RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE USE OF SOCIAL NETWORK SITES AND MOBILE DEVICES IN A COLLABORATIVE ENGINEERING DESIGN PROJECT
Year: 2016
Editor: Erik Bohemia, Ahmed Kovacevic, Lyndon Buck, Christian Tollestrup, Kaare Eriksen, Nis Ovesen
Author: Brisco, Ross; Whitfield, Robert Ian; Grierson, Hilary
Series: E&PDE
Institution: Department of Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom
Section: External Collaboration
Page(s): 394-399
ISBN: 978-1-904670-62-9
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 behaviour 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.
Keywords: Social network site, mobile device, collaborative design, engineering design, project based learning.