A SCHOOL-WIDE ECOSYSTEM TOWARDS NURTURING STUDENTS TO BECOME SELF-DIRECTED LEARNERS

Engineering education and training have evolved over the years due to the rapid pace of technological advancement and changes. It is imperative for the upskilling and upgrading of engineering knowledge to keep pace with changes in technology throughout one’s working life to stay relevant. This requires one to possess the Self-directed Learning (SDL) mindset an skillset to constantly seek and acquire the necessary knowledge and skills independently as part of life-long learning. To meet this objective, the School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering (EEE), Singapore Polytechnic (SP) has fine-tuned the CDIO-based curricula for all its four diploma courses to strengthen the SDL elements for its 2400 full-time and 650 parttime students. Although the SDL project was launched about three years ago with differentiated learning, the implementation was accelerated due to the COIVD-19 pandemic. To further develop the SDL mindset through independent learning, multiple pathways were introduced in which the students were able to acquire skills and knowledge outside of the classroom environment. Strengthening the SDL elements resulted in the phasing out of the lecture component in a traditional classroom delivery and replaced by asynchronous elearning. With the appropriate structure in place to support learning, the students are required to prepare for the lessons by self-learning before attending synchronous lessons to correct misconceptions or to seek clarifications from the self-learning. Students with different learning abilities are identified using learning analytics so that differentiated instructions can be conducted for optimised student learning. The findings from the four sets of students’ selfassessment surveys on their self-directedness that were conducted for one cohort of students spanning from the time when they first joined the polytechnic to their graduation will be shared. This paper will also discuss on how well the students were received by the industry during their workplace internship in the final year.