Innovation, Design, and Self-Efficacy: The Impact of Makerspaces

In recent years, makerspaces have become an increasingly common feature in the engineering buildings of academic institutions.Through the creation and continued funding of these spaces, access to rapid prototyping technology has allowed for fast, straightforward project development across the engineering disciplines.While many hypothesize that students' participation within these facilities has a positive impact on their educational experiences and outcomes, there is little empirical data that describes how and to what extent individuals are impacted by exposure to a makerspace.In this paper, we seek to understand how the use of a university makerspace in a course project impacts students' engineering attitudes and skillsets as they relate to the makerspace.Our research team surveyed 172 undergraduate students in 6 unique courses that incorporate a makerspace based project into their curriculum.These courses varied by student year, department, subject matter, and project complexity.Each student was surveyed at the beginning and end of the semester, before and after they had completed a course project in the makerspace.The survey measured students' affect towards design, design self-efficacy, technology selfefficacy, innovation orientation, and sense of belonging within the makerspace.Survey items were validated through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis.Subsequently, paired t-tests were used to analyze if, and how, these metrics changed within individual students over the course of one semester using the makerspace.By surveying this broad pool of students and exploring the ways in which students' attitudes change after completing a makerspace project, we can better understand how incorporating these assignments into a class impacts students' affect towards engineering and perception of their engineering efficacy.