PHILOSOPHY OF ENGINEERING: A MOTIVATION COURSE FOR FRESHMEN ENGINEERING STUDENTS

All undergraduate engineering curriculum are centred to impart technical skills and knowledge, assess students’ ability to apply these skills and knowledge. The curricula lack courses that enlighten the students about engineering occupational categories, desired attributes for each occupation category and enable them to philosophically analyse the nature and impact of these occupations. This void causes lack of motivation among students in learning technical skills and knowledge in general. To address this gap, a mandatory course titled “Philosophy of Engineering” is introduced and offered to freshmen students of all engineering disciplines. This course provides the students a comprehensive outline of engineering, role of engineers, connection between engineer and society, need for conceive, design, implement and operate skills to solve complex industrial or societal problems. The course is delivered by a team of faculty for interdisciplinary engineering students using flexible and student led active learning techniques in every session. As a part of this course, interdisciplinary student groups are formed and given a task to conceive interdisciplinary engineering ideas for solving the local community problems. This activity enabled the students to think critically and creatively during their first year of study. In line with the indented course outcomes and student led learning activities, students also give input on assessment tasks and related assessment criteria. Students feedback on the course is obtained through direct and indirect methods. The students realize it engaging, compelling to learn more on engineering and have given positive feedback on the context and purpose of the course. This paper describes the design and development of this course using ADDIE (Analyse Design Develop Implement and Evaluate) and Understanding by Design (UbD) models.