IMPLEMENTING EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION ON ENGINEERING AND SOCIETY
Recent educational research in engineeringhas examined the challenges Canadian universities arefacing when implementing graduate attributes, especiallythose attributes that involve significant social components(such as ethics and equity, impact of technology onsociety, and communication skills). In response to thesechallenges, this paper asks: how might experientialeducation be used as an approach to teach non-technicalgraduate attributes? Having asked this question at ourown institution, we are in the process of implementingexperienced-based approaches to engineering education.We describe our efforts in curricular and non-curricularspaces which include adding project-based components toour existing courses on technology and society andcommunication, designing a new experiential course oncreativity and innovation, serving as clients for capstonecourses, facilitating reflection for our co-op program,developing a workshop on community engagement, andorganizing design competitions in our innovation centre.We analyze the challenges and the benefits of theseapproaches. Our argument is that experience alone maynot lead to planned learning outcomes, so finding creativeways to promote reflection on experience becomescritical. In our programs, this has meant: playing the roleof both client and facilitator in projects; partnering withfaculty members in other disciplines; and having studentsdirectly interact with users from very differentbackgrounds. Through these approaches, we are findingways to help students visualize the lived context oftechnology use in communities, and ways to help themunderstand the non-technical components of design andco-op work that are essential if we want to create just andsustainable outcomes though technology. The implicationof this preliminary reflexive account is that experientialeducation holds much promise for improving instructionrelated to non-technical graduate attributes.