IMPROVING DESIGN OUTCOMES USING ASSESSMENT BASED DOUBLE LOOP LEARNING

Abstract

DOI: 10.14684/intertech.13.2014.56-60

Traditional engineering education revolves around the use of stove-pipe curricula, using mostly passive lectures and cookbook laboratories with pre-determined results. Real-world engineering is not pre-determined; problems are open-ended with many possible correct results. In addition real-world engineering is often team-oriented requiring active participation from all. This paper describes a proof of concept study focused on determining the efficacy of assessment based double loop learning utilized to improve engineering student’s design skills. Our research study determined a boundary level by examining student’s present design skills over all 4 years of the electrical and computer engineering (ECE) curriculum. During the second and third years of the study, junior engineering students took a new studio-based open-ended design course where students use multiple design process assessments to improve upon their use of sound design practice, thereby improving their outcomes in design. Initial results show very promising design skill improvements and design assessment tools. Index Terms - Assessment of Design Skills, Engineering Design Skills, Open-ended Problem Solving.