Evaluating the Pre-Professional Engineer: Exploring the Peer Review Process

摘要

In the Multidisciplinary Design Program at the University of Michigan College of Engineering, teams of 5-7 engineers from multiple disciplines and academic years work together on multi-term engineering design projects. Annually, the program enrolls approximately 220 students on engineering design project teams. As we prepare to enter the fifth year of this program, we are seeking to improve the effectiveness of peer review feedback implemented in an efficient scalable manner. Previous to the study we utilized the Comprehensive Assessment for Team-Member Effectiveness (CATME) team peer evaluation tool twice during the tenure of each team's project. We observed that our students were unable to sufficiently interpret the feedback from their peers, and their reactions to the feedback ranged from complete dismissal to an inability to integrate the feedback into their performance. As a result, we were not achieving our desired program outcomes: improved project-specific engineering design skills, professional behavior, and evidence of self-reflection. To address this, we have created and implemented an additional avenue for peer-to-peer anonymized feedback: a qualitative survey utilizing coded competencies. The purpose of this research is to evaluate this qualitative instrument in terms of overall effectiveness. This paper outlines insights and trends noted in the first year of implementation.