Are our students prepared? The impact of Capstone design pedagogical approaches on student skill development during industry-sponsored fieldwork

Abstract

Capstone design courses are field-based courses in which students work on realworld industry-sponsored projects. The structure of engineering capstone design courses varies between institutions as well as within an institution in the context of faculty engagement, industry involvement, and course learning objectives. We present a summary of an ongoing study focused on assessing engineering skills prefieldwork and postfieldwork experience at two institutions with different course structures in their respective industrial engineering programs. Our research goals are twofold: (1) to develop a framework for measuring the changes in students' engineering skills during their capstone course and determine how these skills align with industry expectations and (2) to explore how differences in capstone course delivery impact the capstone experience. We developed two assessment instruments, one that involves student self-assessment across a set of engineering skills, and one with which the industry partners involved with mentoring participants in the projects evaluate the same students' engineering skills using the same assessment items. The results of this case study inform educators on students' perceived skill levels as well as industry expectations of a newly graduated engineer's performance across a range of skills deemed important for workplace success. We also discuss the impact of pedagogical approaches and fieldwork course structures on skill development and project success.