Wikibooks: General Engineering Introduction/ASEE Paper/Open Ended Project Problem

The Open Ended Project Problem The gray area between Open Ended and Canned Projects has been thoroughly explored and named. But there is still a lot of confusion. The definition used here is students choose among a variety of new/old projects projects are never finished (endless improvement) instructors grade form and celebrate success This needs to be the standard definition of an “Open Ended Project.” =Inspiration versus Content= Education research has shown that students walk away from open ended problems with more inspiration and less content. It is a narrative problem that students don t value the inspiration until after graduation. Engineering is fun when content and inspiration emerge together. K 12 content volume and value discussions are important. But they discourage inspiration. The comparisons invited by competitions inspire only a few. Engineering has to be about adding back the inspiration not continuing K 12 expectations. Engineering project grading typically slips into K 12 expectations. Experts lecture and assign homework on content that seems random to the students or supports the single project that everyone does. Neither accomplishes the inspiration objectives of an open ended project. This is done because there is no model for grading inspiration. The next section proposes how to do this easily. Inspiration can be graded just like in the engineering workplace through project management accountability documentation and presentations. =Project Management versus Content= The freshman engineering class needs to give up content. Instructors should not present themselves as experts. Freshman need to discover content themselves. They need to be forced to learn on their own. Instructors should point out options like a project manager. The project management approach focuses on documentation transparency and accountability. The documentation requirement creates a course management issue similar to engineering corporations. The goal is to hold individuals accountable and celebrate team success. ...