2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This complete evidence-based practice paper is focused on assessing student perceptions of key course skills that they used while completing a final project for a hands-on makerspace course. At the University of Louisville’s J.B. Speed School of Engineering, all students – regardless of discipline - are required to take a two-sequence introductory course that covers the fundamental concepts of engineering. The second of these courses, Engineering Methods, Tools, & Practice II (ENGR 111), is exclusively taught in a 15,000 square foot makerspace and uses active learning pedagogy to instruct students on the practice of common engineering skills.

The primary skills taught in this course cover: technical writing, 3D modeling, circuitry, programming, engineering design, and teamwork. Students in this course apply these skills throughout the semester in various modules that are specific to that skill. Eventually, near the end of the semester, students utilize these skills in a team Cornerstone project that constitutes their final project of the course. For example, this means that students are given modules specific to the instruction of Arduino programming about midway through the course. Students then program an Arduino to accomplish certain computational tasks in their Cornerstone project.

While the intent of instructors is to evenly include each of these skills in the Cornerstone project, students might perceive certain skills to be more applicable to their project compared to others. At the end of each semester, students are asked to complete a survey regarding the course. Included in the survey is a question about these skills in relation to their Cornerstone project: Which of the fundamental engineering skills practiced in ENGR 111 were most useful in completing your Cornerstone project and why? Approximately 400 students between the Spring 2024 and Summer 2024 semesters responded to this question with insights as to their perceptions of the Cornerstone project and the skills most useful to it.

Preliminary results show interesting observations both in terms of which skills are most discussed by students and why they mentioned those skills. The purpose of this study is to help determine if students are adequately prepared for the skills they need in their Cornerstone project. If students find certain skills to be more applicable but are not addressed sufficiently earlier in the semester, some modules may need modifications.