Workshop — Challenges to using mixed methods research in engineering education

This interactive workshop is designed to help participants to design a mixed methods research project on a topic related to engineering education. It will also provide participants an overview of the different ways that mixed methods research has been used by engineering educators with a reference list. Participants will have the opportunity to develop a purpose statement and to identify a design for a mixed methods research project following a model that is supplied. They will also consider different analytical strategies to integrate or “mix” qualitative and quantitative data. Integrating findings from both qualitative and quantitative data is a key element of the definition of mixed methods. It offers a way to distinguish it from studies where members of an interdisciplinary team may each pursue the same research question from the angle of a single discipline, but never engage the “value added” of the different disciplinary perspectives.