Using an Instrument Blueprint to Support the Rigorous Development of New Surveys and Assessments in Engineering Education

Abstract

Jessica Menold is a second year graduate student interested in entrepreneurship, the design process, and innovativeness of engineering graduates and professionals. She is currently working as a student mentor in the Lion Launch Pad program, where she works to support student entrepreneurs. Jessica is currently conducting her graduate research with Dr. Kathryn Jablokow on a project devoted to the development of a psychometric instrument that will measure the skills, behaviors, and traits of an innovative engineer. Her hope is that this awareness of individual innovativeness levels will enhance engineering professionals and student's innovative skillsets. Jessica is also interested in studying and teaching design thinking methods to students, and is currently working to spread design thinking through mini-workshops across Penn State.Dr. Kathryn W. Jablokow, Pennsylvania State University, Great Valley Dr. Kathryn Jablokow is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Design at Penn State University. A graduate of Ohio State University (Ph.D., Electrical Engineering), Dr. Jablokow's teaching and research interests include problem solving, invention, and creativity in science and engineering, as well as robotics and computational dynamics. In addition to her membership in ASEE, she is a Senior Member of IEEE and a Fellow of ASME. Dr. Jablokow is the architect of a unique 4-course module focused on creativity and problem solving leadership and is currently developing a new methodology for cognition-based design. She is one of three instructors for Penn State's Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Creativity, Innovation, and Change, and she is the founding director of the Problem Solving Research Group, whose 50+ collaborating members include faculty and students from several universities, as well as industrial representatives, military leaders, and corporate consultants. Dr. Daniel Michael Ferguson, Purdue University, West LafayetteDaniel M. Ferguson is the recipient of four NSF awards for research in engineering education and a research associate at Purdue University. Prior to coming to Purdue he was Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship at Ohio Northern University. Before assuming that position he was Associate Director of the Inter-professional Studies Program and Senior Lecturer at Illinois Institute of Technology and involved in research in service learning, assessment processes and interventions aimed at improving learning objective attainment. Prior to his University assignments he was the Founder and CEO of The EDI Group, Ltd. and The EDI Group Canada, Ltd, independent professional services companies specializing in B2B electronic commerce and electronic data interchange. The EDI Group companies conducted syndicated market research, offered educational seminars and conferences and published The Journal of Electronic Commerce. He was also a Vice President at the First National Bank of Chicago, where he founded and managed the bank's market leading professional Cash Management Consulting...

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“…The experience and knowledge base of a multidisciplinary research team informed development of survey questions and was used as an instrument blueprint to "guide the creation of the survey items as well as the collection of validity evidence" (Menold, Jablokow, Purzer, Ferguson and Ohland 2015, para 1). The process to create the survey items was based on elements of Messick's unified theory of validity (1995) and used multiple resources including: (a) research from the field, (b) a review of existing survey instruments and c) utilising the expertise of the research team who were all experienced researchers in the field (Menold et al 2015).…”