Engineering design journey and project management

Abstract

This article discusses students' self- and co-regulation during their engagement in a senior design project. The specific focus of this study was to understand how participants monitor their design process and manage their projects with their teammates. Fourteen students working in four different teams participated in the study, each of which were in their senior year of Biological Engineering courses. The study attempts to answer two research questions: (1) How did students individually monitor the progress of their team-based design project?; and (2) How did their teamwork factor into the completion of the design project? Quantitative and qualitative data associated with student regulation on design process and teamwork were collected from our Engineering Design Metacognitive Questionnaire (EDMQ) survey instrument, an innovative e-journal, students' journey maps, design artifacts, and interviews. The preliminary findings suggest that (1) despite distinctive challenges in managing their team, each found ways to adapt to their team's unique dynamic; (2) teams that believed in a “fair share” task division seemed to utilize better team monitoring strategies; and (3) a design evaluation checklist to refine the number of possible design solutions was not widely used during the problem framing phase.