Guidelines how to use ANNA

The ANNA tool is the main product of the INGDIVS project. The tool is aimed at high school students who are curious about engineering as a possible future career. The ANNA tool is a filter that allows high school students to search a database of engineers to gain insight about what an engineer is today and information about what kind of work an engineer does. By using the ANNA tool, the user also has an opportunity to reflect on common prejudices and preconceived notions regarding engineers.

This guideline of the ANNA tool i is focused on its main functionalities. To obtain greater insight into the tool, it is recommended that you try it yourself.

www.projectanna.eu

The ANNA tool is free and available on any device that has access to the Internet. The tool is more user-friendly on a computer, but it will work on mobile devices, such as phones and tablets, as well. The ANNA tool can be accessed from anywhere at any time.

A brief introduction video

In the video, the user gets a short introduction to the ANNA tool in English, with subtitles in their chosen language. Users learn about the multi-faceted world of engineering via an approach that will arouse curiosity. The user is introduced to and encouraged to reflect on the engineering profession as a possible future career. The video has subtitles in the corresponding language in order to make it friendly for students.

Choose your language

To make the ANNA tool as user friendly as possible, it was made available in all the corresponding languages of the inbound partners. By choosing the language, the user can also choose a university from which to review past student feedback.

More info

Before entering the filtering tool, the user can gain more information about the project not only from the introduction video but from the parental information (see the textbox).

Filtering

When entering the tool, the user can initially search the entire database or specifically search either only graduates or only present students.

Furthermore, the user can choose what aspects to include when filtering the database. It is mandatory to filter self-perception*. The user can also choose to include thinking styles and personality type.

Users are asked to give opinions about different statements. Each user is free to either be truthful or to indicate a response that is not at all consistent with his/her own opinion. When the user has completed all answers on the desired modules, he/she can filter. It is possible to go back and forth between the result and the modules.

About the self-perception module in the tool

Previous studies have shown that many individuals, even when well informed about engineering and technology, have difficulty seeing themselves as engineers. Sometimes, potential students are concerned that their classmates will be more intelligent or more highly skilled than they are or they are worried about identity and course difficulty.

To collect data for the database, we designed questions for graduates and current students so that the tool’s users could understand what previous students were thinking when in their position.

About the additional filtering modules

Many people believe that certain personality types or traits are more suited to certain careers or courses of study than others. Some companies or organisations will use tools to try to identify traits in their employees to improve working conditions or collaboration. We asked current students and graduates from our universities to answer a number of questions that were inspired by some of these tools.

Finding a match

Depending on a user’s answers in the filtering modules, five engineers or engineering students will be visible. The user will get information about people from the database, including their field of study, age, interests and university, as well as some information about their personal interests and ideas about an engineering career and their opinion of the university that they attend(ed).

The final (optional) evaluation

After finalising the filtering and finishing with the tool, the user can go on to an optional evaluation. The evaluation not only gives users of the INGDIVS project feedback but also gives them an opportunity to think about their future careers.