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We investigated research processes applied in recent publications in the European Journal of Engineering Education (EJEE), exploring how papers link to theoretical work and how research processes have been designed and reported. We analysed all 155 papers published in EJEE in 2009, 2010 and 2013, classifying the papers using a taxonomy of research processes in engineering education research (EER) (Malmi et al. 2012). The majority of the papers presented either empirical work (59%) or were case reports (27%). Our main findings are as follows: (1) EJEE papers build moderately on a wide selection of theoretical work; (2) a great majority of papers have a clear research strategy, but data analysis methods are mostly simple descriptive statistics or simple/undocumented qualitative research methods; and (3) there are significant shortcomings in reporting research questions, methodology and limitations of studies. Our findings are consistent with and extend analyses of EER papers in other publishing venues; they help to build a clearer picture of the research currently published in EJEE and allow us to make recommendations for consideration by the editorial team of the journal. Our employed procedure also provides a framework that can be applied to monitor future global evolution of this and other EER journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem-solving is a key engineering skill, yet is an area in which engineering graduates underperform. This paper investigates the potential of using web-based tools to teach students problem-solving techniques without the need to make use of class time. An idea generation experiment involving 90 students was designed. Students were surveyed about their study habits and reported they use electronic-based materials more than paper-based materials while studying, suggesting students may engage with web-based tools. Students then generated solutions to a problem task using either a paper-based template or an equivalent web interface. Students who used the web-based approach performed as well as students who used the paper-based approach, suggesting the technique can be successfully adopted and taught online. Web-based tools may therefore be adopted as supplementary material in a range of engineering courses as a way to increase students’ options for enhancing problem-solving skills. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Empirical research on practicing engineers can inform engineering education as it provides evidence for what engineering students ought to learn. Whilst there has been a growing interest and scholarship in this area, there has not been any systematic attempt to map the empirical research on practicing engineers and develop an agenda for research on engineering practice. To address this gap, we conducted a mapping review of empirical research studies of practicing engineers. We limited our search to studies published in peer-reviewed journal articles since 2000 and identified 187 papers. We used inductive content analysis to categorise the papers intofive research themes: 1) learning in the workplace, 2) competencies and attributes needed for practice, 3) activities undertaken by engineers, 4) diversity, and 5) engineers' identity. For each theme, we report common findings and gaps that can inform future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the role of grit – defined as both perseverance and passion for long-term goals – on human performance has been conducted for the past decade. It has been suggested that this non-cognitive factor is a better predictor of students' retention than traditional academic measures. These findings hold relevance for engineering education research but studies on this area are still scarce. This paper provides a systematic review of the current state of research on grit and its correlates in engineering higher education research. Publications were identified using three types of databases specific to engineering education; a final set of 31 relevant records was analysed by type of population, methods, research topics and main results. Most of the reviewed studies implemented quantitative methodologies to assess grit and also used one of the two versions of Duckworth's Grit scale. Key findings are that in engineering education research, both the conceptualisation of grit and research reporting procedures have been inconsistent. Such inconsistency hinders interpretation of the impact of grit in engineering education. In response, new research avenues and best practices for reporting are proffered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer review has been the focus of an ongoing study at a series of recent annual conferences of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE). A further development of this study has been to explore the perspective/s of the authors of these conference papers and the impact that peer review can have on their development as researchers. This paper uses the identity-trajectory framework to illustrate relationships between peer review and academic identity construction for engineering education authors in the AAEE community. Participants' responses illustrate how various aspects of responding to reviews and writing reviews for other authors, contribute to the development of the networking and intellectual strands of their academic identity as engineering education researchers. We suggest that members of the global engineering education community should be mindful of how they write their peer reviews of conference papers to ensure the opportunity to constructively contribute to their peers' successful transition into this different research paradigm is not missed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Future engineering professionals have to deal with increasing complexity and uncertainty, as global challenges, such as climate change, globalisation and digitalisation, require creative, innovative solutions and interdisciplinary perspectives. Accordingly, engineering graduates have to be prepared to deal with those kinds of problems at different levels. Coping with uncertain and highly complex problems as well as learning from them is referred to as resilience. However, it is not well understood how and to what concern resilience is discussed in engineering education. Therefore, this systematic literature review aims to clarify meanings, definitions and applications of resilience within engineering education. We reviewed 67 research articles and found that resilience in engineering education is either linked to engineering students as a personal attribute or to systems, in this case describing a teaching content. Moreover, the concept of resilience was seldomly defined and explained, indicating that future research should put greater emphasis on doing so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of digital games in higher education is on the rise in engineering. With the recent COVID-19 restrictions and the move to virtual learning, the interest in and the need for virtual laboratories and technology-enhanced experiential learning tools like digital games are expected to rise. This paper presents a review of the current practices in digital game-based learning for engineering education. Most importantly, it provides insight into the application of digital game-based learning across diverse engineering disciplines. It also provides researchers and practitioners with insights into relevant journals and conferences, available games, research designs and assessment methods being used in digital game-based learning in the context of engineering. Based on predefined inclusion criteria, a total of 51 articles published within the last decade were analysed in detail. Software engineering education was found to evaluate the educational use of games most extensively. Eighteen empirical studies also reported some learning gains with digital games using different assessment methods. The findings of this review indicate increase in the dissemination of games research and possibly in the use of games for engineering education. This paper closes by highlighting future trends in digital game-based learning for engineering education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author looks back at trends in engineering education research (EER) based on articles published in the "European Journal of Engineering Education" founded by the European Society of Engineering Education (SEFI). He remembers his expectations and initiatives as the journal's editor-in-chief since 2008, including changes in the editorial policy of the journal. He also explores the development of EER as an interdisciplinary field.

Architectural education shares much in common with engineering, including the use of a culminating capstone experience in the final year. The form of this experience varies, with the research-based thesis and final-year project being most common. This paper explores the literature on traditions of enquiry and the meaning of research in various fields and the evolution of the 'thesis' and 'final year project' approaches over time. It then briefly summarises empirical research conducted on a case study institution struggling to bridge gaps in understandings of these distinct forms of learning and teaching. Throughout, the paper presents a comprehensive set of diagrams to explain various paradigms and positions on research and design education. These diagrams depict processes used in architecture, engineering, and natural sciences to conduct research and generate designs. A new model is proffered to help unify competing conceptions of the final year project and thesis, for the case study institution and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extraction of individual marks from a group submission is one approach to address the problem of students who don't contribute adequately to group work. This is a highly active research area. An alternative is proposed in this paper: alter the method by which groups are allocated for assessed coursework in tertiary education. The proposed two-step method involves (i) soliciting feedback from the students on the effort invested by their classmates in preliminary assignments and (ii) using these data to allocate groups for a subsequent larger assignment. Students who invest a lot of effort in the preliminary assignments are grouped with similarly motivated students, reducing their dissatisfaction, while students who formerly acted as 'freeloaders' are now obliged to engage with the larger assignment and thereby achieve the desired learning outcomes. This paper describes a trial of this group allocation approach for an undergraduate engineering design course of 111 students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using findings from a 2-year study, this paper explores undergraduate engineering student perspectives on good university teachers. Findings from open survey questions and semi-structured interviews were analysed using principles of grounded theory, resulting in four themes identified by students as key to good university teaching: communication, clarity, commitment, and care. These findings are discussed in relation to recent international debates on teaching excellence. The basic argument of the paper is that the discourse of teaching excellence needs to be critically reconsidered and would benefit from inclusion of the actual perspectives of students rather than student voice discourses framed by others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociotechnical thinking (STT) has recently emerged in response to technical-social dualism. It is defined as the ability to identify, address, and respond to both social and technical dimensions of engineering. As the number of publications on STT increases, so does the need to map the literature. This paper provides a scoping literature review of STT in engineering education, focusing on research purposes, methodologies, findings, and potential gaps. Our examination of 25 papers indicates that research on STT in engineering education covers a variety of purposes and methodologies. Key findings in the literature provide a better understanding of students’ demonstration of and barriers to developing STT, the intersections between STT, engineering identity and culture, characteristics of STT, challenges and opportunities for teaching STT, and how prior knowledge and emotional connections can facilitate students’ development of STT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Authentic writing is an important aspect in education and research. Unfortunately, academic misconduct occurs among students and researchers. Consequently, written articles undergo certain detection measures and most teaching and research institutions use a range of software to detect plagiarism. However, state-of-the-art Automatic Article Generator (AAG) writing powered by Artificial Intelligence provides a new platform for new types of serious academic misconduct that cannot be easily detected and even if they are detected, can be hard to prove. The main objective of this study is to raise awareness of these tools among academics. This paper first explains the features of AAG writing, then investigates whether academics can distinguish AAG writing from human writing and whether raising the awareness of AAG between academics can improve their ability to detect AAG writing. A case study showed how difficult it is for academics with no knowledge of AAGs to identify this writing. A survey was used to indicate how a training session can improve the ability of detecting AAG writing. The results show that raising awareness training increased the academics' ability to detect AAG writing. Lastly, the possible solutions to mitigate the academic integrity issues associated with AAG writing have been discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transfer functions are convenient representations to analyse cause-and-effect relationships of linear time-invariant dynamic systems. Traditionally, transfer functions are introduced using the Laplace transform. In this paper, we argue that the Laplace transform method is not a necessary prerequisite to understanding the topic 'transfer functions'. We offer an inquiry-based learning method to represent transfer functions without formally using the full machinery of Laplace transforms. The method is used in an introductory engineering course on system modelling and simulation at Aalborg University, Denmark. The paper also presents an initial assessment of the students' understanding of transfer functions without knowledge of Laplace transforms and the experiences gained from implementing inquiry-based learning in the course. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of the impact of CAS tools on mathematics and engineering science teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the emergence of an engineering education research (EER) community in three Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland and Sweden. First, an overview of the current state of Nordic EER authorship is produced through statistics on international publication. Then, the history of EER and its precursor activities is described in three national narratives. These national storylines are tied together in a description of recent networking activities, aiming to strengthen the EER communities on the Nordic level. Taking these three perspectives together, and drawing on concepts from community of practice theory, network theory and learning network theory, we discuss factors behind the differences in the countries, and draw some conclusions about implications for networking activities in a heterogeneous community. Further, we discuss the role of networks for affording a joint identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To uncover and analyze conceptualizations of cross-institutional collaboration in engineering education, a systematic review study was conducted, identifying commonalities in frameworks, assessments and evaluations, and challenges across prior studies. 74 papers were reviewed, revealing study descriptors, theoretically applied frameworks, outcomes of assessments and evaluations, and common challenges. The findings indicate that the concept of cross-institutional collaboration in engineering education is region-specific, with papers most frequently originating from the US. The outcomes identified also highlight the difficulty in establishing clarity among outcomes based on assessments and evaluations, since the majority of the reviewed papers do not include empirical data gathered outside the collaborative activities. The structural and personal challenges and barriers found underline the need for more efforts to ensure successful collaboration with and across engineering education. Finally, designing, delivering, and sustaining collaboration require further attention from decision-makers in engineering education to address and facilitate collaboration between academic staff and students across institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To increase students' sense of ownership, the present study incorporated elements of Challenge-based learning (CBL) into a mechanical engineering course. CBL is a desirable pedagogy adopted by many universities of technology. Although the boundaries and constraints of a regular course hinder the application of CBL, some of its benefits can be retained. In this paper, we investigate a second-year mechanical engineering course which aimed to give students autonomy in choosing their modelling projects, to facilitate students' ownership of their learning processes. The mixed-methods analysis of the intervention reveals no particular benefits of the intervention on pilot students' ownership, compared to a control group. The qualitative analysis suggests that implicit and explicit factors constrain ownership development, namely the anticipated difficulty level and official constraints for selecting projects. Our findings suggest that, currently, there could be too simple assumptions about how providing students with autonomy in selecting their projects allows for student ownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates what instructional factors influence conceptual understanding (CU) of signals and systems for senior undergraduate engineering students. Previous results show students in signals and systems courses typically gain little CU, though evidence-based instructional practices, such as active learning, can increase gains in CU. However, few studies consider CU of senior students or other instructional practices that increase CU. To explore possible factors, we interviewed two faculty members, eight undergraduate seniors, five graduate students, and four practicing engineers then analyzed the transcribed interviews using a constant comparative method. Participants identified lectures presenting CU along-side mathematical expressions; lectures emphasising purpose and connections; hands-on activities where students have control, receive immediate feedback, or where they have to apply and synthesise concepts; and repetition of concepts across multiple courses as factors that helped build CU. Grades that emphasise procedural knowledge over CU and heavy workloads were noted as hindrances to CU. This paper relates these findings to theories on conceptual understanding and previous results on factors that influence student learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laboratories have long been integral to science and engineering education. They encompass diverse formats, repeatedly engaging students in technical programs. These various forms entail distinct pedagogical approaches, expectations, and technical requirements. Scholarly discourse on laboratory education exhibits both historical context and recurrent debates. Despite the laboratory's potential, the focus often centers on knowledge and skill development rather than forward-looking competencies. This paper categorizes these discussions, providing an overview of laboratories' contributions to learning. It delves into the potential role of laboratories in modern education, covering hands-on and Cross Reality (XR) labs, instructional methods, objectives, and research-based learning. The paper aims to illuminate laboratories' capabilities in enhancing the learning process, and it explores the role of research-based learning in conjunction with the laboratory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enabling theory-practice bridging in engineering education is essential for developing twenty-first century graduate capabilities. Massification, resource constraints, and technological development have resulted in significant shifts to alternative forms of practical engagement, such as the use of online laboratories, but how do these contribute to learning? Based on three illustrative case studies at a research-intensive institution in the Global South, this paper offers a conceptualisation of the degrees of complexity entailed in multimodal approaches to teaching Fluid Mechanics, Finite Element Analysis and Control Systems at different stages of their respective programmes The paper examines the different levels of abstract-concrete learning when students engage with verbal, symbolic, graphic and physical representational artefacts designed to enable cumulative learning. The conceptual instruments are theoretically and methodologically drawn from Legitimation Code Theory dimensions, which lend themselves to the graphic analysis of knowledge practices. It is suggested that the explicit integration of and shifting between levels of abstraction and complexity with different kinds of technologies enables the kind of cumulative learning necessary to prepare technically-equipped graduates for complex twenty-first century engineering contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While prior scholarship has theorised on how to incorporate decolonisation in curriculum and pedagogy, there is limited empirical work on how students experience this initiative. With a goal to provide a more diverse and inclusive educational experience, this paper explores ten undergraduate students' perceptions of their learning in a revised chemical engineering course project designed from a decolonisation standpoint. A thematic analysis of student interviews highlighted a generally positive response to the decolonisation initiative. Specifically, students felt that situating the project in the local context increased access to learning through increased relevance and helped them develop critical awareness about the impact of engineering work. Moreover, a community-driven project design allowed students to pay attention to the power dynamics between engineers and the community. However, there were struggles noted in terms of finding appropriate resources to execute a small-scale project and effectively participating in learning due to background-related linguistic and technical challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering professors are well positioned to support their undergraduate students, who often experience diminished mental health. This paper examines engineering professors’ perceptions of their undergraduate engineering students’ experiences of stress. The described perceptions include when they notice student stress, which stressors they perceive, and supports that these students use. In this qualitative study, we interviewed 24 engineering professors and four career advisors at 18 institutions in the United States about these topics. Results show that these professors often had consistent access to notice indicators of student distress. They described key sources of student stress: balancing responsibilities, significant academic stress, and a culture of competition. They were less likely to notice student stressors associated with interpersonal relationships and identity-related stressors, which are less related to their role as professors. Supports that professors described included interpersonal relationships and health and wellness activities. This lays a foundation for encouraging engineering professors to support their students’ mental health and wellness even more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-knowledge is an important element of metacognition. It encompasses understanding one's own strengths and weaknesses and includes belief and self-assessment of one’s capacity to perform a task. Cognitive skills comprise a range of mental processes, such as attention, memory, problem solving, systems thinking, abstract thinking, and critical thinking, that are essential for acquiring and applying knowledge. The research described in this paper examined the ability for self-knowledge and cognitive skills of electronics students engaged in project-based learning. The study, which used quantitative and qualitative tools, involved 140 twelve-grade electronics students and explored the self-knowledge and cognitive skills they exhibited while executing their final projects. The correlation and paired-samples t-test between the students’ self-report questionnaire (indirect assessment of cognitive skills) and achievement test (direct assessment of cognitive skills) scores were examined to assess the students’ self-knowledge and cognitive skills. The findings revealed a significant difference between self-report questionnaire scores and achievement test scores, indicating that the students’ self-knowledge did not reflect their actual low level of cognitive skills. Measuring self-knowledge and cognitive skills in project-based learning is essential for assessing the effectiveness of the learning process, resulting in improved project outcomes and a firmer foundation for future academic and professional success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethical and sustainable thinking is an important competence in the engineering education to support students' abilities to act and perform in a responsible manner in corporate contexts, and consequently contribute to a sustainable future. This paper investigates engineering students' attitudes towards ethical and sustainable thinking focusing on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) principles in the context of entrepreneurship courses as a part of larger research project. Engineering students from a Finnish and an Estonian university (N = 342) responded to a self-assessment survey. The students' attitudes towards CSR principles were assessed both on the enterprise level and the individual level as expectations of potential future employees. The findings indicate that engineering students acknowledge the need to take into account responsible thinking and that it is important for enterprises to be both socially and environmentally responsible in their activities. The self-assessment tool of ethical and sustainable thinking associated with the entrepreneurship competence model and CSR principles can be helpful in practice when university teachers wish to support and assess their students' attitudes towards CSR principles among other entrepreneurship competencies when creating new course content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on laboratory objectives in engineering education research is scattered and inconsistent. Systematic literature reviews identified the need for better understanding. This paper ranks the laboratory learning objectives across the cognitive, psychomotor and affective domains to improve scaffolding. It provides an opportunity for reflection, a pathway to confirm assessment alignment, and opens future research areas. To accomplish this, the Laboratory Learning Objectives Measurement (LLOM) instrument is used to survey 160 academics from around the world representing 18 engineering disciplines. The results suggest that the collective ranking order does represent a framework that can be used broadly. However, for greater alignment with consensus thinking, discipline rankings should be used. The cognitive domain was deemed the most important. These results provide the community's opinion and may not necessarily be best practice, providing an opportunity for reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students in higher engineering education should develop competencies to be prepared for their future professional careers. However, in the field of food technology it is not clear what set of competencies is most relevant. This paper created a comprehensive list of competencies for food technologists by combining both domain-specific and general literature (n = 4), and policy documents (n = 6). This list was used to establish the relative importance of its elements and map opportunities for optimal curricular improvement at Wageningen University. Data were collected via a survey and interviews with graduates and professionals. A comparison of the perceived importance of competencies versus the perceived opportunities for learning showed that analytical thinking, critical thinking, problem solving and decision making needed more attention in the study curriculum. The comprehensiveness of the list was assessed by pilot testing with respondents. The list and method show potential for other disciplines to identify and select important competencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over recent decades, literature on assessment in higher education has intensified generating a wealth of frameworks to inform practice. Generic frameworks for assessment practice are sometimes perceived as missing subject-specific considerations. This literature review proposes to (a) map the current landscape of assessment in engineering education and to (b) help drive the field forwards by identifying elements of assessment that require discipline-specific consideration as a foundation to formulate good practice. Sources were identified using a broad set of keywords related to assessment in engineering education. Inclusion criteria considered papers about university-level education and were published, in English, between 2012 and 2018. The review establishes that much literature has focused on design, accreditation and marking with much less literature on key concerns in practice such as workplace assessment, student engagement and programme level design. Based on the results, recommendations are made for research areas where greater focus is needed to advance further engineering specific insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented on reading the manuscripts during the review process and being busy reading new submissions. Topics include delivering paper artefacts to subscribers, the logic of printing lives on in the academic world; and abandoning the gold-exchange standard for currencies much like national banks stored gold bullions guaranteeing the currency where editors being forced to be selective.

ChatGPT, a sophisticated online chatbot, sent shockwaves through many sectors once reports filtered through that it could pass exams. In higher education, it has raised many questions about the authenticity of assessment and challenges in detecting plagiarism. Amongst the resulting frenetic hubbub, hints of potential opportunities in how ChatGPT could support learning and the development of critical thinking have also emerged. In this paper, we examine how ChatGPT may affect assessment in engineering education by exploring ChatGPT responses to existing assessment prompts from ten subjects across seven Australian universities. We explore the strengths and weaknesses of current assessment practice and discuss opportunities on how ChatGPT can be used to facilitate learning. As artificial intelligence is rapidly improving, this analysis sets a benchmark for ChatGPT's performance as of early 2023 in responding to engineering education assessment prompts. ChatGPT did pass some subjects and excelled with some assessment types. Findings suggest that changes in current practice are needed, as typically with little modification to the input prompts, ChatGPT could generate passable responses to many of the assessments, and it is only going to get better as future versions are trained on larger data sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As classroom diversity increases across educational domains, additional stress is placed on instructors to provide effective and personalised learning experiences. Formative assessments can inform instructors of learning differences between student cohorts and individual students, allowing adaptation of learning experiences to individual student needs. This work is motivated by the need for faculty to implement formative assessment strategies, such that instructors can adapt the classroom-assessment environment by identifying learning goals, categorising or tagging assessment questions by learning goal categories, and organising the assessment data by tag. This paper summarises how tag-organised assessment (TOA) may be implemented and visualised to facilitate formative assessment strategies. We validated our TOA approach by interviewing instructors on needs in classroom-assessment environments and the usefulness of TOA visualisations to address assessment needs. Instructors perceived TOA visualisations as beneficial for synchronising learning goals with assessment coverage, improving student feedback, and communicating learning goals and success criteria to students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What difficulties do architecture students encounter in the structural design for their final master project? How do they address these difficulties? This paper presents the topic and focuses on these two research questions by examining the students' experience, using thematic analysis with a qualitative approach. We obtained the data through surveys administered to architecture students during their final master project. The results show 11 categories of students' difficulties in designing the structure. The five most frequent are integration between structure and architecture, pre-sizing, long spans, complex geometries and floor systems. To deal with their difficulties, the students employed seven strategies, which we have grouped into three components: documentary, social and experimental. We found that the final master project students participating in our study possessed and practiced the following skills: self-directed learning, constructive investigation with problem-solving skills and positive social interaction. This study can help instructors understand the difficulties faced by the students learning structural design in the context of real world, authentic projects. Our findings confirm the positive effects of social learning, analogical thinking and design alternatives for structural design education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professional skills of project planning, risk analysis, ethical design, communication, and working in interprofessional teams are now recognised as core engineering skills. Frequently, they are addressed in engineering education through team projects. However, these skills can be difficult for students to learn as they are often not well defined (making it difficult for students to know where to focus their attention), and team projects often lack the reflective opportunities required for their development. This paper describes the development and validation of the Interprofessional Project Management Questionnaire (IPMQ) which has been designed for use in engineering education to provide a tool for reflection on, and clarification of, the learning goals related to these skills. Two studies to assess the reliability and validity of the IPMQ are reported. The instrument shows good validity and reliability in both French and English and as such is suitable for use with students. It is also suitable for research in engineering education and for providing feedback to faculty on student learning of professional skills in team projects. Suggestions on the use of the tool to enable the kinds of reflection that will help students to learn these skills are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the effect that the fulfilment of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has got among engineers in the information and communication technologies (ICT) sector. The focus is on Spain, and the comparison of the technical and managerial knowledge and skills most demanded by the sector in 2008 and 2018, coinciding with the first decade of the EHEA. The study also examines whether the professional skills acquired by university students are consistent with those required in the job market. The following question is answered: Are ICT students adequately trained a decade after the introduction of the EHEA? An empirical study was carried out on the basis of a cross-section of Spanish ICT sector enterprises. The results reveal a gap between employer expectations and the skills acquired by students. Policy and practice performance is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As more entrepreneurial experiences are integrated into engineering programs, students are faced with new challenges they need help in managing. While previous research has identified entrepreneurial activities that engineering students struggle with, the antecedents of these difficulties have not been directly investigated. Drawing on an ethnographic study in a project-based entrepreneurship course, this paper investigates difficulties as caused by both cognitive conflicts and cultural clashes. The findings suggest that difficulties with entrepreneurial activities do not necessarily stem from lack of entrepreneurial capabilities on behalf of students, they can just as well stem from legitimate conflicts of interest that students and teachers need to navigate. As such, difficulties cannot always be solved by students learning more about entrepreneurship. As shown in the study, collaborative and externally oriented learning activities – mainstays of project-based entrepreneurship courses – particularly contribute to putting competing social demands on students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a lack of research on how game-based learning apps should be designed for engineering education. This paper addresses two research questions: What do engineering students expect from a learning app? Which educational approach and learning app design can meet these requirements? A survey revealed the particular demands of engineering students when using learning apps. They prefer apps that promote transfer of learning. They value a diversified game environment that leaves room for self-determined decisions. They want to use learning apps during five-minute breaks or on-the-go. Social interaction is only of minor importance. Concrete design and content guidelines are derived. Perceptual learning is an appropriate educational approach to meet the requirements. Two universally applicable task types for engineering education are discussed. A case study was conducted to investigate their use in practice. Following the guidelines, an app for heat-and-mass-transfer was generated and its impact on teaching was evaluated. Students considered that their requirements were met. This is reflected in the usage statistics: During one semester, 545 different students played a total of 27,350 games. As a measure of learning progress, the average score per game almost tripled. Apps that follow the guidelines have the potential to become well-accepted learning tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While entrepreneurship discourse is gaining traction in engineering and the number of entrepreneurship courses increase rapidly, there is a lack of study focusing on how and why engineering educators facilitate entrepreneurial experiences in their courses. Using a qualitative and inductive case-study approach, this paper explores and explicates pedagogical models for facilitating entrepreneurial experiences in engineering, and their underlying design principles. Investigating seven entrepreneurial project-based courses, three distinct pedagogical models for facilitating entrepreneurial experiences are identified. Two potentially conflicting dimensions are highlighted and argued as vital for educators to consider when implementing entrepreneurial experiences into their courses. These dimensions are: to make learning more personal, and to make learning more professional. The paper discusses how entrepreneurial engineering pedagogy is anchored in entrepreneurship education and engineering education discourse, and suggests means through which the two disparate streams of research can be integrated in order to further research on entrepreneurial engineering pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The CDIO Initiative is a community for engineering education development, but since 2016 its annual conference also calls for research. This paper considers possible roles for CDIO in the field of engineering education research (EER). The EER landscape is explored, in particular considering whether the aim of research is to seek knowledge to improve engineering education, or to seek knowledge for its own sake? Although usefulness and scholarliness are not mutually exclusive, the priority matters throughout the research process and in evaluating work. Introducing concepts from similar debates, this paper argues for embracing the tension, to form a productive relationship between scholarliness and usefulness. A dual objective is implied: usefully contributing to the improvement of engineering education and establishing a recognised research field enabling sustainable careers for researchers. Quality mechanisms are necessary for staking out borders and upholding standards, at least to weed out work that is neither scholarly nor useful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transition from education to practice can be troublesome for many early-career engineers because expectations, habitual work practices and values tend to conflict with realities of engineering workplaces. Emerging technologies referred to as 'Industry 4.0' or the 'fourth industrial revolution' have prompted many to argue for students to develop improved socio-technical skills. Understandings of practice emerging from contemporary research could help educators shape a new generation of engineers with more appropriate abilities to restore global productivity growth and transform economies to eliminate greenhouse emissions in a short enough time to limit human-induced global warming. However, so far, explicit curriculum reforms addressing graduate attributes and workplace skills have not resulted in significant employability improvements. This paper argues that assessment practices and curriculum gaps may be acting as an implied or hidden curriculum shaping student expectations and values. This paper proposes ways to overcome these curriculum deficits in higher education institutions and also workplace education interventions. These changes could help educate engineers about productivity improvement, commercial and social value generation, business requirements and entrepreneurship. Changes like these will be needed to achieve sustainable development goals, especially in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering education has traditionally focused on the development of technical skills and knowledge. Nowadays, the need for educating engineers in non-technical skills, such as reflective thinking, is being recognised internationally. This paper proposes that socio-cultural impacts of technology be studied together with the technology itself through the integration of social awareness modules into advanced technical courses, providing a venue for students to exercise their reflective thinking skills in the context of technologies that are of interest to them. The paper presents an exploratory study of the essays of senior year engineering students on the socio-cultural impacts of computer vision technologies. It provides insights on the themes that are of interest to the students and on the students' strengths and weaknesses relating to their reflective thinking abilities. Similar modules would apply well to other advanced courses in the engineering curriculum, to help contextualise technology and enhance the reflective abilities of engineering graduates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented on the prospects of the Engineering Education Research (EER) community in Europe. Topics discussed include expectations and identity of incoming computer science (CS) students in European countries; challenges related to recruitment, student satisfaction and retention in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education; and the mismatches between what students want to study and what they have to study.

The purpose of this work is to contribute to the debate on the best pedagogical approach to developing undergraduate mechanical engineering skills to meet the requirements of contemporary complex working environments. The paper provides an example of using student–entrepreneur collaboration in the teaching of modules to Mechanical Engineering final-year students. Problem-based learning (PBL) is one of the most significant recent innovations in the area of education for the professions. This work proposes to make an original contribution by simulating a real-life entrepreneur interaction for the students. The current literature largely confines simulation-based learning to computer applications such as games. However, this paper argues that role playing by students interfacing with technology start-ups can also be regarded as ‘simulation’ in a wider sense. Consequently, the paper proposes the concept of simulation-action learning as an enhancement of PBL and to distinguish it from computer simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The laboratory is an integral component of engineering education, resulting in a multitude of studies. Generally, the research focus is on the laboratory innovation, rather than learning itself. It is observed that empirical evidence is strongly built around student perceptions of their learning or experience via survey instruments; and in some cases, complimented with limited quantitative measures including assessments. With the laboratory being a multifaceted, multi-domain learning environment also covering the psychomotor and affective domains, such observations suggest that the empirical data being collected is providing an incomplete analysis. Therefore, this paper undertakes a systematic literature review exploring remote, simulation and traditional laboratory studies that explicitly include assessment analysis. Explored are the types of assessments used and assessment innovations. The study 1) confirms that assessments concentrate on the cognitive domain, underselling the learning being achieved; 2) Student survey instruments play an important role in measuring laboratory success; 3) Background information of the learning objectives are not clearly stated and/or not clearly linked to the associated assessment; 4) There are several research opportunities available to improve understanding of laboratory assessments. A roadmap and recommendations to overcome these weaknesses is outlined, providing a platform for future researchers to incorporate in their studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we introduce 'Concept Questions,' a weekly writing assignment that has been incorporated into multiple upper-level engineering courses at a single university with the intent of enhancing students' conceptual understanding of the course content. To explore the influence of this activity on students in these courses, we compared students' scores on the Concept Question assignments with their final exam scores, analysed students' open-ended responses to questions regarding their learning in the course, and surveyed students who had taken these courses in previous semesters to understand how the Concept Question assignments may have influenced their learning approaches in subsequent courses. Our analysis revealed that students highlighted a variety of learning outcomes from the Concept Questions assignments and their performance on the assignments was correlated with their final exam scores. However, most students did not report that these assignments had changed their learning approaches overall. This paper supports prior work suggesting that such assignments can be helpful in individual engineering courses, but further work is needed to explore student learning across courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This systematic literature review forms the first part of a larger research project into teamwork skills development and aims to answer the following research question: What factors have been found to be significant to the development of teamwork skills in tertiary engineering courses? This was limited to tertiary engineering contexts and 59 papers were included in the final qualitative synthesis published between 2015 and 2022. Factors that were identified included planning, management, team-based factors, individual factors, project factors and time dependent factors that, through their dynamic interrelations, all contribute to what we conceive as teamwork skills development. Future research must focus on rich, nuanced and inclusive understandings of students at the individual level as well as the team level. To address modern challenges, engineering graduates must develop strong transversal skills related to teamwork, this review provides researchers and educators with a roadmap to advancing the body of teamwork research as well as developing the teamwork skills of engineering students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability of Engineering graduates to function as successful professionals depends not only on technical disciplinary knowledge but also on a wide range of professional competencies. Students’ often react differently to educators attempts to develop professional competencies compared to technical competencies. Understanding the nature of these reactions is important if we are to design the most effective educational approaches to the development of professional competencies. In this paper we report on an exploratory factor analysis that used data from a detailed survey of students (N = 339) to identify underlying factors that provide insights to understand the variations in student reactions. A set of five factors were identified from this analysis: capability; learning experience; learning outcomes; employment experience; environment. Two of these factors (learning experience and environment) also exhibited significant differences in the impact between professional and technical competencies. A number of implications for educational design were explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serious games are instructional tools that harmonise different pedagogical approaches and pursue specific behavioural and learning outcomes. Characterised by flexibility and complexity, serious games can draw from a vast number of elements and game mechanics. We argue that such adaptability requires specific pedagogical competencies from designers to avoid using game elements counterproductively for user learning. The literature shows lack of studies based on this perspective: if the influence of single instructional techniques has been studied, the impact of pedagogical expertise is missing, and this represents the knowledge gap this study intends to bridge. This paper reports on an experimental study of a serious game that is part of a course in Industrial Systems Engineering. Through collaborative efforts between an engineering professor and a pedagogical expert rooted in neuroeducation and syntheses of meta-analyses tied to learning achievement, the serious game was redesigned. This pre-test-post-test control and experimental group design study investigates how designers’ pedagogical competencies can impact learning outcomes, motivation, and decision-making processes. The pedagogically revised serious game outperforms the original one in motivation and, in specific subgroups, in learning performance, highlighting the importance of combining pedagogical and engineering insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable engineering education requires us to address discrimination and inequity of experience, thereby contributing to a renewal of the engineering profession that reflects a rich diversity of experiences and perspectives. Many students experience discriminatory events in their classrooms, however the presence of teaching assistants in relatively high numbers means that they could provide both proactive support and reactive intervention to support inclusion and combat discrimination. This paper examines teaching assistants’ (TAs) contributions, employing observations from students (3988), student teaching assistants (277) and doctoral teaching assistants (65). We found that (i) students overwhelmingly reported respectful interactions with their TAs, (ii) while both student assistants and doctoral assistants see inclusion as part of their role, student assistants expressed more confidence in their ability to foster inclusion. Our analysis indicates that TAs are a constructive force to build inclusive engineering classrooms, informing our recommendations for improvingcampus culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pedagogical development (PD) for educators in higher engineering education is indispensable to the promotion of educational changes and high-quality teaching and learning necessary to train twenty-first century engineering talents. With the expansion of various PD activities in engineering education in recent decades, there is a growing need to understand the characteristics and impact of current PD activities and to develop strategies for their further development. This study reviews 116 articles to provide an overview of current PD activity designs and the challenges reported in research on engineering education. The selected papers' frameworks, duration and organizational formats, evaluation methods, teachers' learning outcomes, research methods, and reported challenges are summarized. The findings of this study call for additional research on theory-driven designs for future PD activities as well as additional empirical PD studies using multiple data sources, a variety of research methods, and various analytical tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is crucial for engineers to anticipate the socio-ethical impacts of emerging technologies. Such acts of anticipation are thoroughly normative and should be cultivated in engineering ethics education. In this paper we ask: 'how do we anticipate the socio-ethical implications of emerging technologies responsibly?' And 'how can such responsible anticipation be taught?' We offer a conceptual answer, building upon the framework of Responsible Innovation and its four core practices: anticipation, reflexivity, inclusion, and responsiveness. We forge a more explicit link between the practices of anticipation, reflexivity, and inclusion, while also enriching them with insights from disability studies, STS, design theory, and philosophy. On this basis we present responsible anticipation as an activity of reflective problem framing grounded in epistemic humility. Via the RI-practice of responsiveness we present responsible anticipation as a creative approach to engineering ethics, offering engineering students a critical yet productive perspective on how ethics may inform innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents and evaluates a role-play simulation called 'Theatrical Technology Assessment', in which students learn about complex stakeholder dynamics around emerging technologies. This role-play combines insights from Constructive Technology Assessment, improvisational theatre and educational role-play designs. It was implemented in an online setting with bachelor students of an interdisciplinary engineering programme. Based on collected chat conversations and reflection reports in seven different simulations, we qualitatively analysed what students learned about stakeholder dynamics. The study shows that students gained novel and relevant insights regarding stakeholder perspectives on technologies, the effects of uncertainties on decision making, collective stakeholder dynamics, and strategies to steer technology development. Students considered the role-play simulations to be engaging learning experiences. The dual set-up of the role-play, with students as players and co-designers, and the integral use of improvisational theatre are novel elements of educational role-play designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]