Identifying threshold concepts in final year engineering projects

Kershaw, Stephen; Patel, Andrea and Warren, James (2025). Identifying threshold concepts in final year engineering projects. In: The 13th eSTEeM Annual Conference Proceedings: Sharing Best Practice - Implementing What Works (Pawley, Susan and Chang, Daphne eds.), 10-11 Apr 2024, The Open University, UK, pp. 39–45.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.00102272

Abstract

Threshold concepts (TC) are a key learning theory which can be applied to many subjects within STEM. This study considers TCs within the capstone engineering project at the Open University. Threshold concepts are concepts which require drastic reworking of one’s own conceptual framework before crossing a threshold of understanding. Project tutors identified three major points where students appeared to struggle in their project work, or where students most often become stuck. These three points were then mapped against: previous attempts, assessment scores, predicted probability of success, and extensions on assignments (lateness). The findings include predicted probability values are good markers for success and can be mapped against many variables to demonstrate the presence of barrier to learning or thresholds. The study focuses on the first threshold where students get stuck on their initial project proposal in their first assignment. We observe late student submissions (34% of all) have lower marks (-9%) compared with those on time. Students with higher risk of failure in our predictive model also
tend to have lower marks overall especially when they are late or have extensions on the first assignment.

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