Let's get physical? The impact of dissection modality on engineering student design learning

Elizabeth M. Starkey, Alexander S. McKay, Samuel T. Hunter, Scarlett R. Miller

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

Product dissection, or the systematic disassembly of design products, has been utilized in engineering education in order to better prepare students for industry. Despite the common use of product dissection in engineering classrooms, knowledge is lacking about how effective different methods of dissection are for encouraging learning and student engineering self-efficacy. This is problematic because without this knowledge, we do not know what components of product dissection impact (positively or negatively) learning. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify the impact of dissection virtuality (physical and virtual), product power source (electrical and manual), and product complexity (simple and complex) on efficiency, learning, and engineering self-efficacy through a factorial experiment with 30 engineering students. The results of the study show that virtual dissection is more efficient than its physical counterpart and also maintains the same learning benefits as physical practices. These results are used to develop recommendations for the use of product dissection in education and propel future research that investigates relationships between example-based design practices and student learning outcomes.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication18th International Conference on Advanced Vehicle Technologies; 13th International Conference on Design Education; 9th Frontiers in Biomedical Devices
PublisherAmerican Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
ISBN (Electronic)9780791850138
DOIs
StatePublished - 2016
EventASME 2016 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, IDETC/CIE 2016 - Charlotte, United States
Duration: Aug 21 2016Aug 24 2016

Publication series

NameProceedings of the ASME Design Engineering Technical Conference
Volume3

Other

OtherASME 2016 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, IDETC/CIE 2016
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityCharlotte
Period8/21/168/24/16

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Modeling and Simulation

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