Feedback from students at the Singapore Polytechnic (SP), obtained from both surveys and dialogue sessions, has consistently shown that many have a preference for more hands on learning experiences. They particularly enjoy practical laboratory lessons, project work, and solving real world engineering problems. Invariably, if students find their learning interesting, even enjoyable, we can make the inferences that they will pay better attention, participate more meaningfully and subsequently better master and achieve greater confidence in their learning.
The challenge is to develop curriculum arrangements that consistently employ a more active and experiential learning approach, as well as developing the key understanding of conceptual knowledge both within the subject discipline as well as across important generic skills such as communication and teamwork. This paper documents how we have integrated different areas of our curriculum to provide interesting hands on learning experiences for students in a 3rd year Robotics Option of the Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) program. It specifically highlights key curriculum design features and implementation activities and concludes with a summary of recent feedback from students on their experience of this curriculum initiative and how this has impact our thinking on curriculum integration and future planning in this area.
Proceedings of the 9th International CDIO Conference, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Cambridge, Massachusetts, June 9 – 13, 2013.