Analysis of Students Open Feedback After Their Participation in a Multinational Design Project

Abstract

Participation by students in multinational engineering design projects is an activity that has been implemented at academic institutions with the objective of exposing the students to globalization. Such collaborations are becoming a very important practice that prepare students to be aware of the various aspects that are faced whenever work is performed in a global environment. There have been several approaches for the implementation of these activities in the curriculum, and the one presented here is an engineering design project conducted with the participation of students from six different countries. As an assessment of the students’ experience, three specific open-ended questions were asked at the end of their participation. These questions cover the basic information of like-dislike-recommendation regarding the collaborative experience. Proper interpretation of responses to open-ended questions is not an easy task, and several approaches have been reported. In this manuscript, the data analytics technique of topic modelling is utilized in order to get a more objective assessment. Based on the responses by participants to the three basic questions, together with the corresponding demographic information, the feedback is evaluated and some conclusions are drawn regarding the effect of factors like geographic location and gender. These conclusions will be utilized to improve the offering of a multinational collaboration by students in an engineering design project.