EXCELLENCE IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY: VIEWS OF UNDERGRADUATE ENGINEERING STUDENTS

摘要

During the 1990's and continuing today there has been an increased attention to understand the issues that may affect the quality of engineering education. According to the National Academy of Engineering 1 and programs such as the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), many universities around the world have been making major efforts to recognize the challenges faced by engineering educational programs and making changes to achieve "Excellence in Engineering Education". The purpose of the study reported in this paper is to understand the views and perceptions of engineering undergraduate students on engineering education in general and educational technology in particular. The method of content analysis was used to analyze the language used by engineering undergraduate students and extract the underlying common factors or perceived characteristics of excellence in engineering education. These common factors were then used to identify the similarities and differences in views between engineering students and educational researchers by comparing our observations with what has been reported in the literature. Twenty-two undergraduate engineering students (7 females and 15 males) participated voluntarily in this study to answer four individual questions about (1) excellence in engineering education, (2) educational technology, (3) the student's role in the engineering college, and (4) the professor's role in the engineering college. The participants were instructed to write 10 words or phrases that come to their mind when they think about each of the questions and rank their answers in the order of importance. Following the individual questions, ten questions were discussed in a focus group. The results of the study showed that when it comes to evaluation of education and teaching methods, students would like to see more opportunities to give input in the system and be more involved as part of the creation in all levels and steps. Current literature on Excellence in Engineering Education stresses the importance of skills and knowledge but leaves out two aspects stressed by the student participants: (1) the technology component and (2) building of relationships and a community of learning. The participants in this study described or characterized excellence in engineering education as: clear, complex, comprehensive, detailed, diverse, efficient, interactive, international, multidisciplinary, personalized, precise, scientific, specialized, and stimulating. The implications of the research results on excellence in engineering education are discussed.