Collaborative Research: Improving Interdisciplinary Design Teamwork and Communication Using Boundary Negotiating Artifacts

协作研究：使用边界协商工件改善跨学科设计团队合作和沟通

• 批准号: 1463760
• 负责人: Kacey Beddoes
• 金额: $ 24.41万
• 依托单位: Oregon State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-15 至 2016-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1463760&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Improving; Interdisciplinary; Design

The importance of interdisciplinary teamwork skills for engineering graduates is widely recognized, and increased interdisciplinary collaboration is needed to solve the grand challenges facing society today. Although research from other fields has demonstrated the value of examining the artifacts generated during research and design, there are as yet no ethnographic studies of the day-to-day practices of interdisciplinary teams in engineering education settings and the objects they create and use in those practices. Therefore, this study is significant because it fundamentally advances knowledge of interdisciplinary teamwork by developing a typology of boundary negotiating artifacts (BNAs) in interdisciplinary engineering teams. BNAs are artifacts and practices surrounding them that coordinate perspectives, create alignment between team members from different disciplines, facilitate transmission of information, and allow team members to learn from other disciplines during research and design. The project addresses a significant gap in knowledge about the actual practices and artifacts generated during the course of interdisciplinary design projects. By focusing on the daily, micro-level practices of engineers, a fuller, more accurate description of communication processes emerges than those based on interviews and normative descriptions of engineering work. Characterizing the artifacts that facilitate or hinder collaboration ultimately contributes to engineers' abilities to work with stakeholders from other backgrounds as successful boundary-spanners. This study's contribution is significant because it provides the first research-based educational materials that are designed to improve interdisciplinary design teamwork and communication through the use of an artifacts typology. The goals of this project are: 1) to characterize the ways in which use and non-use of artifacts facilitates and hinders interdisciplinary teamwork and communication, 2) to develop a typology of models of artifacts created and utilized in interdisciplinary teams, and 3) to design, implement, and assess explicit incorporation of BNAs into interdisciplinary engineering courses at Washington State University and Oregon State University. Understanding the roles and uses of artifacts in interdisciplinary communication requires collecting data through long term, ethnographically-informed methods. Participant observers are collecting ethnographic data from several interdisciplinary design projects. Ethnographic data include observations and interviews with students and faculty members. Based on results from the ethnographic data, a typology of BNAs and their uses is being developed. Organizing the data in this manner allows other researchers and instructors access into the project's findings. Utilizing results of the research, BNAs are being strategically incorporated into engineering curricula to optimize their use and effectiveness. Together, these outcomes build a vital and solid foundation for future research on interdisciplinary communication processes and associated improvement of interdisciplinary design courses.

跨学科的团队合作技能对工程毕业生的重要性得到了广泛认可，并且需要增加跨学科的合作来解决当今社会面临的巨大挑战。尽管其他领域的研究表明了研究研究和设计过程中产生的工件的价值，但尚无民族志研究对工程教育环境中跨学科团队的日常实践以及它们在这些实践中创建和使用的对象的实践。因此，这项研究很重要，因为它从根本上可以通过在跨学科工程团队中开发边界谈判工件（BNA）的类型来提高跨学科团队的知识。 BNA是围绕它们协调观点，在不同学科的团队成员之间保持一致的工件和实践，促进信息传播，并允许团队成员在研究和设计期间向其他学科学习。该项目解决了有关跨学科设计项目过程中产生的实际实践和工件的知识差距。通过关注工程师的日常，微观的实践，比基于访谈和工程工作的规范描述，对沟通过程进行了更全面，更准确的描述。表征有助于或阻碍协作的工件最终有助于工程师与其他背景的利益相关者合作作为成功的边界跨越者的能力。这项研究的贡献很重要，因为它提供了首个基于研究的教育材料，旨在通过使用文物类型来改善跨学科设计团队工作和交流。 The goals of this project are: 1) to characterize the ways in which use and non-use of artifacts facilitates and hinders interdisciplinary teamwork and communication, 2) to develop a typology of models of artifacts created and utilized in interdisciplinary teams, and 3) to design, implement, and assess explicit incorporation of BNAs into interdisciplinary engineering courses at Washington State University and Oregon State University.了解工件在跨学科交流中的作用和用途需要通过长期，民族志的方法来收集数据。参与者的观察者正在从几个跨学科设计项目中收集人种学数据。民族志数据包括观察和对学生和教职员工的访谈。根据人种学数据的结果，正在开发BNA及其用途的类型。以这种方式组织数据可以使其他研究人员和讲师访问项目的发现。利用研究结果，BNA在战略上被纳入工程课程，以优化其使用和有效性。这些结果共同为未来的研究跨学科沟通过程以及相关的跨学科设计课程的研究奠定了至关重要的基础。