Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-21T18:49:49.588Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What difference does an academic makerspace make? A case study on the effect and outreach of DTU Skylab

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 November 2020

Ali Gürcan Özkil Open the ORCID record for Ali Gürcan Özkil [Opens in a new window] ,
Lasse Skovgaard Jensen  and
Camilla Arndt Hansen
Ali Gürcan Özkil*
Affiliation:
GN Audio, Ballerup, Denmark
Lasse Skovgaard Jensen
Affiliation:
Center for Technology Entrepreneurship, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
Camilla Arndt Hansen
Affiliation:
Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
*
Author for correspondence: Ali Gürcan Özkil, E-mail: aliozkil@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

With the rise of the “Maker Movement” and the entrepreneurial university, academic makerspaces became widespread. These facilities provide tools and machines that enable making and tinkering; and while the offerings, organizational and operational models, and outreach of the academic makerspaces can vary widely across institutions, their common value proposition is enabling innovation, entrepreneurship, and hands-on project-based learning and these studies are largely qualitative and exploratory by nature. Through a case study, this paper presents an in-depth analysis and insights on the users and usage of an academic makerspace. Using the data generated by and collected from the users of an academic makerspace, we evaluate the effects of having access to the makerspace on users' teaching and learning experiences, and their satisfaction with the offerings. Our results show that attracting courses and educators to the facilities played a strong role in growing the user base, courses and teaching activities introduced new teaching and learning activities to adopt the offerings, group and project work is positively impacted, and the users are very satisfied with the facilities and having the access to its offerings. The analysis also showed that the demand for the offerings can be challenging to manage during certain periods, most of the users come from three departments (mechanical, electrical, civil engineering), and the diversity of the users could improve with the introduction of new offerings, such as a wet lab for bio/chemistry experiments and a food lab to tinker with food processing and preparation.

Keywords

Academic makerspacesdesign thinkingengineering educationmaker movement
Type
Research Article
Information
AI EDAM , Volume 34 , Special Issue 3: Thematic Collection: Fablabs, Makerspaces, and Design Spaces , August 2020 , pp. 327 - 340
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, C (2012) Makers: The New Industrial Revolution. New York: Crown Business.Google Scholar
Barrett, TW, Pizzico, MC, Levy, B, Nagel, RL, Linsey, JS, Talley, KG, Forest, CR and Newstetter, WC (2015) A review of university maker spaces. ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington. doi: 10.18260/p.23442.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bevan, B, Gutwill, JP, Petrich, M and Wilkinson, K (2015) Learning through STEM-rich tinkering: findings from a jointly negotiated research project taken up in practice. Science Education 99, 98–120. doi:10.1002/sce.21151CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biggs, JB (2011) Teaching for Quality Learning at University: What the Student Does. Berkshire, UK: McGraw-Hill Education.Google Scholar
Blikstein, P and Krannich, D (2013) The makers’ movement and FabLabs in education: Experiences, technologies, and research. Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, pp. 613–616. Available at http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2485884CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Böhmer, AI, Beckmann, A and Lindemann, U (2015) Open innovation ecosystem-makerspaces within an agile innovation process. ISPIM Innovation Summit.Google Scholar
Colegrove, T (2013) Editorial board thoughts: libraries as makerspace? Information Technology and Libraries 32, 2–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crawley, EF, Malmqvist, J and Östlund, S (2007) Rethinking Engineering Education: The CDIO Approach. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
DTU Skylab (n.d). Retrieved 11 June 2020. Available at https://www.skylab.dtu.dk/Google Scholar
Etzkowitz, H, Webster, A, Gebhardt, C and Terra, BRC (2000) The future of the university and the university of the future: evolution of ivory tower to entrepreneurial paradigm. Research Policy 29, 313–330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forest, C, Hashemi Farzaneh, H, Weinmann, J and Lindemann, U (2016) Quantitative survey and analysis of five maker spaces at large, research-oriented universities. ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana. doi: 10.18260/p.260238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gershenfeld, N (2008) Fab: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop – From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Guzman, J and Kacperczyk, AO (2019) Gender gap in entrepreneurship. Research Policy 48, 1666–1680.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halverson, ER and Sheridan, K (2014) The maker movement in education. Harvard Educational Review 84, 495–504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, CA, Jensen, LS, Özkil, AG and Pacheco, NMM (2020) Fostering prototyping mindsets in novice designers with the prototyping planner. Proceedings of the Design Society: Design Conference, 1, 1725–1734. doi:10.1017/dsd.2020.132CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunt, J and Culpepper, ML (2017) Who, what, when and where: learning from student use patterns when they have access to multiple makerspace on a campus. Proceedings of International Symposium on Academic Makerspaces (ISAM), Cleveland, Ohio.Google Scholar
Imam, R, Ferron, L and Jariwala, AS (2018) A review of the data collection methods used at higher education makerspaces. Proceedings of International Symposium on Academic Makerspaces (ISAM), Stanford, California.Google Scholar
Invention Studio (2016) Available at http://inventionstudio.gatech.edu/Google Scholar
Jensen, LS, Özkil, AG and Mougaard, K (2016) Makerspaces in engineering education: A case study. ASME 2016 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, Charlotte, North Carolina, V003T04A003.Google Scholar
Kurti, RS, Kurti, DL and Fleming, L (2014) The philosophy of educational makerspaces. Teacher Librarian 41, 8–11.Google Scholar
Lensing, K, Schwuchow, B, Oehlandt, S and Haertel, T (2018) How makerspaces help to participate in technology: results of a survey to gain data about learners’ activities in makerspaces. 2018 World Engineering Education Forum – Global Engineering Deans Council (WEEF-GEDC), 1–5. doi:10.1109/WEEF-GEDC.2018.8629611CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipson, H and Kurman, M (2013) Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing. Indianapolis, Ind.: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Martin, L (2015) The promise of the maker movement for education. Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER) 5, 4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moilanen, J (2012) Emerging hackerspaces – peer-production generation. In Hammouda, I, Lundell, B, Mikkonen, T and Scacchi, W (eds), Open Source Systems: Long-Term Sustainability. OSS 2012. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 378. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33442-9_7Google Scholar
Özkil, AG (2017) Collective design in 3D printing: a large scale empirical study of designs, designers and evolution. Design Studies 51, 66–89. doi:10.1016/j.destud.2017.04.004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Papavlasopoulou, S, Giannakos, MN and Jaccheri, L (2017) Empirical studies on the maker movement, a promising approach to learning: a literature review. Entertainment Computing 18, 57–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PRL (2016) Available at https://productrealization.stanford.edu/classesGoogle Scholar
Reichheld, FF (2003) The one number you need to grow. Harvard Business Review 81, 46–55.Google Scholar
Riegle-Crumb, C and King, B (2010) Questioning a white male advantage in STEM: examining disparities in college major by gender and race/ethnicity. Educational Researcher 39, 656–664.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riley, DM, Mcnair, LD and Masters, AS (2017) An ethnography of maker and hacker spaces achieving diverse participation. ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. doi: 10.18260/1-2--27724.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodgers, L and Williamson, K (2018) Quantifying the changes in shop-user demographics and interdisciplinary activity after a makerspace was added. Proceedings of International Symposium on Academic Makerspaces (ISAM).Google Scholar
Saorín, JL, Melian-Diaz, D, Bonnet, A, Carrera, CC, Meier, C and De La Torre-Cantero, J (2017) Makerspace teaching-learning environment to enhance creative competence in engineering students. Thinking Skills and Creativity 23, 188–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schoop, E, Huang, F, Khuu, N and Hartmann, B (2018) MakerLens: What sign-in, reservation and training data can (and cannot) tell you about your makerspace. Proceedings of International Symposium on Academic Makerspaces (ISAM), Stanford, California.Google Scholar
Sheridan, K, Halverson, ER, Litts, B, Brahms, L, Jacobs-Priebe, L and Owens, T (2014) Learning in the making: a comparative case study of three makerspaces. Harvard Educational Review 84, 505–531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomko, M, Schwartz, A, Newstetter, W, Alemán, M, Nagel, R and Linsey, J (2018) “A Makerspace Is More Than Just a Room Full of Tools”: What learning looks like for female students in makerspaces. ASME 2018 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, 7. doi:10.1115/DETC2018-86276CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Troxler, P (2011) Libraries of the peer production era. ABEL, B. van Abel; Klaassen, R.; Evers, L.Google Scholar
Van Holm, EJ (2014) What are Makerspaces, Hackerspaces, and Fab Labs? Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2548211 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2548211CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilczynski, V and McLaughlin, A (2017) Similarities and differences between academic centers for entrepreneurship, innovation, and making. Proceedings of International Symposium on Academic Makerspaces, Cleveland, Ohio.Google Scholar
Wong, A and Partridge, H (2016) Making as learning: makerspaces in universities. Australian Academic and Research Libraries 47, 143–159. https://doi.org/10.1080/00048623.2016.1228163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar