Engineering Education Commons^™

Who Funds Engineering Education Research? Content Analysis Of Funding Sources Described In Three Top-Tier Engineering Education Research Journals, Andrew Valentine, Natalie Wint, Bill Williams

Research Papers

Engineering education research (EER) is becoming a globally connected field of inquiry but there is a lack of sustained funding opportunities available. Currently, it is not quantitatively known which entities are most prolific for providing funding for EER globally. This study attempted to map which entities were most commonly cited as providing funding for EER. Three top-tier EER journals were chosen, articles published in the journals during 2021 were identified. Metadata about each publication was downloaded from Scopus. Funding information for each publication was qualitatively analysed, then synthesised to provide a quantitative understanding of EER funding sources. There was a …

Addressing Long-Term Challenges In Energy For Sustainable Futures By Applying Moonshot Thinking, Andreas Sumper, Marc Jené-Vinuesa, Carlos González-De-Miguel, Maria Marin-Macaya

Research Papers

The rapid and exponential changes in our world require the education of engineers who can develop solutions to future and long-term challenges such as climate change. Exploration and innovation methodologies such as Futures Thinking and Moonshot Thinking have the potential to equip engineering students with useful tools and skills to build sustainable futures. To this end, the InnoEnergy MSc Energy for Smart Cities programme at BarcelonaTech (UPC) has developed a challenge-based learning (CBL) course that applies moonshot thinking to tackle major energy problems. This paper presents the methodology refined over three years of implementing the CBL course with second-year Masters's …

Exploring The Reliability, Time Efficiency, And Fairness Of Comparative Judgement In The Admission Of Architecture Students, Lotte Van Den Heuvel, Nina Lotte Bohm

Research Papers

It is common in architecture education to quantify the quality of assignments into grades, often done by one or two teachers using rubrics. However, this can have several downsides. It suggests an objective preciseness that is debatable for the creative assignments in the field of architecture, and the assessment is dependent on the judgement of only one or two people. Comparative judgement (CJ) offers an alternative to rubric-based assessment by applying pairwise comparison to student assignments, resulting in a ranking instead of a grade.

We used a mixed methods approach to compare the reliability, time efficiency, and fairness of CJ …

First-Generation Engineering Students' Identity Development: Early Forays Into The Workplace, Renee Smit

Research Papers

In the context of global shortages of engineering professionals, research into factors that impact on training and retention of qualified engineers is important – this includes first-generation engineering students, a largely under-researched group of students. Research has shown that an elaborated, well-developed engineering identity is important for the retention of both engineering students at university, and for engineers in practice. Professional identities are fluid, emerging and develop over the lifetime of the professional. However, we still know little about the nature of a professional engineering identity, and how it develops.

Drawing on insights from the philosophy of science, I make …

A Framework For A Scoping Review Of Digital Transformation Of Engineering Education, Niels Erik Ruan Lyngdorf, Jacob Højholt Leegaard

Research Papers

The digitalization of engineering education has made significant progress in recent years not only due to societal circumstances such as COVID-19, but also thanks to technological development and progress and digital transformation of engineering education seems more imminent than ever. This paper presents the development of a framework and process for an ongoing scoping review regarding frameworks for digital transformation of engineering education. Empirical studies on digital innovations in specific small-scale contexts are numerous and the literature is rich. This study, however, aims to identify more systematic and holistic approaches to digital transformation. At this stage the review work has …

The Challenge Of Postdoc’Ing In The Us: Perspectives From International Engineering Postdoctoral Scholars, Sylvia Mendez, Kathryn Watson, Jennifer Tygret

Research Papers

An intrinsic case study explores the challenges shared by international engineering postdoctoral scholars about working in the United States (US). Little research has been devoted to their experiences despite their stark increase in the postdoctoral labor force over the last decade. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight engineering postdoctoral scholars hailing from Canada, China, Colombia, Iran, Italy, and Thailand. Participant interviews were analyzed inductively and resulted in four themes: (1) Immigration concerns; (2) Strains to find a community; (3) Pressure to publish and secure funding; and (4) Inadequate career counseling. The identified themes could be particularly instructive to Ph.D. advisors …

Transnational Collaboration On Lifelong Learning Between Higher Engineering Education Institutions: A University Perspective, Jens Bennedsen, Geir Egil Dahle Øien

Research Papers

Lifelong learning (LLL) is in focus in all European countries. Workforce upskilling and reskilling are seen as central elements in ensuring national competitiveness. Universities are main players in this effort but often find it difficult to find sustainable models for LLL activities, in terms of e.g., economy, student intake, and academic resources. Collaboration between universities can be one possible way forward to overcome such obstacles, and given the enhanced post-Covid digitalization is also increasingly made possible, even across borders. However, many universities also find such collaboration challenging, e.g., due to outdated legislation, lacking financial predictability, lacking

1 J. Bennedsen jbb@ece.au.dk …

A Multimodal Measurement Of The Impact Of Deepfakes On The Ethical Reasoning And Affective Reactions Of Students, Vivek Ramachandran, Cécile Hardebolle, Nihat Kotluk, Touradj Ebrahimi, Reinhard Riedl, Patrick Jermann, Roland Tormey

Research Papers

Deepfakes - synthetic videos generated by machine learning models - are becoming increasingly sophisticated. While they have several positive use cases, their potential for harm is also high. Deepfake production involves input from multiple engineers, making it challenging to assign individual responsibility for their creation. The separation between engineers and consumers may also contribute to a lack of empathy on the part of the former towards the latter. At present, engineering ethics education appears inadequate to address these issues. Indeed, the ethics of artificial intelligence is often taught as a stand-alone course or a separate module at the end of …

Are Engineering Teachers Ready To Leverage The Power Of Play To Teach Transversal Skills?, Siara Isaac, Yousef Jalali, Natascia Petringa, Roland Tormey, Jessica Dehler Zufferey

Research Papers

What conceptions do teachers hold about learning activities to develop students’ transversal skills? This qualitative exploration at a research-intensive engineering school draws on interviews and focus groups to explore teachers’ ideas about developing individual transversal skills. We frame our analysis with a model that distinguishes three phases for skill development: conceptual knowledge (knowing), procedural skills (doing) and meta-cognitive/emotional reflection (learning from doing). We are particularly interested in the potential for play to create favorable conditions for developing transversal skills by enabling (i) focused experiential learning, (ii) low-stakes experimentation, (iii) rapid feedback, (iv) opportunity for reflection.

Conceptualizing Socially Shared Regulation In Challenge-Based Learning, Karolina Doulougeri, Gunter Bombaerts, Michael Bots, Jan D. Vermunt

Research Papers

Students in Challenge-based learning (CBL) courses work in multidisciplinary groups to develop a solution to an open-ended and ill-defined challenge.Thus, in CBL, students need to regulate their learning individually and collectively to learn. Socially shared regulation of learning (SSRL) refers to the development of collective and coconstructed task perceptions or shared goals by multiple students working as a group. Existing knowledge about conceptualizing and researching SSRL in CBL is currently lacking. In this paper, we provide evidence from a qualitative study we conducted in a CBL course, using analysis of individual learning portfolios and in-depth interviews about students’ perceptions of …

Developing Teamwork Skills Through Simultaneous Group Project Courses, Tuomo Eloranta

Research Papers

The popularity of project-based learning (PBL) has led to a situation where engineering students take several group project courses at the same time. From a student perspective, this can generate considerable issues. Previous research has indicated that already single PBL courses can be challenging, especially time and task management-wise and intuitively overlapping PBL courses compound this complexity. As existing literature on this topic is relatively sparse, the goal of the present study is to examine what kind of student challenges simultaneous PBL courses generate, how students navigate those and what kind of additional learning can it foster. The results should …

Disruptions To The “Modeled Minority” In Engineering: Why Do Some Asian American Students Leave Engineering?, Michelle Choi Ausman, Qin Zhu

Research Papers

Asian American students are the largest non-White racial group in US undergraduate engineering, but they are often labeled as the "model minority." This stereotype confines them to STEM majors, limiting their access to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. Little attention has been given to why some Asian American students leave engineering. To address this gap, a pilot study using semi-structured interviews aims to explore the reasons behind their decision to leave the field or change their major. The study seeks to contribute to engineering education scholarship by promoting more inclusive learning environments for Asian American students and providing recommendations …

A Look Inside The Engineering Students’ Backpack: Differences In Engineering Capital According To Gender Or Migration Background., Mieke Cannaerts, Sofie Craps, Veerle Draulans, Greet Langie

Research Papers

Every student has a unique combination of experiences, resources and social networks related to engineering, called ‘engineering capital’, derived from Archer’s concept of ‘science capital’. The engineering capital gathered throughout life creates a backpack that impacts someone’s aspirations to study engineering, as well as the performance and persistence in the programme itself. Engineering technology is one of the most homogeneous fields within the STEM domain, being mostly white and male. To stimulate a more diverse engineering technology field, this research paper investigates the relationship between the level of engineering capital and gender or migration background, as well as the influence …

Reflection On Your Personal Perspective Through Other Perspectives. A Step In Dealing With Wicked Problems, Pleun Hermsen, Sjoerd Van Dommelen, Paula Hueso Espinosa

Workshops

Don’t we all sometimes seek the perspective of someone unrelated to our work, to get unstuck, or when we seek creativity? Engineers, educators, and students put their trust into science, protocols, procedures and models. Rightfully so, from the perspective of the laws of engineering this makes sense. This also explains why when people deal with challenges, they often tackle them (consciously or unconsciously) with their preferred strategies (Hayashi 2018) (Mezirow 2000). However, these preferred strategies might offer a false sense of security because they oversimplify the complicated nature of the challenge. People might focus on a part of problem which …

How To Use New Tools To Integrate Sustainability Into Engineering Teaching, Sarah Jayne Hitt, Jonathan Truslove, Cindy Cooper

Workshops

Recently, three projects have addressed the challenge that while many excellent resources on sustainability education exist, there aren’t many that explicitly guide engineering educators to integrate these into their teaching, or indeed that are intended to upskill engineering academics to be able to deliver this teaching. These projects are the Reimagined Degree Map project undertaken by Engineers Without Borders UK (sponsored by the Royal Academy of Engineering), the Sustainability Toolkit project undertaken by the UK’s Engineering Professors’ Council (sponsored by Siemens and the Royal Academy of Engineering), and the Engineering for One Planet Framework and two companion guides, co-created by …

Promoting Engineering To K12 Students Through Spatially Challenging Making And Outreach Activities, Gavin Duffy, Marten Westerhof, Deborah Keogh, Colm O'Kane

Workshops

Outreach activities are an important and valuable approach to promoting engineering education and careers to young people. They provide an excellent way to show that engineering can be fun, challenging and rewarding. With some careful thinking, they can also be used to promote and develop spatial ability, a cognitive ability that is very important to engineering. The purpose of this workshop is to demonstrate examples of outreach activities that are the result of such careful thinking. Those who attend this workshop will be able to:

1. Explain why and how spatial ability is so important to success in engineering education
2. Summarise …

A Positioning Theory Analysis Of Interaction Surrounding Design Failures In An Elementary Engineering Club, Katarina N. Silvestri, Mary B. Mcvee, Lynn E. Shanahan, Kenneth English

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

This qualitative study applies Positioning Theory to identify positions that mediate the experiences of design failure within the context of an afterschool engineering club (EC) with elementary students diverse in language, race, ethnicity, gender, and academic abilities. We ask: (1) What kinds of structural design failure and failure responses did participants in EC experience? and (2) What are students’ and teachers’ positions in relation to responses to design failure? Types of positions (e.g., builder, tinkerer, idea-elicitor, director, observer) were identified in relation to children’s and teachers’ actions and speech in response to structural design failure during EC. Participants included 12 …

Exploring And Operationalizing Inclusive Teaching In Engineering Education, Keith Fouch, Ellie Abundo

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Inclusive teaching is vital in engineering education because of its potential to enhance learning for all students. The purpose of this research is to explore faculty experiences with inclusive teaching, specifically focused on engineering settings. Our findings highlight dominant beliefs, practices, and challenges that emerged from our preliminary analysis. Future work will corroborate these findings with additional faculty as well as engineering student perspectives and beliefs.

Teaching To Develop Perspective, Skills, Confidence, And Identity As Problem-Solving Engineers, Russell Kirk Pirlo

Research and Reflection on Learning and Teaching in Higher Education

The “core” of an engineering degree program typically comprises the concepts, equations, and technical skills needed, as well as their practical application to common problems of the profession. This core is then divided into the “content” that must be covered in each course. It is widely recognized, however, that successful individuals do not thrive as professionals on content alone. Thus, there is significant and increasing emphasis across higher education to “educate the whole person.” These efforts aim to develop “deep” qualities like grit, critical thinking, perseverance, learning from failure, valuing diversity, teamwork, leadership, curiosity, recognizing opportunity, creating value, and acting …

Exploring Science And Engineering Practices In Children’S Picture Books, Derrick A. Nero, Kathleen Everts Danielson

Michigan Reading Journal

This article features an annotated bibliography of children’s books that illustrate engineering concepts tied to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Science and Engineering Practices for K-2 students (National Science Teaching Association -NSTA, n.d., see Appendix A) and NGSS K-2 Engineering Design performance expectations (NSTA, n.d., see Appendix B). The selected children’s books encourage discussion and model the process of inquiry and problem solving that may inspire young children to explore STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) questions of their own.