Date Approved
6-2-2025
Embargo Period
6-2-2027
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D. Engineering
Department
Experiential Engineering Education
College
Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering
Advisor
Cheryl Bodnar, Ph.D.
Committee Member 1
Kaitlin Mallouk, Ph.D.
Committee Member 2
Justin Major, PhD
Committee Member 3
Jennifer Rich, Ph.D.
Committee Member 4
Elif Miskioglu, Ph.D.
Keywords
Beliefs;Game-based Learning;Judgments;Process Safety;Public Welfare;Social Issues
Disciplines
Engineering
Abstract
Engineering professionals must uphold professional standards and prioritize public welfare to mitigate risks and ensure the safety and well-being of society. To achieve this outcome, engineering students need to be appropriately prepared to navigate and make judgments with competing criteria. By identifying what individuals believe and the circumstances where their behaviors might be different, educators can support the development of awareness of future engineers who may be confronting these types of judgments. The first study in this work investigates what students believe about how they would approach process safety judgments with competing criteria and compares that to their behavior in a digital process safety decision-making game, Contents Under Pressure. The second study dives deeper into the narrative components of Contents Under Pressure to better understand their influence on students’ judgments. The third study investigated differences in engineering students’ beliefs and behaviors in public welfare settings and sought to determine how students perceive their professional responsibilities as engineers. This dissertation found that many students had gaps in awareness about how relationships and business-oriented criteria influence their judgments in engineering practice contexts, suggesting that additional instruction on these topics may be beneficial to help prepare engineering students for the judgments they will be faced with in professional practice.
Recommended Citation
Ritz, Cayla, "USING STORY-DRIVEN GAMES TO INVESTIGATE ENGINEERING STUDENT BELIEFS AND BEHAVIORS RELEVANT TO ENGINEERING JUDGMENTS" (2025). Theses and Dissertations. 3370.
https://rdw.rowan.edu/etd/3370
