Changes in Latino/a Adolescents' Engineering Self-efficacy and Perceptions of Engineering After Addressing Authentic Engineering Design Challenges

This article presents the underlying philosophy of Sustain City, an educational serious game system that engages students, particularly prospective and beginning science and engineering students, in a series of engineering design challenges. Various strategies implemented in Sustain City for achieving a balance of fun and learning are discussed, including narrative-learning synthesis, supplementing the player's actions with feedback, and the development of a sufficient guidance system. The evaluation of Sustain City deployment is also presented. The assessment confirms the values of the serious games in promoting students' interests and learning in STEM fields.

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INFLUENCE OF LEARNING PREFERENCE ON SELF-EFFICACY AND PERFORMANCE IN MIXED-MODALITY FIRST-YEAR ENGINEERING DESIGN

Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA) ◽

10.24908/pceea.v0i0.4883 ◽

2013 ◽

Author(s):

Jon-Michael J. Booth ◽

Thomas E. Doyle ◽

David M. Musson

Keyword(s):

Engineering Design ◽

Student Performance ◽

Self Efficacy ◽

Learning Preferences ◽

First Year ◽

Final Examination ◽

Design Project ◽

Learning Preference ◽

Simulation Based ◽

And Performance

All students have preferences for the way they receive and distribute information when the objective is learning. These preferences can be shown to have an effect on self-efficacy and on performance. The relationships between learning preference, self-efficacy and performance were studied using survey and grade data obtained from a first-year Engineering Design and Graphics course. The students were placed in one of three groups according to the modality (type) of design project they were given; a Simulation-Based project (SIM) using a software simulation tool, a Prototyping project (PRT) using a 3D printer, or a Simulation and Prototyping project (SAP) where they had to complete a design using both tools. Participants were given a custom survey that assessed self-efficacy and the VARK learning styles inventory which assesses learners on Visual, Aural, Read / Write and Kinesthetic learning preferences. 97 students were surveyed representing a response rate of 22.6%. Student performance was assessed by examining scores on a subset of questions related to design visualization on the final examination for the course. Data analysis involved examining the correlation between learning style and self-efficacy, and scores on final examination for each of the three course modality groups. Findings from this study include higher performance for Kinesthetic learners assigned a simulation-based project and low performance for Read/Write learners with a prototyping project. This study supports the hypothesis that student performance may depend on learning preferences coupled with design project modality.

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