Work

Recommendations for the use of social network sites and mobile devices in a collaborative engineering design project

Year: 2016

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: This paper investigates how mobile devices and online social networks are used in the context of a collaborative and cross-disciplinary distributed design project. The global design project is undertaken by students from four Universities in the collaboration of an aeroplane seatbelt product. It was observed that students have begun to make a change toward using social network sites and mobile devices for collaborative design and communication needs. This paper documents this change in student behavior and investigates the reasons for this change. Through structured and unstructured interviews, it was found that students have a natural preference towards the software they use for personal communication over prescribed unfamiliar software. Students in global teams are expected to be accessible at all times and mobile technology supports this need. In addition, students did not naturally adopt professional practices which lead to lost information and miscommunication. From these findings, a set of recommendations were created to assist those involved in a global design project.

Source: Strathprints: The University of Strathclyde institutional repository (University of Strathclyde)

Authors: Ross Brisco, Robert Ian Whitfield, Hilary Grierson

Language: English

Topic: Design Education and Practice

Subfield: Mechanical Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: green

Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

OpenAlex ID: W2468118736