An assessment of student needs in project-based mechanical design courses

In response to a perceived lack of practical design experience for students, many universities have introduced new project-based courses to the curriculum. This paper describes an investigation of the pedagogical needs of students in three new design courses. The aim of this research is to inform the development of learning environments and resources for these and similar courses. A series of questionnaires was used to identify the difficulties faced by student teams working on mechanical design projects, and the resources they felt were needed to support their learning. An ethnographic approach was used to expand upon the results of the questionnaires. The needs identified relate to design skills such as analogical thinking, prototyping, experimentation, modeling and analysis, and reasoning about uncertainty. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these results for instructional design. ©American Society for Engineering education, 2013.