Surveying Design Skill Development in Work-Integrated Learning Experiences: A Review of the Literature

Abstract

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is an educational approach that intentionally scaffolds work experiences throughout undergraduate education. This approach has been proven to provide many benefits to students, including increased grade point averages, better job prospects after graduation and skill development. As such, we expect WIL experiences to contribute to engineering student's ability to design, a central aspect of both engineering education and practice. We found little evidence of research related to WIL experiences in the design literature, so we conducted a secondary data analysis on 33 publications from engineering education literature focusing on student WIL experiences with design. The review found evidence of students using a design process and recognizing the importance of designing within context, focusing on health, safety and ethical concerns of being an engineering designer. However, there was little evidence found of what students actually designed (i.e., components, systems or processes). We highlight some interesting areas for future research, specifically for design researchers to investigate how student work experiences are contributing to their development of design knowledge, skills and abilities.

A Qualitative Investigation of Students’ Design Experiences in a Work-Integrated Learning Setting

“…While the review by Litster et al (2021) provides some good high-level evidence that WIL experiences provide a rich context for engineering design learning, their findings are based on a secondary-data analysis of articles that had a different intended purpose. Further, much of the evidence is based on students' perceptions of their self-efficacy, typically collected through surveys, sometimes months after the WIL experience had concluded.…”

“…Further, much of the evidence is based on students' perceptions of their self-efficacy, typically collected through surveys, sometimes months after the WIL experience had concluded. Acknowledging these limitations, at the conclusion of their review, Litster et al (2021) call for more in-depth explorations of student design learning during WIL experiences. Motivated by this research gap, the exploratory study described in this paper aims to gain a clearer picture of student experiences of design/designing in real world contexts and how the environmental factors therein affect their designing.…”

“…Given the academic benefits of WIL experiences for student learning in general, Litster et al (2021) conducted a literature review to investigate what design knowledge, skills and abilities were being developed during WIL experiences. Originally curated by Liu et al (2020), the 30 papers included in their review were empirical studies of engineering students' WIL experiences in the workplace.…”

“…Originally curated by Liu et al (2020), the 30 papers included in their review were empirical studies of engineering students' WIL experiences in the workplace. Litster et al (2021) found limited evidence of what -elements, systems, or processes -students were designing in these settings, but it found evidence that students were gaining experience and confidence in one or more stages or aspects of the design process, including design project management and the iterative nature of design; establishing design requirements and constraints; comparing and judging design alternatives; modelling, building and testing; and design documentation. Importantly, the review also found that students participating in WIL experiences were developing an understanding of and recognizing the importance of designing in a larger context, taking into account the environmental, social, political and ethical situations we face (Titus and Oakes, 2011).…”

“…WIL takes many forms, and as its prevalence grows in engineering undergraduate and graduate programs (e.g., Diaz and Han (2022), Marar et al (2022), Mazhar and Arain (2015), Reedy et al (2020), Smith and Trent (2021), Stewart and Chen (2009)), so has researchers' interest in understanding the extent and nature of student learning in this setting and best practices for integration with classroom learning. It is assumed that WIL experiences provide rich environments for students to gain authentic experience in designing; yet, research on design learning in WIL settings is limited (Litster et al, 2021). In this paper we report on a study that explores how engineering students experience design in a design-centred WIL context.…”