Assessing Engineering Ph.D. Students’ Research Experiences: What is Important to Assess?

Abstract

As Director, he was in charge of the building and implementation of the Ideas to Innovation (i2i) Laboratory, which opened in August 2008 and houses classrooms and laboratories used by the 2000 students in Purdue's First-Year Engineering Program. He oversaw the daily operation of the i2i lab, and was responsible for the personnel, logistics, and technology used in the classroom and labs. Eric also helped build and directed the College of Engineering sponsored Artisan and Fabrication Lab (AFL), which houses a machine shop, carpentry shop, and a prototyping lab used by all students in the College of Engineering for project work. In 2009, he received a New Employee Staff Award of Excellence from the College of Engineering for his work in launching the i2i lab. Eric has served as the university representative on the Haas Technical Education Council, which is committed to developing manufacturing expertise at the high school, trade school, and university level. He received a BSEE from Purdue University in 1992, and a MS in Engineering Education in 2019. He has over 15 years of industrial experience, specializing in manufacturing and electronic controls, for which he holds 3 patents. Eric's industrial experience includes positions at Toyota, Cummins, Woodward, and TRW Automotive. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Engineering Education from Purdue, with an expected graduation date of Aug 2020.

Research experiences instrument: Validation evidence for an instrument to assess the research experiences of engineering PhD students' professional practice opportunities

“…The critical first step in construct definition is to arrive at a suitable theoretical framework from which to view the phenomena in question (Cronbach & Meehl, 1955). The search for a framework (Holloway et al, 2020) centered on frameworks that help explain why students find it difficult to make the transition from being a graduate student to being a professional, as the literature indicates this is a significant problem for PhD students (NASEM, 2018;Ronfeldt & Grossman, 2008;Shulman, 1998;Taylor, 2007).…”

“…Next, to ensure items were understood as intended and to provide evidence of the substantive aspect of validity, think-alouds were conducted with 12 engineering PhD students that were diverse in terms of race/ethnicity, gender, The literature review underpinning the six key characteristics of engineering PhD students' research experiences is extensive and led to a novel way of conceptualizing the students' research experiences for their professional practice development (Holloway et al, 2020).…”

“…Dall'Alba's framework was utilized as a lens to review the literature of engineering PhD students' research experiences and identify six key characteristics that were essential to students' professional development in their research experience (Holloway et al, 2020). Each of the six key characteristics was evaluated per Dall'Alba's recommendations (Dall'Alba, 2009; Dall'Alba & Sandberg, 2010) for higher education to help students be and become professionals.…”

“… Note : The literature review underpinning the six key characteristics of engineering PhD students' research experiences is extensive and led to a novel way of conceptualizing the students' research experiences for their professional practice development (Holloway et al, 2020). …”

“…One reason for this lack of insight on their preparation is the perception that students' research experiences are unique and diverse, or as Thune explained, a heterogeneous phenomenon (Thune, 2009(Thune, , 2010. The few assessments of graduate students' research experiences that exist have focused on their knowledge, skills, and abilities (Holloway et al, 2020). NSF-funded assessments of ERCs experiences have shown significant impacts on the students' outcomes from improving industry's perceptions of their preparedness for professional practice (Parker, 1997;Roessner et al, 2004).…”