Detailed empirical studies of student information storing in the context of distributed design team-based project work

This paper presents the findings of six empirical case studies investigating the information stored by engineering design students in distributed team-based Global Design Projects. The aim is to understand better how students store distributed design information in order to prepare them for work in today‟s international and global context. This paper outlines the descriptive element of the work, the qualitative and quantitative research methods used and the results. It discusses the issues around the emergent themes of information storing; information storing systems; information storing patterns; and information strategy, making recommendations; establishing that there is a need for more prescriptive measures to supporting distributed design information management. This work will
be of great value to industry also.