Work in progress — Intervening to improve the dissertation of final year engineering research projects

Abstract

This paper presents preliminary results of an investigative study into the final-year engineering research project. Final year students completing engineering research projects were surveyed pre- and post-intervention regarding their perception and ability to undertake a literature review in their research project. The pre-intervention survey provided an insight into the students' initial disorientation in starting the projects but also acted as an awareness mechanism for the student participants to consolidate or improve their literature review skills. A series of intervention workshops were devised based on the pre-intervention survey. A post-intervention survey was then conducted along with a focus group. The paper discusses the results of these two surveys and then compares them with the `actual' literature review skills demonstrated in progress reports (contain the literature review section). From the pre and post intervention surveys, it can be seen that the intervention workshops were successful in increasing awareness and understanding of the literature reviews. However, the intervention was regarded as not so successful if the knowledge of literature reviews was based on the progress report artifacts. This is somewhat a contradiction. The literature review skills demonstrated in their final dissertations were compared with those in their progress reports. It was evidenced that their literature review skills have improved significantly in their final dissertations but were not displayed in the progress report artifacts submitted earlier in the project.