SURVEYING DESIGN SKILL DEVELOPMENT IN WORK-INTEGRATED LEARNING EXPERIENCES: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Abstract

AbstractWork-integrated learning (WIL) is an educational approach that intentionally scaffolds work experiences throughout undergraduate education. This approach has been proven to provide many benefits to students, including increased grade point averages, better job prospects after graduation and skill development. As such, we expect WIL experiences to contribute to engineering student's ability to design, a central aspect of both engineering education and practice. We found little evidence of research related to WIL experiences in the design literature, so we conducted a secondary data analysis on 33 publications from engineering education literature focusing on student WIL experiences with design. The review found evidence of students using a design process and recognizing the importance of designing within context, focusing on health, safety and ethical concerns of being an engineering designer. However, there was little evidence found of what students actually designed (i.e., components, systems or processes). We highlight some interesting areas for future research, specifically for design researchers to investigate how student work experiences are contributing to their development of design knowledge, skills and abilities.