Human needs and goals are integral to engineering, but human-centered engineering requires understanding principles and methods from the social sciences. Instruction is needed to introduce engineering students to these concepts. This study explored (a) students’ initial attitudes toward human systems engineering (HSE) and the bridging of psychology and engineering and (b) how attitudes shifted over one semester. Undergraduate students responded to a survey of their attitudes and conceptions at the beginning (n = 215) and end (n = 146) of a semester. Students reported high perceived value for human-centered engineering, and these attitudes remained stable or increased. Students gained in their perceived understanding of psychological concepts and user-centered design, their ability to define HSE, and ability to articulate the value of human-centered engineering. Introductory coursework in Human Systems Engineering may thus help to prepare engineering students to appreciate the psychological underpinnings of their work and engage in human-centered engineering. more »« less
Roscoe, Rod D.; Arnold, Samuel T.; Johnson, Chelsea K.
(, Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting)
null
(Ed.)
The success of engineering and design is facilitated by a working understanding of human thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. In this study, we explored how undergraduate engineering students included such human-centered and psychological concepts in their project documentation. Although, we observed a range of concepts related to design processes, teams, cognition, and motivation, these concepts appeared infrequently and superficially. We discuss how this analysis and approach may help to identify topics that could be leveraged for future human-centered engineering instruction.
Stevens, Samantha M.; Ruberton, Peter M.; Smyth, Joshua M.; Cohen, Geoffrey L.; Purdie Greenaway, Valerie; Cook, Jonathan E.
(, PLOS ONE)
Benetreau, Yann
(Ed.)
To advance understanding of doctoral student experiences and the high attrition rates among Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) doctoral students, we developed and examined the psychological profiles of different types of doctoral students. We used latent class analysis on self-reported psychological data relevant to psychological threat from 1,081 incoming doctoral students across three universities and found that the best-fitting model delineated four threat classes: Lowest Threat , Nonchalant , Engaged/Worried , and Highest Threat . These classes were associated with characteristics measured at the beginning of students’ first semester of graduate school that may influence attrition risk, including differences in academic preparation (e.g., amount of research experience), self-evaluations and perceived fit (e.g., sense of belonging), attitudes towards graduate school and academia (e.g., strength of motivation), and interpersonal relations (e.g., perceived social support). Lowest Threat students tended to report the most positive characteristics and Highest Threat students the most negative characteristics, whereas the results for Nonchalant and Engaged/Worried students were more mixed. Ultimately, we suggest that Engaged/Worried and Highest Threat students are at relatively high risk of attrition. Moreover, the demographic distributions of profiles differed, with members of groups more likely to face social identity threat (e.g., women) being overrepresented in a higher threat profile (i.e., Engaged/Worried students) and underrepresented in lower threat profiles (i.e., Lowest Threat and Nonchalant students). We conclude that doctoral students meaningfully vary in their psychological threat at the beginning of graduate study and suggest that these differences may portend divergent outcomes.
Yang, Jeong; Earwood, Brandon; Kim, Young Rae; Lodgher, Akhtar
(, 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference)
Security is a critical aspect in the design, development, and testing of software systems. Due to the increasing need for security-related skills within software systems and engineering, there is a growing demand for these skills to be taught at the university level. A series of 41 security modules was developed to assess the impact of these modules on teaching critical cyber security topics to students. This paper presents the implementation and outcomes of the first set of six security modules in a Freshman level course. This set consists of five modules presented in lectures as well as a sixth module emphasizing encryption and decryption used as the semester project for the course. Each module is a collection of concepts related to cyber security. The individual cyber security concepts are presented with a general description of a security issue to avoid, sample code with the security issue written in the Java programming language, and a second version of the code with an effective solution. The set of these modules was implemented in Computer Science I during the Fall 2019 semester. Incorporating each of the concepts in these modules into lectures depends on both the topic covered and the approach to resolving the related security issue. Students were introduced to computing concepts related to both the security issue and the appropriate solution to fully grasp the overall concept. After presenting the materials to students, continual review with students is also essential. This reviewal process requires exploring use-cases for the programming mechanisms presented as solutions to the security issues discussed. In addition to the security modules presented in lectures, students were given a hands-on approach to understanding the concepts through Model-Eliciting Activities (MEAs). MEAs are open-ended, problem-solving activities in which groups of three to four students work to solve realistic complex problems in a classroom setting. The semester project related to encryption and decryption was implemented into the course as an MEA. To assess the effectiveness of incorporating security modules with the MEA project into the curriculum of Computer Science I, two sections of the course were used as a control group and a treatment group. The treatment group included the security modules in lectures and the MEA project while the control group did not. To measure the overall effectiveness of incorporating security modules with the MEA project, both the instructor’s effectiveness as well as the student’s attitudes and interest were measured. For instructors, the primary question to address was to what extent do instructors change their attitudes towards student learning and their teaching practices because of the implementation of cyber security modules through MEAs. For students, the primary question to address was how the inclusion of security modules with the MEA project improved their understanding of the course materials and their interests in computer science. After implementing security modules with the MEA project, students showed a better understanding of cyber security concepts and a greater interest in broader computer science concepts. The instructor’s beliefs about teaching, learning, and assessment shifted from teacher-centered to student-centered, during his experience with the security modules and MEA.
Pflueger, Ruth C.; Meckley, Jonathan A.
(, 2022 ASEE North Central Section Annual Conference)
ABET lists the ability to communicate in writing to both technical and non-technical audiences as a required outcome for baccalaureate engineering students [1]. From emails and memos to formal reports, the ability to communicate is vital to the engineering profession. This Work in Progress paper describes research being done as part of an NSF-funded project, Writing Assignment Tutor Training in STEM (WATTS). The method is designed to improve feedback writing tutors without technical backgrounds give to engineering students on technical reports. Students in engineering programs have few opportunities to develop their writing skills. Usually, composition courses are part of the general education curriculum. Students often see these courses as unrelated to their majors and careers [2]. Ideally, writing support should be integrated throughout a program. Since WATTs capitalizes on existing resources and requires only a modest amount of faculty time, it could enable engineering programs to provide additional writing support to students in multiple courses and provide a bridge for them to see the connection between writing concepts learned in composition courses and their technical reports. WATTS was developed in a junior-level circuit analysis course, where students were completing the same lab and writing individual reports. This paper focuses on a senior capstone course that utilizes concepts taught in previous courses to prepare students to complete an independent team research or design project. Projects are unique, usually based on the needs of an industrial sponsor, and are completed over three consecutive semesters. Each semester, teams write a report based on their activities during that semester, with a comprehensive report in the final semester. The multi-semester nature of the senior design project provides an opportunity for the researchers to chart longitudinal changes from the first to the students’ third semester interactions with the writing tutors, assessing the value of an integrated approach. The program’s impact on students’ attitudes toward revision and the value of tutoring, as well as the impact on tutors, are part of the assessment plan. The program hopes to change the students’ focus from simply presenting their results to communicating them. The goals of the project are to demonstrate to students that revision is essential to the writing process and that feedback can improve their written communication abilities. The expectation is that after graduation they will continue to seek critical feedback as part of their career growth. Surveys given to both students and tutors revealed that the sessions were taken seriously by the students and that meaningful collaboration was achieved between them. An evaluation of the writing in pre-tutored to final submitted report shows statistically significant improvement. Preliminary and current results will be included within the paper. [1] Criteria for Accrediting Engineering Technology Programs, ABET, Baltimore, MD., 2020, p.5, ETAC Criteria (abet.org) [2] Bergmann, L. S. and Zepernick, J., “Disciplinarity and Transfer: Students’ Perceptions of Learning to Write,” Writing Program Administration, 31, Fall/Winter 2007.
Challenge or problem-based learning help students develop deeper content understanding and enhanced STEM skillsets and provide opportunities for learning across multiple contexts. Educational interventions that include active learning, mentoring, and role modeling are particularly important in recruiting and retaining female and minority students in STEM. With this framework in mind, we implemented the Vertically-Integrated Projects (VIP) model at a public urban research university in the 2022-2023 academic year with the goal of helping participating students increase engineering and STEM identity and other psychosocial outcomes. This paper reports the results from the first year of our VIP program. At the beginning and end of the academic year, participants completed measures of engineering identity; engineering self-efficacy; engineering mindset; intention to remain in the engineering major; intention to have a career in engineering; and STEM professional identity. Wilcoxon Signed Ranks (N=10) tests showed no statistically significant differences on any of these measures. Participants also responded to 20 items assessing their perceptions of their level of knowledge and skills in a variety of areas relevant to their experience in the VIP program. Wilcoxon Signed Ranks tests (N=10) revealed some statistically significant differences between pre- and post-test. Specifically, students tended to see themselves as having greater knowledge or skills in planning a long-term project, communicating technical concepts and designs to others, designing systems, components, or processes to meet practical or applied needs, understanding computer hardware and systems, working on a multidisciplinary team, and making ethical decisions in engineering/research. Finally, at the end of the Spring semester, participants rated the extent to which they perceived the VIP program helped them to develop their skills on the same 20 items. Most participants believed the VIP program helped them to develop each skill either somewhat or a great deal. Overall, while participation in the VIP program did not influence student engineering identity, self-efficacy, mindset, or major/career intentions, it was associated with increased self-perceived abilities on six specific skills. Additionally, most participants agreed that the VIP program helped them develop 20 skills at least “somewhat.”
Roscoe, Rod D, Siegle, Robert F, Arnold, Samuel T, and Clark, Ashley T. Teaching psychology to future engineers.. Retrieved from https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10514424. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology . Web. doi:10.1037/stl0000362.
Roscoe, Rod D, Siegle, Robert F, Arnold, Samuel T, & Clark, Ashley T. Teaching psychology to future engineers.. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, (). Retrieved from https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10514424. https://doi.org/10.1037/stl0000362
Roscoe, Rod D, Siegle, Robert F, Arnold, Samuel T, and Clark, Ashley T.
"Teaching psychology to future engineers.". Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology (). Country unknown/Code not available: American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/stl0000362.https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10514424.
@article{osti_10514424,
place = {Country unknown/Code not available},
title = {Teaching psychology to future engineers.},
url = {https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10514424},
DOI = {10.1037/stl0000362},
abstractNote = {Human needs and goals are integral to engineering, but human-centered engineering requires understanding principles and methods from the social sciences. Instruction is needed to introduce engineering students to these concepts. This study explored (a) students’ initial attitudes toward human systems engineering (HSE) and the bridging of psychology and engineering and (b) how attitudes shifted over one semester. Undergraduate students responded to a survey of their attitudes and conceptions at the beginning (n = 215) and end (n = 146) of a semester. Students reported high perceived value for human-centered engineering, and these attitudes remained stable or increased. Students gained in their perceived understanding of psychological concepts and user-centered design, their ability to define HSE, and ability to articulate the value of human-centered engineering. Introductory coursework in Human Systems Engineering may thus help to prepare engineering students to appreciate the psychological underpinnings of their work and engage in human-centered engineering.},
journal = {Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology},
publisher = {American Psychological Association},
author = {Roscoe, Rod D and Siegle, Robert F and Arnold, Samuel T and Clark, Ashley T},
}
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