Collaborative Learning Experiences Prepare Engineering Students for the Workforce
Emma Mercier, associate professor, Molly Goldstein, assistant professor, and graduate student Robin Jephthah Rajarathinam, all of Curriculum & Instruction, are part of a team of authors who have published a new book titled, International Handbook of Engineering Education Research to make engineering education more accessible.
Teams—along with tasks, tools and teachers—are core components of creating learning experiences that promote the collaborative skills students need for educational and career success,” Mercier said.
In successful teams, members engage with each other, view problems from others’ perspectives, listen and persist equally with the task. These experiential, hands-on projects build the collaborative skills that these future engineers will encounter in the workplace and that accreditation organizations indicate are crucial components of engineering curricula.