Experiential Learning Environments: Do They Prepare Our Students to be Self-Directed, Life-Long Learners?

Journal of Engineering Education, Jul 2006 by Jiusto, S, DiBiasio, D

B. The WPI Global Studies Program

Thirty years ago WPI implemented nontraditional instructional design, emphasizing project-based education to, among other things, better prepare students for life-long learning. Currently large numbers of students, 350 per year, travel internationally to complete projects that link technology and society. The off-campus portion of this activity is the credit equivalent of three courses. Prior to sojourn, all students must complete 1 '/2 courses worth of site and project-specific preparation work (4.5 credit hours). The preparation phase is two months on-campus and the project phase is two months off-campus, thus total time is one semester. During the first two months students have other courses and activities, but once they leave WPI (the second two months) they work full-time on their project. The total preparation and sojourn experience is thus equivalent to 4.5 courses (13.5 credit hours). Students travel in groups of 24 with one or two faculty advisors to the international site. On-site work involves teams of three or four students working full-time for local agencies. Sponsors provide the topic, but student teams develop objectives, conduct a literature review, identify appropriate methods, conduct the research, and analyze and interpret the results. All teams produce a final report that is graded for academic credit and teams deliver a formal final presentation to their agency. A typical project could have a computer science major, a mechanical engineering major, and a chemistry major working on low-cost sustainable housing improvements for shack dwellers in Namibia; advised by a management faculty member and sponsored by the Namibian Renewable Energy Bureau.

Although space prevents a review of the literature on international programs and student learning, most educators assume that off-campus sojourns have positive effects on student learning, particularly dimensions such as those involved in LLL. Because WPI aims to prepare students for LLL, and it sends so many students off-campus to do significant amounts of nontraditional, non-classroom based work, an opportunity existed to measure growth in SDL readiness in a large sample.

C. Assessment Options

In order to assess whether WPI's Global Program is increasing the propensity of students to engage in life-long learning, and to do so antidpatorily (i.e., while the students were still students), we chose three methods by which to investigate gains made in SDL skills and attitudes recognized as pre-cursors to LLL. The first two methods involved student self-assessment; the third, faculty assessment of student work. Each of these methods is described below, followed by a brief discussion of how we used them to achieve a triangulated research methodology with complementary insight.

1) Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale Instrument: There are two major instruments for assessing students' preparation to engage in LLL and their willingness to do so. They are the Self-directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS), and the Continuing Learning Inventory (CLI). We chose the SDLRS because the literature indicates it is the most studied and used. The SDLRS is a 58-item, Likert-scaled questionnaire available from Guglielmino and Associates [10]. The prompts probe student attitudes toward learning. Included are items such as self-generation of knowledge, responsibility for learning, individual vs. group learning, curiosity about learning, learning environment preferences, study skills, and the importance of continual learning. SDLRS validity has been demonstrated in scores of studies and contexts, particularly with studies correlating SDLRS scores and observable student selfdirected learning behaviors [1].