Didactic teaching to experiential project-based learning: completing the four year enterprise engineering transform

Abstract

In 1996, the four year phased transformation of the traditional undergraduate engineering courses in Communication, Electronic, Computer Systems and Software Systems Engineering at the RMIT University, was completed. The new course structure is aimed at producing engineers with enhanced enterprise and capability in developing engineering solutions, products and markets. These new graduates will have been given added virtual experience in a range of areas including organisation and execution of actual projects and functions and in the starting and running of business enterprises, chiefly through integrated exercises in an engineering context. The graduates thereby, are expected to exhibit greater confidence, leadership and initiative, particularly in societal and business contexts. In this paper; the phased changes in context and delivery in the curriculum subjects in all four years of the traditional undergraduate courses, are described. The challenges to success such as paucity of skilled cross-discipline faculty members, inertia and limited resources and tendency of engineering students to be disinterested in non-engineering adjunct disciplines, are discussed, together with approaches to these challenges.