Assessing ‘lifelong learning’ through the capstone design project of BSc in EEE programme

Abstract

Engineering education accreditation agencies have prepared a list of skills called programme outcomes (POs) or graduate attributes that a graduate must attain before his graduation from any engineering discipline. Of these POs, one of the important outcomes is lifelong learning. This skill is one of the most perplexing skills that graduates require in their professional careers. While most of these outcomes are measurable through the accustomed techniques, assessing lifelong learning is more challenging for faculty members and educators. Selecting a course to teach and assess lifelong learning is also a difficult job. The capstone design project (CDP) course may be an excellent means of transferring and strengthening the skills and proficiencies associated with lifelong learning. This paper explores how ‘lifelong learning’ as one of POs can be delivered, supervised, assessed and evaluated through the three CDP courses (EEE492, EEE494 and EEE496) integrated into the Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Electronic Engineering programme at Southeast University. Furthermore, this paper discusses about developing an appropriate assessment plan and rubrics to ascertain the achievement of these three courses in fulfilling this component of the accreditation. Evaluation data of the lifelong learning, assessed by the board of examiners during the final defence, is presented. Based on this, their achievements of the PO related to lifelong learning are discussed.