Assessment of Soft-Skills-Program Learning Outcomes Using Engineering Courses

ABET’s criterion requires engineering students to possess several technical “hard skills” as well as nontechnical “soft skills” upon their graduation, with the former learning outcomes typically easier to evaluate and assess than the latter. This paper presents rubrics and assessment methods using engineering courses for evaluating the soft-skills-program learning outcomes engagement in lifelong learning competencies, communication, and the impact of engineering solutions. The assessment of the lifelong learning student outcome is addressed using results from a set of semester-long assignments in a fluid mechanics course. The recently developed and adopted course, Engineering Technical Writing and Presentation, in which students learn to develop an effective writing process for writing engineering documents in future courses and industry, is used in the assessment of competencies in effective oral and written communication skills. The senior capstone project, which typically assesses teamwork, now requires students to write an impact statement that is used in the assessment of skills such as identification of need and the positive and negative impacts on humankind, environment, and economy. Rubrics to assess and evaluate these soft-skill learning outcomes, along with findings from the current semester where available are presented in the paper. Introduction Over the years, the engineering profession and engineering education has changed and evolved to meet technological, economical, workforce, global, and societal challenges. Several national organizations such as the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) have taken proactive steps to address and respond to these challenges in various forms. The NAE report “The Engineer of 2020, Visions of Engineering in the New Century” 1 addressed the technological, societal, and global contexts of the engineering practice and their implications on engineering education. The report concluded with a set of desirable attributes in the future engineering workforce. Many of these attributes will be similar to the past and current attributes, but are made more complex by the impact of new technology. Strong analytical skills, practical ingenuity, creativity, communication, high ethical standards, professionalism, and lifelong learners are examples of NAE aspirations. In developing what is currently known as Engineering Criteria 2000, ABET reaffirmed a set of "hard" engineering skills, while introducing a second, equally important, set of six "professional" skills. These latter skills include communication, teamwork, and understanding ethics and professionalism, which are designated as process skills; and engineering within a global and societal context, lifelong learning, and knowledge of contemporary issues, which are designated as awareness skills. While it is traditionally easy to measure and evaluate hard skills through mathematics, science, technology, and engineering courses, assessment of soft-skills poses some challenges to engineering educators. In this paper, we present our experience in using engineering courses to address the soft skills lifelong learning, communication, professional and ethical obligations, and the global impact of engineering. Lifelong Learning Outcome The fast pace of advancement in science and technology makes it vital for all professionals to stay up-to-date with contemporary advances and innovations in various fields of technology. The multidisciplinary nature of engineering practice puts engineers at the forefront of meeting this pressing demand. At some point in their practice, engineers will need to solve a problem or design a component that requires research, learning new software, knowledge of other engineering disciplines, or locating an article in a book, journal, or conference proceeding. Criterion 3i of the EAC 2000 states the expectation that engineering graduates must have “recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage in lifelong learning.” The theme of this criterion is to instill the ability to learn how to learn. Philip Candy defined lifelong learning as “equipping people with skills and competencies required to continue their own self-education beyond the end of formal schooling.” In a memorandum on lifelong learning, the Commission of the European Communities defined lifelong learning as an “all purposeful learning activity, undertaken on an ongoing basis with the aim of improving knowledge, skills and competence”. A survey of 35 students in a fluid mechanics course was conducted at the end of the fall 2010 semester with 27 students responding. In the survey, students were asked to provide their definition of lifelong learning after receiving the aforementioned Commission of the European Communities definition. The following are selected verbatim responses grouped according to their level of understanding with the supplied definition. A. Fully Understand 1. “The ability to research and understand new material.” 2. “The ability to constantly gain knowledge and apply it.” 3. “Lifelong learning is a person’s lifelong process of acquiring knowledge and/or skills.” 4. “A learning experience that grows with time that increase skills” 5. “To learn things one will use in the future and to be able to continue to learn outside the classroom.” 6. “Lifelong learning is the seeking out of new information with the goal of increasing your proficiency in activities relative to your personal or professional life. This proficiency is potentially beneficial to those around you that rely on your skills and knowledge.” 7. “Lifelong learning should be something we take out of class and learn it and relate it to the class. Also, I believe it is more out of subject research which helps. It helps develop interest to various topics.” B. Understand 1. “Personal development, improve upon what you've learn so far, and working with others to achieve any particular tasks or goals, and continuous learning” 2. “Continuing research on a topic of interest” 3. “To be able to apply what is learned to everyday life” 4. “A chance for someone to show what knowledge they possess in regards to a particular subject matter. Or being able to demonstrate the ability someone may have in information gathering through observation, research, and report writing.” 5. “Learning is never enough.” 6. “Lifelong Learning means to learn as you go through life (personal experiences).” 7. “A research project, which enhances one's knowledge of a particular field, and how it relates to my expectations/perceptions.” 8. “It's like a research paper, except it attracts students' interests, and makes them want to pay more attention to the topic.” 9. “Learning that is embedded in mind even after a certain subject is over.” C. Somewhat Understand 1. “A project that has some effect on your life, whether it be understanding material better or something for your career” 2. “Learning something that will help you later in life not just learning something and using it for the test.” 3. “Life Long Learning is learning something that will be useful for the rest of your life. Something that you can acquire knowledge about for an extended period of time. Perhaps some subject that interests you that you keep learning about.” 4. “it is daily knowledge acquired by the learner that involve experience or anything that exist throughout individual life” D. Do Not Understand 1. “Problems that provide a sufficient knowledge for the student about a particular subject in Fluid Mechanics.” 2. “Lifelong Learning is the idea of being taught something that will remain with you and help you throughout the rest of your career, academic or professional.” 3. “Computational Fluid Dynamics was originally used as a research tool in the aerospace industry. It has since moved to be used as a design tool. Find what other industries make use of CFD and record your findings in a brief report.” 4. “something learned that stays with an individual throughout their lifetime” 5. “Blood and ferro-fluids as non-Newtonian fluids” 6. “A problem whose solution remains unsolved for a long time or which never gets a definite answer and there is always room for improvement.” 7. “My definition of lifelong learning is increasing my knowledge of the advancements in medical care and understanding where it originated.” Felder divided lifelong learning outcome into two parts. The first part is the recognition of the need for lifelong learning which, according to Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives, is governed by the attitudes and values that strongly influence the behavior of the learner and are better known as the “affection domain”. There are several levels of competency in this domain including, stimulating the students’ interest in a certain area, students’ response and attitude to this stimulus, and development and implementation of a systematic approach to learning. The second part is the ability to engage in lifelong learning which, according to Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives falls under the “cognitive domain”. The mastery of this part is governed by several actions that, in general, focus on the students’ ability to explore new ideas, demonstrate comprehension, arrive at solutions, generate new ideas, and, finally, judge the feasibility and value of these solutions or new ideas. Lifelong Learning Outcome: Assessment Process As previously mentioned, a fluid mechanics course was used as a data source for assessment purposes of the lifelong learning student outcome. This is the first time this course has been utilized in our department as a source of data to measure the attainment of the lifelong learning outcome. The initial attainment level is measured through two performance indicators as follows: 1. Recognize the attributes of a lifelong learner and the significance of lifelong learning, and identify sources for continuing education 2. Perform in-dep