A review of Design of Experiments courses offered to undergraduate students at American universities

TL;DR

This paper compiles and analyzes a comprehensive database of undergraduate Design of Experiments courses in U.S. top universities to evaluate pedagogical approaches and provide teaching recommendations.

Contribution

It introduces the first systematic database of DoE courses at U.S. universities and offers insights and recommendations for improving pedagogy.

Findings

Identified common course features and content coverage.

Provided data-driven teaching material suggestions.

Highlighted gaps and opportunities in current DoE education.

Abstract

Design of Experiments (DoE) is a relevant class to undergraduate students in the sciences, because it teaches them how to plan, conduct, and analyze experiments. In the literature on DoE, there are several contributions to its pedagogy, such as easy-to-use class experiments, virtual experiments, and software to construct experimental designs. However, there are virtually no systematic evaluations of the actual DoE pedagogy. To address this issue, we build the first database of DoE courses offered to undergraduate students in the United States. The database has records on courses offered from 2019 to 2022 at the best universities in the US News Best National Universities ranking of 2022. Specifically, it has data on 18 general and content-specific features of 206 courses. To study the DoE pedagogy, we analyze the database using descriptive statistics and text mining. Based on our analysis, we provide instructors with recommendations and teaching material to enhance their DoE courses. The database and material are included in the supplement of this article.