Facilitating Lifelong Learning Skills Through A First Year Engineering Curriculum

Engineering accreditation criteria, as well as the Engineer of 2020 report, list lifelong learning as a critical attribute of future engineers. While exercises can be embedded in engineering curricula that promote independent learning, assessing the level at which lifelong learning has been achieved is difficult. The first year engineering curriculum at Louisiana Tech University provides activities that support development of lifelong learning skills. Examples include the requirement of student attendance at professional society meetings or service functions and independent research into global and societal issues that are likely to influence their careers. Our project-based curriculum requires skills beyond those imparted in the classroom. For example, students must learn with little or no classroom instruction to create parts and assemblies with a 3D modeling tool, to diagnose technical problems with their projects, and to learn to implement sensors as part of their design projects. By analyzing student questionnaires and curricular content, we measure the numbers of activities that promote lifelong learning as well as the extent to which these activities are completed independently. This paper will provide an overview of our first year engineering experience as well as the assessment results that help us measure the extent of lifelong learning. Background and Introduction Criterion 3H (Program Outcomes) of the 2008-2009 ABET EAC requires that engineering programs instill within their students “a recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage in life-long learning”. Though all engineering programs recognize the need for providing their students with tools to continue to learn new tools and strategies throughout their professional career, many experience difficulty determining methods to measure how well their curricula instill lifelong learning attributes. The Engineer of 2020 discusses “the imperative for engineers to be lifelong learners,” noting that technology changes rapidly and that engineers frequently change careers. Litzinger et al. noted that lifelong learning can occur in two modes: formal and informal. The formal mode includes university courses, and the informal mode refers to learning that takes place naturally as an individual learns to accomplish a task. We believe that project-intensive educational experiences provide fertile ground for practicing both modes of lifelong learning. Nelson described a general education class targeted to engineering and technology students. The primary objectives of the class were to provide students with the opportunity to think reflectively on merits and drawbacks of technology in a personal as well as global and societal context and to promote lifelong learning and skills. Assignments and discussions that help students develop their own opinions and attitudes regarding the impact of engineering and technology on global and societal issues instill a passion for learning in some students. Most people naturally want to do something in their lifetime that benefits society, so discussing “the bigger picture” can be an important motivator for sustained lifelong learning. P ge 14619.2 Gustafson, McCaul, and Soboyejo conducted a survey of 280 alumni during the academic year 2000-2001. Asked how their undergraduate experiences could have better prepared them for their professional careers, their top four responses included: ≠ Changes in the content of engineering courses, including the use of current technology and software, more industry interactions, and real-world context; ≠ More involvement in professional organizations; ≠ An increased use of trade/professional publications within the curriculum; and ≠ Increased focus on professional skills, including ethics, teamwork, and communication. Several have reported the need to teach and encourage students to use library resources such as trade publications and journals as well as electronic databases to find information for help with projects or research papers. In some cases, alumni have strongly encouraged their universities to incorporate the use of such resources, realizing that they themselves would have benefited from an earlier introduction to using these resources. Several studies have evaluated the role of confidence as a facilitator of or inhibitor to learning. McElhoe, Kamberelis, and Peters found that in teaching computer skills to non-traditional students, the confidence that the students gained in using computers was more important to the students than the actual skills that they learned. Norman and Hyland examined the role of confidence in lifelong learning with a group of student teachers. They determined that a lack of confidence influenced the student teachers to be more self-critical of themselves and anxious, leading to an avoidance of some tasks. On the other hand, persons with increased levels of confidence were able to adapt to new situations more quickly, enjoy learning more, and interact with others more easily. The student teachers developed confidence in part through discovering and practicing new teaching methods, self-management, and interactions with others, particularly to gain help. Our approach to encouraging the development of lifelong learning skills and attitudes is to couple practice in self-learning with an innovative classroom spirit. This paper describes a first year engineering curriculum that seeks to instill an attitude of lifelong learning in our students by ≠ Including project based educational experiences that provide formal and informal modes of lifelong learning; ≠ Coupling engineering and technology with discussions on global and societal issues to motivate lifelong learning; ≠ Requiring that students attend professional society meetings on campus to provide an avenue for self-learning as they enter their careers; and ≠ Incorporating current technology and open-ended design to promote self-learning and most importantly, confidence. We first provide an overview of our freshman experience and then discuss our strategies for promoting and measuring lifelong learning. The First year Engineering Curriculum: “Living with the Lab” All engineering students at Louisiana Tech enroll in an integrated curriculum designed to incorporate many of the educational practices of the National Science Foundation Educational Coalitions. Students complete three engineering courses (ENGR 120, 121 and 122) which are P ge 14619.3 implemented as combined lecture / laboratory classes and which meet twice each week for ten weeks for 110 minutes per meeting, as shown in Table 1.Our freshman integrated curriculum includes differential and integral calculus courses, basic chemistry lecture and laboratory courses, and a calculus-based physics course; students also typically enroll in several nontechnical courses during the first year. The first year integrated courses are taken in “blocks” so that classes of 40 students take the same sections of each mathematics, science and engineering course during each quarter. The topics presented in the mathematics and science courses are coordinated to some degree with the topics presented in the engineering courses to motivate student learning and to provide for content overlap. Table 1. First-year technical courses. Fall Quarter Winter Quarter Spring Quarter Course Credits Course Credits Course Credits ENGR 120 2 ENGR 121 2 ENGR 122 2 MATH 240 3 MATH 241 3 MATH 242 3 CHEM 100 2 CHEM 101/103 2/1 PHYSICS 201* 3 * Students in chemical engineering postpone physics and take an additional chemistry in this quarter. Our first year experience boosts experiential learning through student ownership of a “laboratory” platform in a new curriculum that we call “Living with the Lab.” Approximately 800 first year students enrolled in the new curriculum between the fall of 2007 and the winter quarter of the 2008-09 academic year. The Living with the Lab Concept. Our faculty members have found that when teaching traditional laboratory and shop classes, making certain that all necessary equipment and supplies are ready before class can be difficult. Sustaining this effort with large numbers of students over time may not be feasible. Assignment of projects to students or student groups who have purchased their own robotics kits makes it possible for the “laboratory” or “design platform” to travel with the students to the places where they spend their time – their dorm rooms or apartments, or even the local coffee shop. When students control and maintain their own hardware, significant increases in experiential learning is possible; students are Living with the Lab. The end result is more hands-on student activity without an excessive investment of faculty time. The Hardware Platform. The major aim of the Living with the Lab curriculum is to create innovative students with a can-do spirit through a project based curriculum where students repeatedly apply technology and fundamentals to solve problems. The new curriculum boosts experiential learning by putting the ownership and maintenance of the “lab” into the hands of the students. Each student must purchase a robotics kit (~$110) with a programmable controller, sensors, servos, and software, along with a toolkit (~$70) that together provide the basis for a mobile laboratory and design platform. A basic tenet of the curriculum is that student-owned labs motivate student learning and broaden the spectrum of projects and design topics that can be addressed, thus facilitating innovation. We have adopted the Boe-Bot platform sold by Parallax, in part because the kit comes with an excellent tutorial and activities for increased self-directed learning. P ge 14619.4 University Facilities to Complement Student-Owned Labs. Two Freshman Projects Laboratories have been specifically designed to support the curriculum. One of the laboratories accommodates up to 40 students (Figure 1) while the other accommodates 24 students. The smaller