The development, validation and use of an interprofessional project management questionnaire in engineering education

Professional skills of project planning, risk analysis, ethical design, communication, and working in interprofessional teams are now recognised as core engineering skills. Frequently, they are addressed in engineering education through team projects. However, these skills can be difficult for students to learn as they are often not well defined (making it difficult for students to know where to focus their attention), and team projects often lack the reflective opportunities required for their development. This paper describes the development and validation of the Interprofessional Project Management Questionnaire (IPMQ) which has been designed for use in engineering education to provide a tool for reflection on, and clarification of, the learning goals related to these skills. Two studies to assess the reliability and validity of the IPMQ are reported. The instrument shows good validity and reliability in both French and English and as such is suitable for use with students. It is also suitable for research in engineering education and for providing feedback to faculty on student learning of professional skills in team projects. Suggestions on the use of the tool to enable the kinds of reflection that will help students to learn these skills are provided.