An Examination of the Factors that Influence Students' Capstone Project Choices

作者：Hart Robert A^*; Polk Todd W

来源：International Journal of Engineering Education, 2017, 33(5): 1422-1431.

• engineering capstone design
• project selection
• survey
• student opinion

During the project selection phase in a capstone course, it is often the case that some projects are more popular than others. To understand the factors students consider when selecting a capstone project, Mechanical, Biomedical, and Electrical engineering students were surveyed. An initial survey in 2015 of 83 participants rated how important each of 14 predetermined factors were in their recent individual project selection process. The data was analyzed to determine the relative importance of the factors. A second survey was conducted in 2016 with 69 participants using a slightly modified set of 18 pre-determined factors. The results of these two surveys were consistent and showed that a majority of students are taking into account a diverse range of factors when they select their capstone projects. The top rated factors in both surveys relate to three main areas: (1) to gain experience in a particular field or technology, (2) the desire to work with industry partners and (3) the quality and completeness of the information about the particular project available at bidding time. These results are used to identify some specific actions that can be taken to significantly increase the chance that students have a positive educational experience in capstone courses.

• 出版日期2017