A learner's journey towards a chemical engineering degree
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AbstractThe overall goal of any engineering program is to maximize the capacity of its graduates to succeed academically and professionally. We describe how a path can be designed for learners to proceed towards this goal and describe the rationale used to create its foundational steps. It begins with a summer bridge program for incoming students before entering university as first‐year undergraduates. Since the prior knowledge of these learners is not uniform, the bridge program is designed to provide opportunities for them to become better prepared academically for first‐year engineering. These students thus transition to university‐level learning more smoothly. In their first year, students work in groups to tackle socially relevant projects through an integrated 13‐unit course that is designed based on integrated learning, collaboration, problem‐solving, community engagement, and communication. Since teaching and learning using this approach is unusual and challenging, the curriculum must be carefully designed and implemented with adequate resources in place, particularly for cohorts of more than 1000 students in our case who work in small four or five‐member teams. In upper years, learning in chemical engineering is enriched by conducting discovery‐based workshops where students work on engineering problems requiring the application of new mathematical concepts. Finally, we describe a hybrid method for testing and assessment, where learners take tests individually, following which they are also provided with the option to retake these tests in groups to promote collaborative learning. Retaking tests in teams enhances the ability of learners to reflect and learn from mistakes and promotes peer mentoring.
