ENGINEERING STUDENT ATTAINMENT AND ENGAGEMENT THROUGHOUT THE DESIGN PROCESS

The paper reports on a study that aims to gain an understanding of how senior engineering design students engage and attain throughout the various stages of the design process during a major design project. Following a literature review it sets out to answer 3 main research questions Q1. Do students engage more with certain stages of the design process during major project work?; Q2. Do students attain better during certain phases of the design process during major project ? Q3. Is there a difference in this attainment between year groups of the same degree programme ? The methodology adopted employs an analysis of marks and an online questionnaire to collect data. Patterns and trends in how senior BEng and MEng Product Design Engineering students engage and attain within the design process are presented, identified and discussed and in turn used to inform reflection on the research questions set.