Affective engineering design education

Abstract

It is noted that engineering course-work can be arranged to allow students to apply elements of organizational behavior beginning in their first year of study. Such a program operates at the James Goldston School of Engineering, Capricornia Institute, Queensland, Australia. The affective areas of individual and group functioning are purposively addressed and are central to a first-year design course. Faculty in this enterprise effectively take on the role of mentor, rather than expert. Students are guided to learn collaboratively. Skills developed by students in that design course serve as a foundation for subsequent design courses over the four-year program of study. The features of the course are: experimentation, analysis and synthesis, active student participation in group activities, interdisciplinary involvement and collaborative learning, project management, project presentation, and student peer assessment. It is concluded that first-year Bachelor of Engineering students involved in this course are able to cope successfully with responsibility for their individual functioning, group behavior, experimental activities, analysis of machine components, project selection, and project management and reporting, both verbally and in writing.<>