Students’ Perceptions of Best and Worst Aspects of Design Courses: A Qualitative Analysis of 87 Courses and 5591 Students

摘要

This Full Paper presents the results of qualitative analysis of students' perceptions of the best and worst aspects of 87 courses related to design such as engineering design, product design, biomedical engineering innovation and design, and Mechanics-Based Design. The total enrollment in the courses was 5591 students at a Research-Intensive University in the US. Iterative close readings of the comments and open and axial coding were applied to the comments to generate codes that represent students' comments. Codes were grouped in categories that represent students' opinions about teaching. Students reported the best and worst aspects of design courses related to the following categories: course planning and logistics, teaching strategies, learning experiences, assessment and evaluation, mentoring and modeling, and encouragement and motivation. This work suggests that careful design of all aspects of teaching is important. Special attention should be given to aspects of design courses such as project-based learning, teamwork, and hands-on applied learning.