Helping Engineers Thrive: Feedback Systems for Ill-Defined Challenges

• In Event: 49.089 - Poster Session 9
  In Poster Session: 49.089-1 - Division C Section 1e: Instructional Practices in Postsecondary Computer Science and Engineering Courses

Abstract

To prepare future engineers to solve real world problems learners need experience taking on ill-defined problems. Learners taking on ill-defined problems find the inevitable ambiguity emotionally unsettling. In this article we present the deployment of a socio-technical feedback system. Drawing on the Model of Thriving we focus on how feedback systems can promote agentic behaviors that help taking on ill-defined problems. Our work took place in an undergraduate extracurricular engineering summer program. Learners took part in weekly 45-90 minute facilitated in-person feedback sessions, supported by an online chat-based tool. We analyzed data from interviews and observations to identify features of the system associated with supporting agentic behaviors. We present conclusions for re-design of the feedback system.

Authors

• Daniel George Rees Lewis, Northwestern University

• Matthew Easterday, Northwestern University

• Elizabeth Gerber, Northwestern University