Applying a robust design approach to improve online systems engineering education

The goal of robust design is to develop a system that performs optimally under a broad range of varying conditions including environmental conditions. A robust design is one that seeks to perform the ideal function while being insensitive to variations in environmental noise - uncontrollable factors that exist outside of the system, yet impact the ability of the system to perform the ideal function. This paper introduces a robust design framework for online systems engineering education and demonstrates its use. Combining observation and experimental design concepts, the framework is applied to the challenge of improving online course design by investigating the impact of the pedagogy used to deliver course lectures and discuss course content on student satisfaction and learning. The goal is to identify an approach for optimizing the student's learning experience and their development of system engineering competency knowledge by analyzing the student's self-perceived gain in competency knowledge related to system concepts and architectures, in a context where the students' age and years of systems engineering experience vary.