2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Traditionally founded in the arts and architecture, design studios provide a distinctively inquiry-based, student-centered environment in which creative problem-solving potential is unfolded through iterative hands-on experimentation. A key pedagogical component of studio environments is the real-time feedback on design outputs that is provided to students both through peer learning and instructional team engagement in a low-stakes environment. This work-in-progress paper describes the use of an observational protocol in an upper-level biomedical engineering course/studio aiming to understand student responses to real-time feedback received during studio sessions. Based on feedback guidelines developed by Kluger and DeNisi, Hattie and Timperley, and Shute, the observational framework assesses both the feedback content and the immediate emotional and cognitive response of student teams. Additionally, we document student engagement, assessed in terms of attention and commitment, and employ a tailored Schletchty Engagement Framework to rank and analyze the impact of feedback on students’ level of engagement. As a proof-of-concept, we illustrate that the observational tool can effectively characterize feedback interactions and suggest how these interactions contribute to observed fluctuations in student engagement. By observing how students solicit, react to, and incorporate real-time feedback into their work, we aim to uncover the factors that motivate students to engage in creatively unique problem-solving within an engineering context. Our goal is to continue using the tool to explore how feedback methods relate to student engagement and achievement of learning goals in biomedical engineering studios, aiming to offer insights for effective teaching practices applicable to capstones and other studio/design courses within the broader biomedical engineering community.