TEACHING AND ASSESSING LIFELONG LEARNING IN LABORATORY COURSES

Abstract

Abstract – Lifelong learning might be one of the most important attributes for students pursuing a professional degree, e.g. medicine, law or engineering. From teaching and assessment point of view, it may be one of the most challenging attributes. In engineering programs, it is one of the required graduate attributes identified by the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB), the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) in the USA and other accreditation bodies around the world. In this article we present a laboratory procedure to teach and assess lifelong learning in an engineering program. The concept of lifelong learning as defined by different accreditation bodies is discussed first and corresponding learning outcomes are developed using the revised Bloom’s taxonomy. Student activities required to achieve the outcomes are then devised. The links between pre-, in- and post-lab activities and the learning outcomes are established and the approach to run a laboratory course is designed. Finally, the assessment is planned using the so-called VALUE rubric by mapping the learning outcomes on the six dimensions of the rubric. The procedure is being implemented phase by phase in the laboratory component of a senior level course on process dynamics and control in the process engineering program at Memorial University of Newfoundland.