Role: Role-Oriented Learning Environment: Innovative Educational Approach for Engineering Education

Abstract

Higher Education is constantly adapting to the needs of their stakeholders, which has led through time into the use of strategies such as Problem-Based Learning (PBL), Project-Oriented Learning (POL) and Research-Based Learning (RBL). These strategies have been widely used as they let students move from the theory they learn in class, into practical examples that make sense to students in relation to their future professional activity. Yet, educational centers keep on adapting and adopting more strategies that promote the development of competences among students. This is due to the need of employers to have professionals having the required skill sets to overcome the challenges of a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment. Thus, skillsets must not be limited to applying the knowledge they have, but also into giving them the tools to explore and understand alternatives outside their academic situations, by combining convergent and divergent thinking in a context that places them into the real-life situations they will be experiencing at work. Through this paper, we propose a methodology to adapt industrial needs into role-oriented learning.