Transitioning from capstone design courses to workplaces: a study of new engineers’ first three months
- Autores: Julie Ford, Marie C. Paretti, Daria KotysSchwartz, Susannah Howe, Christopher Gewirtz, Jessica Deters, Tahsin Mahmud Chowdhury, Robin Ott, Nicholas Emory Alvarez, Daniel Knight, Cristian Hernandez, Laura Rosenbauer, Anne Kary, Francesca Giardine
- Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 35, no. Extra 6 (Parte B), 2019 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Selected Papers from the 2018 Capstone Design Conference), págs. 1993-2013
- Idioma: inglés
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Resumen
This study investigates engineering students’ transitions from academic to professional environments by examining the rolecapstone design courses play in preparing graduates for the workplace. To better understand how capstone design experiencescontribute to graduates’ professional preparation, we recruited participants from four different institutions as they completedmultiple-semester project-based capstone design courses. We then followed them through their first three months of work usingweekly quantitative surveys about participants’ work activities and perceived preparedness, and weekly reflective journal responsesabout significant challenges experienced. To analyze the data, we useda prioriand emergent codes to identify challenges, strategies,and areas of transfer from capstone to work, in combination with frequency analysis to identify patterns across the data set. Theresults indicate that participants’ most significant challenges centered on self-directed learning and interpersonal communication,and that capstone courses played a key role in supporting professional preparation in these areas.
