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

At two recent ASEE meetings Litzinger [1,2] presented studies of engineering students' readiness for SDL. This work showed that traditional engineering education (over four years) including capstone design courses had little positive effect on SDLRS. His conclusions were that ".. .most courses that students take in the undergraduate engineering programs do not ask them to undertake tasks that increase their readiness for self-directed learning" [2].

2) IDEA System Student Ratings of Instruction: To supplement the SDLRS analysis, we used secondary data obtained through the Individual Development and Educational Assessment Student Ratings of Instruction System (IDEA), a course evaluation product of the IDEA Center at Kansas State University designed to focus on student learning, "[r]ather than emphasizing the instructor's teaching techniques or personality" [11]. Key learning metrics include student progress on learning objectives determined by the instructor to be "essential" or "important" to each particular course, as assessed through the familiar end-of-course, anonymous student course evaluation and self-assessment of progress. The IDEA System is widely used. For example, between August 1998 and August 2001, the IDEA System was used to assess student learning in more than 70,000 classes at 122 institutions varying widely with respect to size, location, degrees granted, public/private, etc [12]. Student self-reports of progress on key learning objectives measured through the IDEA system have been shown to be valid measures of student learning and development [11,13].

Instructors are advised to select three to five objectives from the IDEA System's list of 12 possible learning objectives. For the WPI project experience, three learning objectives closely related to SDL development were identified as important or essential outcomes of the preparation phase. These objectives were Research Skills ("Learning how to find and use resources for answering questions and solving problems"); Critical Thinking ("Learning to analyze and critically evaluate ideas, arguments, and points of view"); and Expression ("Developing skill in expressing oneself orally or in writing").

For each of these three SDL dimensions, the success of the preparation courses was assessed against two comparison groups comprised of courses that also targeted the same learning objective: all those at WPI and all those nationally in the IDEA system database. Our primary comparison groups were the three WPI groups (one for each objective), as these results were drawn from the same general student population as that of the preparation courses, in contrast to the institutionally diverse IDEA groups.

3) Faculty Review of Project Reports: In any assessment analysis it is important to collect data that represent actual student outcomes in addition to student perceptions or other indirect measures. In our educational process there are two major outcomes: the project team's final presentation and final written report. Analysis of presentations at sites all over the globe was not feasible but analysis of final reports was possible.