Formalizing Experiential Learning Requirements in an Existing Interdisciplinary Engineering Curriculum

Abstract

supervises engineering students in the Communications Technology Group on credited work in the Integrated Projects Curriculum (IPC) of the Engineering Department, and those who participate voluntarily via the Collaboratory for Strategic Parnternships and Applied Research. His on-going projects include improving flight tracking and messaging systems for small planes in remote locations, and developing assistive communication technology for those with cognitive and behavioral challenges, such as highfunctioning autism, or PTSD.c American Society for Engineering Education, 2017 Formalizing Experiential Learning Requirements In An Existing Interdisciplinary Engineering Project CurriculumIn education, experiential learning has become a best practice, high-impact strategy, because engaging with real life problems heightens students' interest, teaches them career-related skills, and enables them to become more self-aware/mature independent thinkers. While many students engage in experiential learning activities voluntarily, some schools have formalized a credited version as an elective to ensure the learning includes the reflective and conceptual components, as verified by a deliverable outcome. A few schools such as Messiah College have also gone a step further to require an approved experiential learning activity of all students, including engineering majors, to enhance their career preparation and community engagement before graduation. Students matriculating to Messiah College as of 2015 may now opt to fulfill the Experiential Learning Initiative (ELI) by either credited internship, practicum, service learning, leadership, off campus program, or research. While pre-graduation professional preparation may be new for some liberal arts disciplines, engineering has encouraged an experiential approach for some time. Since 2007, the Engineering Department at our institution has required students to complete a multiyear "practicum" which functions as an on-campus credited internship with our Collaboratory for Strategic Partnerships and Applied Research. Junior and senior engineering students receive credit for such project work through a four-semester Engineering Project 1-4 sequence, coupled with a two-semester Engineering Seminar 1-2 sequence as the reflective component. What remains is to incorporate the new features of the ELI mandate. While many engineering students on their own already complete paid internships with off-campus companies before graduation, to avoid extra tuition expense and unneeded credits, few opt for an academically approved internship with its intentional reflective component. Thus, we have decided to embed the specific ELI requirements related to reflection and the deliverable into our existing on-campus required upper divisional project curriculum structure. In our Seminar 1 course, students write four pre-experience learning objectives in stipulated areas; during Seminar 2, they complete correlated post-experience reflective questions, and compose a deliverable. In between Seminar 1 and 2, stu...

High-Enrollment Mechanical Engineering Programs Meeting the Challenge of Career Advising Through a Seminar Course

“…Exposing mechanical engineering students to the vast opportunities available to them, as such opportunities become available to them, is a key first step in having them take ownership of their future, professional selves. While some programs incorporate project-based and experiential learning activities into their courses [2], [3] to facilitate career advisement, the authors have chosen to utilize a seminar course method.…”