Enhancing Sustainability in Project Management: The Role of Stakeholder Engagement and Knowledge Management in Virtual Team Environments

This research investigated the crucial correlation between stakeholder engagement and knowledge management, and their role in enhancing sustainability in project management, with a specific focus on the virtual environment. With the shift towards virtual solutions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the rise of remote work, it has become increasingly important to understand how these constructs interact in this new context. Through a web-based survey questionnaire and Structural Equation Modeling analysis, we found that both stakeholder engagement and knowledge management have a significant positive effect on sustainability practices in project management. Even more interestingly, these relationships remain consistent regardless of whether the project is conducted in a virtual or traditional environment. These findings have important implications for organizations across industries, as they can use these insights to improve sustainability practices in project management by focusing on the integration of stakeholder engagement and knowledge management in the virtual or presential environment. This study is the first of its kind to quantitatively investigate this connection, making it a valuable contribution to the field.

Hyflex for Successful Student Veteran Engineering Education: Say it Like You Mean It

There has been increased attention on producing engineers that are technically proficient while having many professional skills such as organization, time management, communication, and leadership. Across organization types, especially academia, veterans are admired by their peers for their professionalism and communication skills. Student veterans have trained and taken online classes in diverse and remote environments. They are accustomed to learning under ideal and less than ideal circumstances. The combined traits of increased professionalization, prior experience with online learning, and persistence position student veterans to perform as well or better than their traditional college-aged peers during the COVID-19 crisis. In a study of the effectiveness of Hyflex (Hybrid Flexible) learning conducted in the School of Engineering at The Citadel, forced-choice and free text survey responses showed that student veterans match with and differ from traditional college-aged students in important ways. Results from this study can be used to guide best practices in the Hyflex educational model, in order to better serve the student veteran demographic and all students. In particular, student veteran responses coalesce around a focus on effectiveness and time management concerns, as many have families and other external obligations. As a result, student veterans simultaneously want more Hyflex educational options going forward, however they want Hyflex implementation strategies to be refined and executed better in the future with more long-term planning. Active duty and student veterans can serve vital roles in the engineering classroom, modeling appropriate communication strategies for traditional students as well as connecting their global knowledge with the course content, enriching all students' understanding. Faculty and traditional students can benefit from this unique demographic if they are aware of their skills and experiences. This paper presents some of the issues and concerns of active duty and veterans pursuing an engineering degree compared to their traditional student counterparts when institutions pivot to alternative instructional delivery, specifically Hyflex. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022

Student Perceptions of Programming Instruction in a Makerspace vs Synchronous Remote Environment

All first-year students at the J. B. Speed School of Engineering (SSoE) at the University of Louisville (UofL) are required to complete a two-course sequence. The purpose of the two-course sequence is to introduce incoming students to the fundamentals and profession of engineering. The first course in the sequence is titled Engineering Methods, Tools, & Practice I (ENGR 110) and primarily focuses on introduction to and practice with fundamental engineering skills. The second course Engineering Methods, Tools, & Practice II (ENGR 111) is a makerspace-based course primarily focused on application and integration of the fundamentals learned in ENGR 110. ENGR 111 includes a variety of fundamental skills in its instruction, one of which is programming. Therefore, all disciplines of SSoE engineering students are exposed to the basics and applications of programming through this course sequence. Programming instruction in ENGR 111 is designed to include relevant software development skills that students might encounter in the engineering profession. The students have learned initial programming skills in their ENGR 110 course through the Python programming language. In ENGR 111, students practice programming skills learned in ENGR 110 on two different platforms: Arduino Microcontrollers (Arduino) and Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs). In normal face-to-face semesters, students are put into teams of 3 to 4 and given modules to develop and practice these skills (two for Arduino, two for PLCs). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ENGR 111 was augmented into a synchronous remote course to avoid close proximity and shared tools in the makerspace. Arduino programming instruction was performed using Tinkercad (tinkercad.com), a website that allows for Arduino programming and circuitry simulations. PLC instruction was performed utilizing a free online PLC simulator website, “PLCfiddle” [1]. At the end of each semester, students take a survey on their perceptions of the course. Included in this survey are questions pertaining to programming instruction. These questions assess student confidence in programming and platform preference. Results of these questions from Spring 2019 (a makerspace iteration) and Spring 2021 (a remote iteration) are compared in this paper. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.

How COVID-19 Led to Improvements and Adaptations to Experiential Learning Opportunities for an Increasingly Remote Environment

In the words of Oscar Wilde, “To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.” When the COVID-19 pandemic spread throughout the US in March of 2020, companies in all sectors of the economy learned that it is imperative to quickly respond to the unexpected. Companies needed to leverage their organizations' core values to adapt and implement a crisis strategy that met the needs of the COVID-19 pandemic while evolving the value offered to stakeholders. This paper is a case study on how Argonne National Laboratory, the organizing committee of an advanced vehicle technology competition developed a “contingency thinking” strategy to pivot and address stakeholder's needs despite the uncertain impacts of COVID-19. Contingency thinking is an adaptive planning strategy based on the principles of design thinking and value assessment. This strategy is an iterative process which includes: assessing the value of activities, developing contingency plans with increasing fidelity, collecting feedback from stakeholders, and incorporating feedback into the next iteration of contingency plans. Competition organizers employed this process because it reinforced the core mission of the competition and delivered minimum viable value irrespective of the ever-changing COVID-19 implications. The contingency thinking process resulted in the collegiate competition's first ever virtual semester - “Career Connected Learning.” Career Connected Learning was a five-part virtual initiative providing students with resources to excel in the competition, collaborate with other universities, and meet stakeholders' expectations. This dynamic initiative tailored activities to universities' unique circumstances and was praised by all stakeholders. This case study reviews the competition organizer's successful implementation of the contingency thinking process. As this was the first time the organizers implemented a highly adaptive process, the organizers faced many challenges including a compressed timeline, ever changing constraints for planning events, and the impacts of COVID-19 on team morale. Throughout this process, the organizers learned the importance of communicating a clear problem statement, collecting structured stakeholder feedback early, keeping an open mind, utilizing low fidelity prototypes, and employing project management tools. Over the past year, organizers gained experience from their successes and failures, and these valuable lessons can be applied to any organization seeking to manage the unexpected. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021

Interactive Videos and”In-Class” Activities in a Flipped Remote Dynamics Class

Flipped classes are relatively common in the engineering education community. In a flipped class, the lecture content is typically delivered asynchronously via videos, and the in-class activities are ideally redesigned to be more active. Due to COVID-19, many classes have become entirely remote. With classes no longer meeting face-to-face, what should the “in-class” portion of a flipped class look like? In this paper, I will discuss a flipped, remote dynamics class. Videos of lectures and example problems were watched by the students before the class met synchronously via Blackboard Collaborate during the regularly scheduled class times. In particular, I will present ways to enhance the out-of-class videos using embedded questions and the strategies that were used to engage students during class including activities such as grading the completed homework assignment, concept questions, and breakout rooms to work on the next homework assignment. Assessment data on students' perceptions of the class and which activities were most beneficial in the flipped, remote environment will also be presented. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021

Effectiveness of Remote Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Spring 2020: A Survey of Engineering and Computer Science Students

Like most other universities in the United States, classes and labs at University of the Pacific went fully virtual in March 2020 as a result of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Prior to this event, all classes were taught in face-to-face synchronous mode. At the end of the semester, we administered a survey to students in the School of Engineering and Computer Science asking for feedback on their remote learning experience. In addition to numerical ratings, specific feedback was sought using the following questions: • What elements of remote delivery were effective/not effective? • Do you have any specific suggestions for improving delivery of course or lab content in remote environments? • What elements of the remote environment made it easy to learn/difficult to learn? • Do you have any specific suggestions that could improve students' ability to learn in remote environments? • What elements of the remote environment made it easy/difficult to complete your work? • Do you have any specific suggestions for things that could make it easier for students to complete their work in remote environments? • Top three factors that affected your learning negatively/positively. We received 48 responses that included over 400 individual comments. Student demographic data indicated that responses were received from students in all years, although most respondents were seniors. Responses were analyzed using the ASCE ExCEEd Teaching Model. Comments were coded manually using a spreadsheet and also categorized using MAXQDA qualitative data analysis software and were checked for consistency between the two methods used. Students' comments predominantly addressed appropriate use of technology, student engagement in the class or lab, and structured organization of the material and activities presented synchronously and asynchronously. Findings of the survey were shared with faculty in the School to inform preparation for, and teaching in, Fall 2020. Survey results, the analysis approach used, and observations are presented in this paper. The ASCE ExCEEd Teaching Model proved to be a valuable framework for cataloging and analyzing over 400 comments provided by students. Analysis of the comments showed that students prefer live classes with recorded lectures for later use together with ample opportunity for office hours and contact and communication with faculty and their peers. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021

Edubot Project: Analyzing the Adaptation of Robotics Classes to the Remote Environment

Given the need for social confinement in response to the global pandemic caused by the Covid-19 disease, the Edubot project made the transition from classroom teaching methodologies to distance learning methodologies. To assess the effectiveness of this adaptation, a survey was developed where new students, who has never studied with Edubot before, could give their opinion on affinity and quality with regard to the new classes. The answers could be analyzed and displayed in graphs. Interpreting them, it is evident that although the virtual classes are fulfilling what they promise, there is a preference for the in-person mode. © 2021 IEEE.

Managing a lean six sigma project in a remote environment

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations are forced to operate in a remote environment with several restrictions on travel, group meetings, and in-person interactions. This is especially difficult for lean six sigma projects where observing the process and interacting with the workers is essential to understanding and improving the process. The Army's Lean Six Sigma methodology includes five phases: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control;each of these phases includes interaction between the project and process team. This paper focuses on the application of Lean Six Sigma methodology at Tobyhanna Army Depot to help reduce overruns and repair cycle time within the sheet metal cost center. At the initiation of the project, the process incurred over 4000 hours of overruns, a situation in which it takes longer to repair an asset than the standard hours allocated for the repair. Additionally, the average repair cycle time, amount of time required to repair an individual asset, exceeded customer expectations by almost 4 days. The paper discusses how the lean six sigma team executed tradition tools for each phase, like process mapping, data analysis, communication plans, and brainstorming in a remote environment. © 2021 IISE Annual Conference and Expo 2021. All rights reserved.