Experiences with Using Assessment Based, Double-Loop Learning to Improve Engineering Student´s Design Skills

The problem with traditional engineering education revolves around the use of stove-pipe curricula, using passive lectures and cookbook laboratories with pre-determined results. Real-world engineering is open-ended and team-oriented requiring active participation. This paper describes a proof of concept study focused on the efficacy of assessment based double loop learning aimed at improving engineering student´s design skills. Our study began by examining student´s present design skills over all 4 years of the electrical engineering (ELE) and computer engineering (CPE) curriculums. During the second year of the study, junior engineering students are provided with a new open-ended design course where students use design process assessments to improve upon their use of sound design practice, thereby improving their outcomes in design.