Why do we keep asking you all these questions?

What we want Prepare you for the workplace. Offer you meaningful educational experiences. Support your ability to learn for a lifetime. Conduct studies that inform the quality of our instruction and theories about how people learn. Knowing the right answer is great, but knowing how to find a right answer is even better.

How are we gonna do this? Ask you a bunch of questions and watch what happens in class. Compare your answers –over time –to less senior BME students Use differences to inform our instruction and your educational experiences.

If I know how an expert thinks, then I can think like an expert. We are also comparing your performance on various tasks to experts. Allows us –A cross-sectional view of expertise. –How much expertise students can gain in four years?

Categories ER nurse Stage actor Astronaut Serial killer Careers? People who react to stress with relatively low anxiety

What exactly are you are measuring? 1.What you know about biodesign 2.What you’re taught about biodesign 3.How you actually design something

Biodesign knowledge: homework Signal analysis Compared to first year BMEs Peer review task Tells you what mastery looks like; Tells us what you look for Attributes of successful engineer Tells us what you think you ought to have Expectations survey* Informs instructional theory

Biodesign knowledge Final examCompare cohorts Final project Compare cohorts; developing new evaluations Final paperCompare cohorts

What you’re taught about biodesign Who are the people who visit class from time to time? What are they typing into their Palm Pilots? Educational research faculty and graduate students Recording data about the class –Attendance –Q & A –Engagement

What you’re taught about biodesign Who else is watching what we do in class? I am. I record: –Content –Verbatim speech –The nature of questions and answer exchanges –My thoughts on how we might improve the class

How many more times do we have to fill out those &*%#! ETE forms? ETE forms? Only 2 more times. While repetitive for you, this instrument allows me to: –Measure how challenging you find the course –Correlate activity type with engagement –Compare within and across cohorts

What else are we going to have to do? Create a 2 nd concept map and answer some questions on a short survey. Complete 2 longer surveys at the end of the fall semester. –Perceptions of the class, its benefits –Your personal learning style, career goals Complete 2 homework assignments next semester.

Proposal Design team study –Observation of team meetings –Individual interviews –Allow me to keep artifacts they create What will I be looking for? What will happen to the information?

Participate in an interview? 30 mins. = 2 free movie tix