2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The maker movement merges creative makers and advanced technologies such as the Arduino microcontroller and 3D printing to drive advances in manufacturing, engineering, industrial design, hardware technology and education. Design-build-test challenges not only provide opportunities for students to learn deeper through making, but also educate next generation engineers in practical concepts such as technical communication, teamwork, and design reviews. The incorporation of 3D printing and computer aided design (CAD) in these courses also allows students to encounter the realities of the manufacturing and design processes and promotes student engagement. These projects not only “provide an alternative assessment method for students who may not excel on written quizzes and exams”, but also teach students technical communication skills. While design-build-test projects are a common Design Based Learning (DBL) pedagogy technique in engineering education, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has also introduced challenges for hands-on engineering learning. The need to move to hybrid or completely remote learning environments has resulted in students lacking the in-person makerspace experience which has been demonstrated to improve confidence in engineering design by demonstrating the realities of prototyping and manufacturing.

An 8-week design-build-test project called the Pokémon Challenge was implemented in a freshman Engineering Graphics course at XXX university. The motivation of the Pokémon Challenge was to allow students to apply the engineering design process while developing prototyping and graphical communication skills through hand-sketching, CAD, and manufacturing techniques. This paper introduces the Pokémon design-build project and describes some of the implementation challenges faced during the pandemic related to teamwork, motivation, and the ability to ensure all students were able to participate even if remote. A survey was conducted at the end of the project to understand the students’ perspective on their learning outcomes and experience. Furthermore, a peer review of team dynamics was administered at both the midpoint and end of the project. The survey at the midpoint of the term project asked students to provide specific, constructive feedback on their peers so that teams could address their issues and improve their team dynamic prior to wrapping up the project. The peer review survey repeated at the end of the term included survey questions rating the degree to which teams had high levels of cooperation and mutual support, took initiative to resolve issues between themselves, and how much they appreciated one another's unique capabilities. This case study found that despite communication challenges and fluctuations with safe, in-person learning, a hybrid approach to design-build-test projects is still effective in meeting practical student learning objectives. The study showed that while in person DBL is ideal, a hybrid DBL contributes to easy access to learning while still enabling participation and creativity. Best practices for supporting a collaborative hybrid learning environment for CAD based projects are provided.