2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This work summarizes an NSF Building Capacity in STEM Education Research funded project aimed at investigating Making and student learning. Current literature supports the value of implementing Making pedagogies to improve student outcomes [1-4]. However, disciplinary differences, minority social identities, and the ways in which Making is implemented may all have compounding effects that could ultimately lead to inequitable, and in some cases, negative outcomes [4-6]. While the literature into the use of Makerspaces has increased over the last decade, Making pedagogies are still an understudied area, particularly with respect to higher education and when used as a pedagogical tool in a formal classroom setting. This project sought to understand how student learning and efficacy outcomes were impacted by engaging with Making-based activities, with a future goal to understand how these outcomes may vary across disciplines and student social identities.

Student pre- and post- surveys were administered across eight different courses that committed to incorporating a central Making activity (including 3 Engineering, 2 Education, 1 Math, 1 Physics, and 1 Law School) over the course of three semesters (n=88). Likert-scale surveys were used to gauge overall student efficacy with the course as well as their attitudes towards Making and hands-on learning. In addition to the surveys, interviews (n=12) were conducted with 12 students across the various courses which aimed at further understanding student mindsets (previous Making experiences, attitudes towards the course, other experiences impacting their overall mindset) when engaging with the Making activities.

Of note in survey data, and consistent across identity groups (gender, sexuality, ethnicity, disability), students indicated a decrease in their overall attitudes towards Making (finding it more frustrating, less exciting, and useful in improving their overall understanding of the course). In interviews, it was noted that the open-ended projects (i.e. students were free to choose methods and media) left students feeling more overwhelmed by the Making task and not as connected to the course learning. The lack of previous experience with Makerspaces was a significant factor in students feeling more anxious than engaged with the activities. Students across all disciplines felt like the instructor did not make the link between the Making and learning outcomes clear. Students did, however, find time spent on Making more valuable when the projects related to real-world challenges. From interviews, the timing of Making activities appeared to have a larger impact on their attitudes towards Making rather than the Making project itself. When attempting to engage with an open-ended Making project (which students viewed as requiring substantial out of class time on) during a busy exam period, students saw less value to their learning compared to studying time.
As an increase in total responses will result over time, future work will include comparing these bulk results across disciplines, student demographics, and types of Making projects. Once we collect enough responses, we aim to conduct exploratory factor analysis to better understand which student (or course) factors are contributing to students’ positive and negative responses. In addition to this original instrument, we have developed a sense of belonging-based set of questions to better ascertain if space (differences/similarities between the two campus Makerspaces) contributes to student attitudes.

[1] Rayna, T. and Striukova, L., 2020. Fostering skills for the 21st century: The role of Fab labs and makerspaces. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, p.120391.
[2] Lagoudas, M.Z., Froyd, J.E., Wilson, J.L., Hamilton, P.S., Boehm, R. and Enjeti, P.N., 2016, June. Assessing impact of maker space on student learning. In Proceedings of 2016 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, New Orleans, LA.
[3] Saorín, J.L., Melian-Diaz, D., Bonnet, A., Carrera, C.C., Meier, C. and De La Torre-Cantero, J., 2017. Makerspace teaching-learning environment to enhance creative competence in engineering students. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 23, pp.188-198.
[4] Masters, A.S., 2018. How making and maker spaces have contributed to diversity & inclusion in engineering: A [non-traditional] literature review. In Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity Conference, Crystal City, VA.
[5] Melo, M. and Nichols, J., 2020. Re-making the Library Makerspace. Library Juice Press. Sacramento, CA.
[6] Tan, M., 2019. When makerspaces meet school: Negotiating tensions between instruction and construction. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 28(2).