Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to implement and evaluate active learning strategies to support engineering students in the development of research competences, contributing to the growing need for a closer relationship between research and teaching. Design/methodology/approach: This study was developed using an action research approach. The…

The financial cost to individuals of higher education is now regularly exceeding £50k before maintenance in the UK; consequently, students are more concerned than ever that their degree should offer value for money when they enter the jobs marketplace. Overshadowed by long-term debt, lack of career options and job offerings with low salary,…

In this study we explored the experiences of students who completed a project-based, interdisciplinary capstone course that was offered at a large university in Southern Ontario, Canada. To do so, we interviewed students after they completed the course, adopting a constructivist perspective and a phenomenological approach. Interview transcripts…

This chapter presents how the method of capstone project in higher education can promote employability. Three primary forces guide the development of the capstone project at the University of Padova: employability, active learning, and responsibility in teaching and learning.

To develop a simulation is to construct a new reality, one where students can safely engage with the course materials, so as to achieve the intended learning outcomes. While there are a wide range of studies that review the utility of simulations in the classroom, the construction of the alternate reality--the pseudo-reality--is a less discussed…

Virtual exchange (VE) is an emergent but promising trend in course internationalization, which consists of using technology to interact and work with another class located in another city/country to develop digital skills and intercultural competence. After a VE project was implemented in a sports-related communication course, students reflected…

The capstone design sequence provides chemical engineering students with the opportunity to demonstrate mastery in process engineering, acquired during their entire degree, and is the ultimate "reality check" in outcome verification. This paper describes the current status of the design sequence followed by chemical engineering students…

This study is positioned at the crossroads of pedagogical action learning and action research, as it addresses the challenges in designing and implementing action-learning approaches in the Middle East. In particular, it focuses on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and draws from a reflective analysis of a university-industry 'business challenge'…

The link between active learning and the development of graduate attributes has been cogently advocated in pedagogical research. Despite the extensive adoption of fieldwork in environmental and social sciences, enigmatically, there are no reported applications of fieldwork in construction and related engineering disciplines. This paper employs a…

Inquiry-based learning (IBL) provides students with an opportunity to take ownership of their learning while developing important higher-order skills necessary for designing innovative solutions to complex modern health problems. In our undergraduate health sciences program, critical thinking, creativity, research skills and innovative thinking…

This paper explores the potential opportunities to enhance the entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial attributes of graduates in the Metallurgy and Materials Engineering curricula at two universities in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Due to the diminishing geographical constraints between Zimbabwe and South Africa, and the strong juxtaposition between…

This article describes an empirical study to evaluate how the flipped learning (FL) approach has impacted a learner's perception in attaining the graduate attributes (GAs) of five capstone project units offered at Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia, where the authors are affiliated. The subjects include one undergraduate and one…