julie S. Linsey Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Julie S. Linsey is an Associate Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technological. Dr. Linsey received her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas. Her research area is design cognition including systematic methods and tools for innovative design with a particular focus on concept generation and design-by-analogy. Her research seeks to understand designers’ cognitive processes with the goal of creating better tools and approaches to enhance engineering design. She has authored over 150 technical publications including over forty journal papers, and ten book chapters.
Robert L. Nagel James Madison University
Dr. Robert Nagel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering at James Madison University. Dr. Nagel joined James Madison University after completing his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Oregon State University. Nagel teaches and performs research related to engineering design. Specifically, through research, Nagel explores how design interventions commonly used to teach design influence student learning.
Abstract
This work in progress paper presents a study that follows four engineering capstone teams over the course of their two-year projects. Students on four different teams collected ethnographic and autoethnographic data in the form of field notes to explore how students learn across a variety of projects that vary in their scope, type, and team composition. This paper aims to explain the impacts that role rigidity and project management style have on the design process and discuss the factors that influence the types of learning occurring in capstone teams. Data suggest that project scope, role rigidity, and the level of ambiguity in the project impact the learning processes employed by different teams, and the skills that team members developed.
Clay, C., & Daschil, J., & Aleman, M. W., & Linsey, J. S., & Nagel, R. L. (2021, July), Work in Progress: Qualitative Differences in Learning Processes and Skill Development Across Engineering Capstone Teams Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--38192
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