Best Practices for Faculty Mentorship of Capstone Design Projects

Abstract

Chico. He previously taught in the Engineering Technology department at UNC Charlotte and the Engineering Technologies Division at Central Piedmont Community College. He also has nine years of industrial work experience.

Revising Roles: Enhancing an Engineering Capstone Course to Improve Outcomes for Women

“…What she learned in the first year of teaching the course was that there were a lot of problems centered on the team meetings. Similar problems have been noted in other publications [8,18]. A common problem was that students were not going to the team meetings or were arriving late.…”

“…She also stated that in addition to their meeting with her, she expected student teams to meet with each other weekly, which they had not always done in the past but had always been an assumed aspect of the class. Problems with student meetings, including both frequency and content, has been reported by others [18]. Thus, writing out the expectation that students meet together outside of class made explicit what had heretofore been implicit.…”

“…While instructor selection of teams is advised by some [12,17], most of our faculty allow students to select their teams to give students autonomy over their groups, making them feel invested in these teams (rather than feeling stuck with what they were assigned). The use of weekly meetings and peer evaluations is aligned with the practices of other institutions [18]. Time sheets are also used by others [13].…”

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

“…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].…”