An Examination of Mentoring Functions in the Capstone Course

Abstract

Throughout the literature detailing projects in engineering capstone courses, researchers frequently refer to the faculty role as that of a mentor. As such studies make clear, the role of mentoring in capstone projects is critical to support students in the progression of the course. Yet the concept itself remains relatively ill-defined in the engineering education literature, making it more challenging for researchers and educators alike to identify patterns and best practices across contexts. Using a framework developed by Kram to characterize a variety of mentoring functions, this paper describes the key functions and roles associated with mentoring in the capstone course as well as a factors that can influence these mentoring environments. The results provide the engineering education community with a more complete understanding of the nature of design teaching in a way that can be used not only for professional development of current design faculty, but also in the training of new design educators.

New Engineers' First Three Months: A Study of the Transition from Capstone Design Courses to Workplaces

“…At the same time, many of our participants described multiple challenges associated with the broad domain of self-directed learning -an area that many capstone faculty themselves highlighting as they seek to encourage students to take ownership of their learning [10,11]. Participants described challenges linked to learning new domains (software, technical concepts, equipment), managing their time among multiple projects, and learning how to make themselves useful in their early weeks at work.…”

“…Most often they are structured as year-long team experiences that combine formal courses with extended projects, with an increasing emphasis on industry-sponsored projects [8]. Faculty goals for these courses center on helping students integrate their technical course work in ways that provide authentic, workplaceoriented design experiences [9][10][11].…”

The Power of ProTAsTM: Work in Progress Paper Assessing the Impact of Industry Professionals as Teaching Assistants and Mentors to Advance Engineering Design Education Innovations

“…Frequent surveys of ABET-accredited programs reveal that capstone courses occur in numerous engineering disciplines and across school sizes [1,[8][9]. Likewise, the benefits of mentoring for engineering students--whether by peers, faculty, or industry liaisons--are well-documented in the literature, particularly with regard to qualitative assessments of student, faculty, and sponsor satisfaction with the capstone experience [10][11][12].…”

“…In addition to the common usage of teaching assistants within engineering capstone and projectand venture-based courses, the literature acknowledges that industry involvement in these types of learning environments is both useful and effective [11,[22][23][24]. Moreover, the literature also acknowledges the efficacy of volunteer and faculty mentors who are recruited to help guide engineering students through capstone design courses, as well as other similar offerings [12,25]. In many cases, professional industry representatives, who may have a stake in the project being developed by the learners, may also often serve as the volunteer capstone mentor [26][27].…”

Capstone Design Faculty Motivation: Motivational Factors for Teaching the Capstone Design Course and Motivational Influences on Teaching Approaches

“…Capstone design faculty demonstrate an engagement with students not commonly found in more traditional university lecture courses. This engagement emerges in the form of coaching, protecting, role modeling, and other mentoring functions, as supported by a 2009 national survey of capstone design faculty and follow-up interviews with over forty capstone faculty 1,2 . The mentoring functions, course structure, and course facilitation typically require capstone faculty to devote additional time, cognitive resources, and energy to planning and implementing the capstone design course.…”