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1. Understanding Equity of Access in Engineering Education Making Spaces

   https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10100384  

   Villanueva Alarcón I, Downey RJ (October 2021, Social sciences)

   The goal of our exploratory study was to examine how management and staff in engineering education making spaces are enacting equitable access amongst their users (e.g., students). We examined six different making space types categorized by Wilczynsky’s and Hoover’s classification of academic makerspaces, which considered scope, accessibility, users, footprint (size), and management and staffing. We reviewed research memos and transcripts of interviews of university makerspace staff, student staff, and leaders/administrators during two separate visits to these places that took place between 2017 and 2019. We inductively and deductively coded the data, and the findings suggested that equity of access was situational and contextual. From the results, we identified four additional considerations needed to ensure equitable access for engineering education making spaces: (a) spaces designed and operated for multiple points of student entry; (b) spaces operated to facilitate effective student making processes and pathways; (c) threats to expanded access: burdens and consequences; and (d) elevating student membership and equity through a culture of belonging. Together, the findings point toward a need for developing a more nuanced understanding of the concept of access that far supersedes a flattened definition of access to just space, equipment, and cost. 

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2. Engineering Faculty Members’ Perceptions of University Makerspaces: Potential Affordances for Curriculum, Instructional Practices, and Student Learning

   Lenhart, C. st (October 2020, IJEE International Journal of Engineering Education)

   null (Ed.)

   We detail an exploratory study of faculty members’ perceptions of activities associated with undergraduate engineering programs in university-based makerspaces. Our study examines the affordances and constraints faculty perceive regarding teaching and learning in these spaces and, specifically, how makerspaces support engineering faculty members in accomplishing the goals and expectations they have for undergraduate students’ learning and development. We found that makerspaces inspired faculty members’ curricular and instructional innovations, including design of new courses and implementation of practices meant to result in more team-based and active learning. Faculty perceived student activities in makerspaces as fostering of student agency and development of engineering skills, knowledge, and affect. Faculty also identified concerns related to the teaching of engineering in these spaces, including the need to change their instructional practices to more fully engage students and to balance the sophisticated tools and resources with the rigor of completing complex engineering tasks. We use structuration theory to illuminate how faculty act, rationalize, and reflect on their teaching practices and goals in relation to structures present in university-based makerspace. Our study is intended to inform faculty and administrators working to engage students through interactions in makerspaces or similar innovations, and to consider how access to and impact of these structures support undergraduate engineering education. 

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3. Engineering faculty perceptions of university makerspaces: Potential affordances for curriculum, instructional practices, and student learning.

   Lenhart, C.; Bouwma-Gearhart, J.; Villanueva, I.; & Nadelson, L. (January 2020, IJEE International Journal of Engineering Education)

   We detail an exploratory study of faculty members’ perceptions of activities associated with undergraduate engineering programs in university-based makerspaces. Our study examines the affordances and constraints faculty perceive regarding teaching and learning in these spaces and, specifically, how makerspaces support engineering faculty members in accomplishing the goals and expectations they have for undergraduate students’ learning and development. We found that makerspaces inspired faculty members’ curricular and instructional innovations, including design of new courses and implementation of practices meant to result in more team-based and active learning. Faculty perceived student activities in makerspaces as fostering of student agency and development of engineering skills, knowledge, and affect. Faculty also identified concerns related to the teaching of engineering in these spaces, including the need to change their instructional practices to more fully engage students and to balance the sophisticated tools and resources with the rigor of completing complex engineering tasks. We use structuration theory to illuminate how faculty act, rationalize, and reflect on their teaching practices and goals in relation to structures present in university-based makerspace. Our study is intended to inform faculty and administrators working to engage students through interactions in makerspaces or similar innovations, and to consider how access to and impact of these structures support undergraduate engineering education. 

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4. A Study of Students’ Tool Usage and Involvement within Academic Makerspaces

   Kaat, C (August 2024, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA. MS Thesis.)

   Over the past two decades, many studies have analyzed the extensive benefits of makerspaces towards student education, design-self efficacy, and community involvement. However, less work has been dedicated to examining the ways in which students interact within makerspaces. This study seeks to dive deeper into the patterns of tools that students are using and how this knowledge can inform makerspaces and make them more effective. Tool usage data was collected through end of semester surveys administered to students at two large public universities over the course of 5 semesters: Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, and Spring 2023. The survey asked a variety of questions about prior makerspace experience, general and specific tool usage, and student demographics. The first three semesters of data were used to gain an understanding of how different student groups – defined based on categories such as major, demographic, or class taken – interact with various tools within the space. Combined semester analysis was used to understand how underrepresented minorities were utilizing the space while between semester analysis was used to see trends in makerspace usage over time. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic at the start of the study provided ample opportunity to examine the effects of unprecedented disruptive events and the resulting restrictions on the health of makerspaces and student interactions. Results showed substantial differences in usage between schools and student groups as well as a decline in usage following the onset of COVID restrictions. In the final two semesters, a pilot study was conducted at both makerspaces to determine how hands-on, and tour-based workshops offered to students can be used to increase tool usage in makerspaces and more successfully welcome new students into the maker world. While there is insufficient data to make any conclusions from these interventions, they showed the potential for promising results if future work is performed. Finally, insights from this study are used to offer suggestions to makerspace administrators on how to address poor makerspace usage. 

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5. The Effects of COVID-19 on Students’ Tool Usage in Academic Makerspaces

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--43122  

   Blair, Samuel; Crose, Claire; Linsey, Julie; Layton, Astrid (June 2023, 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   When college campuses resumed in-person learning opportunities following initial lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, many facets of campus life looked different. These differences continue to evolve from semester to semester because of changing health guidelines, school decisions, and personal convictions. Academic makerspaces were not exempt from these changes and have experienced fluctuating usage and usage barriers over the past several semesters. Better understanding the effects of COVID-19 on academic makerspaces can help ensure that students continue to draw maximum benefits from these learning spaces and also provides potential advice for administrators and educators for future disturbances. Data collected via tool usage surveys administered to makerspace users at a large public university during the three semesters following the start of the pandemic (Fall 2020, Spring 2021, and Spring 2022) is used here to investigate. COVID-19 restrictions present during Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 were mostly loosened in Spring 2022. The makerspace is modeled as a bipartite network, with student and tool interactions determined via end-of-semester surveys. The network is analyzed using nestedness, a metric primarily used in ecology to evaluate the stability of an ecosystem and proposed here as a quantitative method to evaluate makerspace health. The surveys used to create the network models also provide validation, as students were asked to share tools used during the semester in question. The results suggest that nestedness is linearly proportional to usage, both increases and decreases. As such, tracking the nestedness of a makespace over time can serve as a warning that unintended restrictions are in place, intentional restrictions and/or policies may be too severe, or whether a space has effectively recovered from temporary restrictions. 

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