The overall purpose of this research is to be able to understand how engineering students believe they are developing EM throughout their higher education experiences. Is EM development attributed to the inclusion of EM based projects and activities within their engineering course work? Perhaps, EM development occurs more readily through engineering students’ participation in extracurricular or co-curricular activities? Alternatively, maybe EM development is not tied to the higher education ecosystem at all, and engineering students develop EM as a result of job or volunteer experiences. As such, this research study seeks to answer the following research questions: (1) Which types of experiences contribute to engineering students' EM development? And (2) What types of attributes of EM do engineering students perceive are developed through these experiences? The study involves a qualitative analysis of engineering student interviews to determine the experiences that have contributed to student EM development as well as EM traits that were specifically focused upon within these experiences. Through understanding engineering students’ perceptions of how they developed an EM, it will provide the necessary information to determine best practices for EM student development in the future.

Entrepreneurial mindset (EM) has recently been adapted and integrated into various engineering classes and programs globally. Studies have shown that this integration can be effective and lead to beneficial student outcomes. To ensure broader integration of EM, faculty need to be trained on this construct and how it can be implemented within class-based environments. This study examines faculty motivation to attend professional development opportunities focused on EM offered by the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN). Through this mixed methods study it was found that faculty are often motivated by the value the workshop holds for them personally and for their career, and its usefulness in their courses. They are also motivated by their personal interests and enjoyment of professional development opportunities. The faculty in our study indicated being enabled by the workshop content's relevance to their teaching, especially in terms of course development, and its effectiveness in helping them become better instructors. Depending on the circumstances, faculty were either enabled or dissuaded by the timing of the workshop and the available funding for them to attend. The results of this study can help future workshop designers tailor their workshops to meet the needs of engineering faculty both nationwide and globally.

Over the past decade, there has been a substantial increase in the demand for the integration of entrepreneurial mindset (EM) into training of undergraduate engineering students. Although the engineering education field recognizes the importance of training related to this mindset, the assessment of EM development has lagged behind its implementation. Concept maps (cmaps) offer potential for direct EM assessment as they can provide a snapshot of students' conceptual understanding at a specific time point. A cmap uses nodes (concepts) and links (connections between concepts) as visual representation of an individual's perception of a topic. PURPOSE OR GOALThis study supports a larger project and focuses on applying a master/criterion EM cmap as a benchmark for scoring engineering students' cmaps. The research questions we will address are: What differences exist between students' cmap representation of EM concepts and the categories of a master EM cmap? How do student cmaps completed in different contexts compare in regard to their EM concept integration? APPROACH OR METHODOLOGY/METHODSThis research study involved collecting EM-related cmaps from five distinct classes at different institutions representing a variety of institutional types and contexts, although only data from three institutions was analysed as part of this study. All cmaps were de-identified prior to analysis. A total of 65 cmaps were included in this analysis. Starting with a previously developed draft master EM cmap, we used the categories (or branches) from that cmap for categorically scoring students' cmaps. As part of the analysis process, training and calibration was completed for the two main researchers to ensure that the scoring process was reproducible. After which, cmaps were scored separately by both main researchers and inter-rater reliability was monitored for their scores. ACTUAL OR ANTICIPATED OUTCOMESThis preliminary work benefits the engineering education community by demonstrating a reliable scoring approach that can be applied to evaluate cmaps generated for complex topics such as EM. This study provides insight into the challenges associated with using a master cmap approach to assess cmaps generated from multiple institutional contexts and different assignment prompts. Results are guiding changes to the draft master EM cmap to clarify categories and ultimately streamline the qualitative scoring process. CONCLUSIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS/SUMMARYThrough this study, we demonstrated how a master EM cmap can be used in the scoring of EM focused cmaps generated through multiple implementation methods. The results help us to address gaps in the literature on EM and operationalize a "definition" of EM that can be applied for direct assessment of the construct. After additional scoring, we will offer best practices that will assist faculty members with assessing EM development in their courses.

BackgroundConcept maps are a valid assessment tool to explore student understanding of diverse topics. Many types of academic programs have integrated concept mapping into their courses, resulting in various activities and scoring methods to understand student perceptions.PurposeFew prior reviews of concept mapping have addressed their use within engineering education. This systematic literature review examines articles that use concept mapping as an assessment tool in engineering education contexts and provides suggestions for future research.Scope/MethodWe conducted a literature search using terms related to concept map and engineering education. Articles were screened by their title, abstract, section, and then full paper, resulting in 53 articles for the final review. Two researchers examined the topic, activity type, and scoring method of the maps.ResultsConcept mapping topics fit into three categories, and the activity structures fit into four types. Of seven scoring methods, “Traditional” was the most used. Studies that compared multiple scoring methods showed that the “Holistic” and “Categorical” methods were better able to capture the content of the maps. All types of scoring demonstrated positive outcomes, suggesting that concept maps can demonstrate understanding of the topic and can assess learning.ConclusionsConcept maps have been applied in a number of ways. All types of concept mapping scores were shown to be useful and can lead to a better understanding of the students' learning outcomes. However, more research is needed to determine which scoring methods are recommended for specific applications.