Industry-University Capstone Design: How Did Students Adapt to the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Shruti Misra; Denise Wilson

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Conference: 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual Conference
Publication Date: July 26, 2021
Start Date: July 26, 2021
End Date: July 19, 2022
Conference Session: College Industry Partnerships Division Technical Session 1
Tagged Division: College Industry Partnerships
Page Count: 23
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--37331
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/37331
Download Count: 429

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Paper Authors

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Shruti Misra Unviersity of Washington

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Shruti Misra is a graduate student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Washington, Seattle. Her research interest is broadly focused on studying innovation in university-industry partnerships. She is interested in the various ways that universities and industry come together and participate in driving technological innovation at the regional and global level.

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Denise Wilson University of Washington

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Denise Wilson is a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington, Seattle. Her research interests in engineering education focus on the role of self-efficacy, belonging, and other non-cognitive aspects of the student experience on engagement, success, and persistence and on effective methods for teaching global issues such as those pertaining to sustainability.

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Abstract

A 2015 survey of 256 institutions from the US revealed that 70% of their capstone programs were funded by industry and government sponsors. This indicates the pervasiveness of capstone programs that partner with external sponsors to provide a “real-world” design experience to students. In this vein, the industry-sponsored Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship (ENGINE) capstone program was established at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at a large research university in the US. ENGINE is designed to provide a holistic and professional engineering experience to students in an educational setting, where student teams work on a six-month long project under the guidance of an industry and a faculty mentor. The program is overseen by a course instructor and teaching assistants who manage the course structure and expectations.

This study compares student experiences in ENGINE during remote learning necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic to those in traditional, in-person learning. ENGINE students were surveyed in Spring 2018 and Spring 2020 to understand which components of the ENGINE program mattered most to student learning and how. Close-ended survey responses were analyzed using statistical methods and short answer questions were analyzed using qualitative methods in a sequential, mixed methods approach. Exploratory factor analysis of the Likert-scale items revealed that measures of instructional support and “real-world” experience contributed to student learning. No statistically significant differences in these measures between remote and traditional learning environments emerged. To address this lack of difference, a qualitative analysis was conducted to understand how the student capstone design experience changed during the pandemic.

The qualitative analysis revealed that the lack of significant difference may be due to the fact that students rapidly adapted to the remote learning disruption. The results provide an insight into the various ways in which students acclimated to the crisis circumstances. These adaptations manifested in the form of product and process adaptations, in which students swiftly adjusted their final product or design process to respond to the evolving crisis. Students used various strategies such as changing team roles and ways of communication, using different tools and technology, and creative technical solutions to drive product and process adaptations. However, these adaptations may have come at the cost of students' mental health. By shedding light on student experience of the capstone during the pandemic, this study acknowledges the resilience students have displayed during a crisis, while recognizing that the cost of such resilience must not be neglected.

Citation
Format

Misra, S., & Wilson, D. (2021, July), Industry-University Capstone Design: How Did Students Adapt to the COVID-19 Pandemic? Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37331

TY - CPAPER
AB - A 2015 survey of 256 institutions from the US revealed that 70% of their capstone programs were funded by industry and government sponsors. This indicates the pervasiveness of capstone programs that partner with external sponsors to provide a “real-world” design experience to students. In this vein, the industry-sponsored Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship (ENGINE) capstone program was established at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at a large research university in the US. ENGINE is designed to provide a holistic and professional engineering experience to students in an educational setting, where student teams work on a six-month long project under the guidance of an industry and a faculty mentor. The program is overseen by a course instructor and teaching assistants who manage the course structure and expectations.

This study compares student experiences in ENGINE during remote learning necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic to those in traditional, in-person learning. ENGINE students were surveyed in Spring 2018 and Spring 2020 to understand which components of the ENGINE program mattered most to student learning and how. Close-ended survey responses were analyzed using statistical methods and short answer questions were analyzed using qualitative methods in a sequential, mixed methods approach. Exploratory factor analysis of the Likert-scale items revealed that measures of instructional support and “real-world” experience contributed to student learning. No statistically significant differences in these measures between remote and traditional learning environments emerged. To address this lack of difference, a qualitative analysis was conducted to understand how the student capstone design experience changed during the pandemic.

The qualitative analysis revealed that the lack of significant difference may be due to the fact that students rapidly adapted to the remote learning disruption. The results provide an insight into the various ways in which students acclimated to the crisis circumstances. These adaptations manifested in the form of product and process adaptations, in which students swiftly adjusted their final product or design process to respond to the evolving crisis. Students used various strategies such as changing team roles and ways of communication, using different tools and technology, and creative technical solutions to drive product and process adaptations. However, these adaptations may have come at the cost of students&#39; mental health. By shedding light on student experience of the capstone during the pandemic, this study acknowledges the resilience students have displayed during a crisis, while recognizing that the cost of such resilience must not be neglected.

AU - Shruti Misra
AU - Denise Wilson
CY - Virtual Conference
DA - 2021/07/26
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Industry-University Capstone Design: How Did Students Adapt to the COVID-19 Pandemic?
UR - https://strategy.asee.org/37331
DO - 10.18260/1-2--37331
ER -