Exploration of the Effectiveness of Online Learning for Engineering Professional Skills Development

Abstract

Online learning is revolutionizing post-secondary education where class sizes are already in the hundreds. Of the 12 Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board’s (CEAB) graduate attributes and 11 Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) student outcomes, about half are “technical” and half are “professional / soft skills”. Can engineering professional skills learning outcomes be effectively taught and assessed in a large online class without sacrificing the quality of teaching and learning and the rigour of assessment of a traditional in-person class? At the University of Calgary an undergraduate engineering course on professionalism, ethics and life-long learning was taught to 468 students purely online via synchronous webinars / web conferencing, asynchronous videos and a textbook. The average student preferred webinars and rated webinars as the most engaging and effective presentation format. The majority of the students reported that the online course was effective in their achieving the professional skills learning outcomes.