Sentiment Analysis of Semester Learning Essays in Design Education

AME4163: Principles of Engineering Design is a design, build and test course offered at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, USA. Throughout the semester students are expected to reflect on authentic and immersive experiences and write Take-aways and Learning Statements. At the end of the semester each student submits a summative Semester Learning Essay. Between 2019–2021 we collected about 10,000 Take-aways and Learning Statements from the Semester Learning Essays of nearly 400 students. In this paper, we attempt to help instructors gain insight of what students have learned through these materials and thence improve the delivery of the course in the future. We analyze their Take-aways from summative Semester Learning Essays by using dictionary-based sentiment analysis to assess students' subjective feelings toward what they have learned. The results prove that we gain insight into their learning thereby providing instructors with evidence-based guidance on modifying the course from different perspectives. The method proposed is generalizable to courses that involve authentic immersive experiences.