The traditional engineering design process taught in universities across the country focuses on several common design steps, although often placing little emphasis on creating value. In collaboration with KEEN, a network of thousands of engineering faculty working to unleash undergraduate engineers so that they can create personal, economic, and societal value through the entrepreneurial mindset, a large mid-western university is adding multiple entrepreneurial minded learning (EML) elements to an existing first-year course. This paper represents the first phase of a four-phase, 18-month pilot, during which we explored the impact of EML in first-year engineering classrooms on motivation and identity across multiple universities. We used a mixed methods investigation for the current practices of five KEEN-related first-year engineering programs currently incorporating EML elements into their curricula. Researchers visited each site and collected data via focus groups with first-year engineering faculty and observations of EML classrooms. The notes from the focus groups were qualitatively coded and analyzed while quantitative analysis was used for the results from the Global Real-time Assessment Tool for Enhancement (G-RATE) assessment of the classroom observations. We mapped the findings to the KEEN Framework and the Longitudinal Model of Motivation and Identity (LMMI), which combines self-determination theory with possible-selves theory. The results were used to develop a set of best practices that may be incorporated into EML projects and courses such as allowing students some type of choice in their project, whether it is open-ended or highly bounded. These best practices were leveraged during the curriculum development in subsequent phases of the pilot to encourage autonomous motivation and identity development of first-year engineering students.
Renee Desing is a postdoctoral scholar at the Ohio State University in the Department of Engineering Education. Dr. Desing recently graduated from Ohio State with her Ph.D. in Engineering Education. Her research interests include motivation & identity in engineering and diversity & inclusion in the workplace. Dr. Desing also holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a M.S. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the Pennsylvania State University.
Krista Kecskemety is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Engineering Education at The Ohio State University. Krista received her B.S. in Aerospace Engineering at The Ohio State University in 2006 and received her M.S. from Ohio State in 2007. In 2012, Krista completed her Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering at Ohio State. Her engineering education research interests include investigating first-year engineering student experiences, faculty experiences, and the connection between the two.
Dr. Rachel Louis Kajfez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at The Ohio State University. She earned her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering from Ohio State and earned her Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Virginia Tech. Her research interests focus on the intersection between motivation and identity of undergraduate and graduate students, first-year engineering programs, mixed methods research, and innovative approaches to teaching. She is the faculty lead for the Research on Identity and Motivation in Engineering (RIME) Collaborative.
Dr. Deborah M. Grzybowski is a Professor of Practice in the Department of Engineering Education at The Ohio State University (OSU). She has been involved with developing and accessing curriculum for nearly 20 years. Her research focuses on making engineering accessible for all, including persons with disabilities and underrepresented students, through innovative curriculum, assessment, and professional development. Infusing and assessing entrepreneurial-minded learning into the first-year curriculum and developing a new undergraduate major in Game Studies and Esports at OSU have been recent projects.
Monica F. Cox, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair in the Department of Engineering Education at The Ohio State University. Prior to this appointment, she was a Associate Professor in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University, the Inaugural Director of the College of Engineering's Leadership Minor, and the Director of the International Institute of Engineering Education Assessment (i2e2a). In 2013, she became founder and owner of STEMinent LLC, a company focused on STEM education assessment and professional development for stakeholders in K-12 education, higher education, and Corporate America. Her research is focused upon the use of mixed methodologies to explore significant research questions in undergraduate, graduate, and professional engineering education, to integrate concepts from higher education and learning science into engineering education, and to develop and disseminate reliable and valid assessment tools for use across the engineering education continuum.
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