Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Courter, Sandra Shaw
• Millar, Susan B.
• Lyons, Lyman

Titel

From the Students' Point of View: Experiences in a Freshman Engineering Design Course

Ist Teil von

• Journal of engineering education (Washington, D.C.), 1998-07, Vol.87 (3), p.283-288

Ort / Verlag

Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

1998

Quelle

Wiley Online Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• We evaluated the pilot semester of a freshman introduction to engineering course in order to provide an understanding of the students' experience in the course and identify aspects of this experience that could lead to improved student retention in engineering. The course concentrates on having students work in teams to identify customer needs, find solutions, and design and build a final product. We used qualitative research methods for data collection and analysis that included interviewing students using a set of open‐ended questions, thus allowing them to introduce issues and describe their experiences. Our analysis indicated that students experienced engineering in a supportive, team‐oriented environment that provided a context for making informed career decisions. The students' experiences indicate that courses such as this one can help students face the challenges they encounter in beginning their engineering education.