The influence of prior industry experience and multidisciplinary teamwork on student design learning in a capstone design course

This study compares the design process knowledge of students before and after a capstone design course. The influence of having prior industrial experience or being on a multidisciplinary capstone project on design process knowledge is also investigated. To assess design process knowledge, students critiqued a proposed design process; their responses were evaluated with a rubric that focuses on seven traits of design process knowledge. Results indicate that a capstone experience increases students' understanding of needs identification, the overall layout of a design process, and relative time allotments of different design activities. A capstone course also reduced the differences seen before this study between students with and without prior industrial experience. Students in multidisciplinary and single disciplinary capstone courses performed similarly.