This collaborative proposal brings together engineering education researchers from one institution (Oregon State University) and learning scientists from another (University of Washington) in a two-year project involving two studies designed to investigate how productive disciplinary engagement is supported and constrained in a collaborative virtual engineering task in a capstone course. In one study, sociocultural and affective frames will be brought to bear on extant data (already analyzed cognitively) in order to explore interactions within five student groups working on the task, and between groups and instructor. These secondary analyses will focus on patterns of engagement, discourse processes, and social context of the groups embedded in the larger context of the course with the aim of shedding light on the ways in which engagement and learning develop. The second study will entail analyses of primary data (collected via pre- and post- surveys of students in the capstone course) to investigate the relationship of the experience in the virtual laboratory groups and student learning, interest in engineering, and post-graduate plans.
