VALUE ENGINEERING AS AN EFFECTIVE TOOL FOR IMPROVING THE PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS

摘要

Value Engineering (VE) as a problem solving technique capitalizes so much on team-work, function analysis and creativity, which are all skills that engineering educators try hard to establish in their students. The practice of VE, requires good command of other supporting skills, such as work discipline and communication skills . Graduates from the different Saudi colleges of engineering are in real need for such skills to claim their share of jobs in the local private industries. The adaptation of VE concepts in the engineering education in our engineering programs constitutes a good tool that can support our efforts in Saudizing the engineering sector. This paper describes the evolution of value engineering education at the college of engineering at King Saud University. It details the format and procedure by which VE concepts were integrated in a general engineering course. This paper also describes a new experience in VE education, were a group of cap-stone project students have practiced the VE technique in a team format on a real life project for an entire academic year. Several engineering professors from different engineering disciplines worked with the student-team as advisors. Positive results were measured in this experience. Students have demonstrated better interaction in team-work. Improvements in the group's functional analysis/ creativity and communication skills were observed as well. A controlled test was used to judge the improvements in the group under the study.