An examination of the factors that influence students’capstone project choices

• Autores: Robert A. Hart, Todd W. Polk
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 33, no. 5, 2017, págs. 1422-1431
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • During the project selection phase in a capstone course, it is often the case that some projects are more popular than others.To understand the factors students consider when selecting a capstone project, Mechanical, Biomedical, and Electricalengineering students were surveyed. An initial survey in 2015 of 83 participants rated how important each of 14 pre-determined factors were in their recent individual project selection process. The data was analyzed to determine the relativeimportance of the factors. A second survey was conducted in 2016 with 69 participants using a slightly modified set of 18pre-determined factors. The results of these two surveys were consistent and showed that a majority of students are takinginto account a diverse range of factors when they select their capstone projects. The top rated factors in both surveys relateto three main areas: (1) to gain experience in a particular field or technology, (2) the desire to work with industry partnersand (3) the quality and completeness of the information about the particular project available at bidding time. These resultsare used to identify some specific actions that can be taken to significantly increase the chance that students have a positiveeducational experience in capstone courses.