Embedding authentic practice based learning in engineering undergraduate courses

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aut.relation.conference28th Australasian Association for Engineering Educationen_NZ
aut.relation.endpage95
aut.relation.startpage85
aut.researcherConnor, Andrew
dc.contributor.authorWhittington, Cen_NZ
dc.contributor.authorAnderson, Ten_NZ
dc.contributor.authorConnor, AMen_NZ
dc.date.accessioned2018-06-24T23:40:10Z
dc.date.available2018-06-24T23:40:10Z
dc.date.copyright2017en_NZ
dc.date.issued2017en_NZ
dc.description.abstractCONTEXT Authentic education, which connects the lessons with students' real lives and their prior knowledge, has the potential to create meaningful learning environments in which students see their lessons as meaningful, useful and relevant. Typically engineering undergraduate courses do not provide students with an opportunity to solve meaningful real life engineering problems that are beneficial for their lives and societies. Authentic engineering education has the potential to help students develop their creativity, problem solving and innovation skills. PURPOSE The focus of authentic education is to employ interdisciplinary ways in order to solve real-world problems. This study aims at inspiring other educators to integrate authentic scenarios into their teaching activities. APPROACH For this study projects and assignments with real life relevance were introduced for several courses across a semester for students enrolled in papers spanning a range of years and engineering disciplines. Students comments on their learning experience with this authentic approach vs. traditional lecture based teaching are included in this paper. RESULTS Early observations indicate an increased level of engagement with students more motivated to learn and displaying an enthusiastic positive approach to their study. It is also considerably more exciting and stimulating environment to teach in. CONCLUSIONS This paper outlines relatively early efforts to change the established learning paradigm in engineering classes and as such it is too early to draw firm conclusions. However, our experiences to date demonstrate that providing a more authentic education environment engages students more positively in their study. Creating such an environment connects theory and practice and exposes students to real life situations and should prepare them better for 21st century challenges.
dc.identifier.citationProceedings of the 28th Annual Conference of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE 2017), pp. 85-95
dc.identifier.isbn978-0-646-98026-3en_NZ
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10292/11607
dc.publisherSchool of Engineering, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
dc.relation.urihttp://www.aaee.net.au/index.php/conference/aaee2017en_NZ
dc.rightsThese proceedings are copyright. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.rights.accessrightsOpenAccessen_NZ
dc.subjectReal world problems; Authentic learning; Self-directed learning
dc.titleEmbedding authentic practice based learning in engineering undergraduate coursesen_NZ
dc.typeConference Contribution
pubs.elements-id321702
pubs.organisational-data/AUT
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/Design & Creative Technologies
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/Design & Creative Technologies/CoLab
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/Design & Creative Technologies/Engineering, Computer & Mathematical Sciences
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/PBRF
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/PBRF/PBRF Design and Creative Technologies
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/PBRF/PBRF Design and Creative Technologies/PBRF CoLab
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/PBRF/PBRF Design and Creative Technologies/PBRF ECMS
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