Students’ Self-Assessment of Modern Making Skills

Haidar, D.

Many studies have examined the effects of active learning on students’ educational outcomes.  For engineers, this often comes in the form of fabricating components for proof-of-concept prototypes of their engineering designs.  At Carnegie Mellon University, the general engineering students in the freshmen course Fundamentals of Mechanical Engineering prepare for engineering design projects by receiving training in the modern making skills of CAD software, 3D printing, laser cutting-engraving, power tools, and Arduino.  This study analyzed the self-assessment of students’ confidence level to apply these maker skills before and after completing the course. Results showed a significant improvement in students’ self-efficacy for applying these skills after completing the course. Furthermore, a notable number of students expressing doubt in their abilities to complete a particular task with a maker skill had improvements to their self-efficacy upon noting the steps towards successful completion of that task, and expressed confidence in completing an even more complex task.

Diana Haidar, Mechanical Engineering