Exploring Faculty and Student Frameworks for Engineering Knowledge Using an Online Card Sorting Platform

Authors

  • Diana A. Chen University of San Diego https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3616-1538
  • Gordon D. Hoople University of San Diego
  • Nico Ledwith California Polytechnic State University
  • Eric Burlingame California Polytechnic State University
  • Seth D. Bush California Polytechnic State University
  • Gregory E. Scott California Polytechnic State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3991/ijep.v10i1.11336

Keywords:

Faculty attitudes, interdisciplinary, assessment tools, student perception, philosophy of engineering education

Abstract


In this study we investigate how faculty and students think about engineering us-ing a technique new to engineering education: card sorting. In card sorting partic-ipants sort stimuli (cards) into groups, in the process revealing how they catego-rize information. Here we examine how both engineering faculty (n=23) and first-year undergraduate students (n=62) categorize engineering scenarios. We found engineering faculty sort based on cross-disciplinary engineering activities rather than engineering disciplines. This is a surprising result as our educational frameworks are based around disciplines, and yet they are not the primary way in which faculty think. First-year students, on the other hand, showed little consen-sus on how to sort the scenarios. As a part of this paper we unveil an online card sorting platform Collection and Analysis of Research Data for Sorting (CARDS). CARDS allows researchers to create card sorting tasks, distribute them to participants for remote data collection, and analyze quantitative results.

Author Biographies

Diana A. Chen, University of San Diego

Assistant Professor, Integrated Engineering

Gordon D. Hoople, University of San Diego

Assistant Professor, Integrated Engineering

Nico Ledwith, California Polytechnic State University

Undergraduate Student, Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering

Eric Burlingame, California Polytechnic State University

Undergraduate Student, Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering

Seth D. Bush, California Polytechnic State University

Professor and Chair, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Gregory E. Scott, California Polytechnic State University

Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

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Published

2020-01-27

How to Cite

Chen, D. A., Hoople, G. D., Ledwith, N., Burlingame, E., Bush, S. D., & Scott, G. E. (2020). Exploring Faculty and Student Frameworks for Engineering Knowledge Using an Online Card Sorting Platform. International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy (iJEP), 10(1), pp. 62–81. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijep.v10i1.11336

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 1 (2020)

Section

Papers

License

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