<p dir="ltr">How do you design a good design problem?&nbsp;Creating open-ended and ill-structured experiences for students, often in the form of problem- and project-based learning, places significant burdens on faculty who have a lack of tools and methods designed to help them create appropriately scaled and complex problems for their learning environment.&nbsp;We consider the design of a design problem for use in the classroom based on Jonassen’s design theory of problem solving.&nbsp;In this presentation we will consider the design of two design problems; an “easy” and “difficult” design problem.&nbsp;Our approach for this preliminary field study includes four stages. 1)&nbsp;Starting with an existing textbook design problem, we will first map the problem in terms of structuredness, complexity, and domain content. 2)&nbsp;Fixing the domain content, we will explore various ways that the design problem can be reformulated in ways that stretch the structuredness and complexity of the final problem statement. 3)&nbsp;We will capture data reflective of the&nbsp;process by capturing field notes and recording discussions.&nbsp;4)&nbsp;We will analyze our field notes and the process through the lens of backward design and Jonassen’s theory toward understanding&nbsp;“what happened” during porblem creation. Our analysis will provide insight into the mental processes and cognitive reasoning driving the problem creation process in terms of specific learning outcomes, content knowledge, and problem type features, mediated by consideration of structuredness and complexity.&nbsp;By sharing our work with the engineering design research community, we seek to highlight the challenges of effective problem development while also providing the foundation of a pedagogical framework that can drive collective problem creation efforts.</p>

Designing Design Problems - a Preliminary Field Study on Problem Creation

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IDETC-CIE/IDETC-CIE2021/volume/85369

ASME 2021 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (IDETC/CIE2021)

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