2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In recognition of the importance of interpersonal and professional skills, Engineers Australia (EA) have made it an accreditation requirement for all tertiary engineering students to engage with industrial practice throughout their degree. This experience is obtained through work-integrated learning (WIL) activities, including completing relevant internships, participation in site visits, and enrolment in industry-based learning (IBL) courses. Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing numbers of engineering students have made it more difficult for individuals to secure internships. It is also not possible for large numbers of students to visit most industry sites due to remote locations, visitor limits and/or safety restrictions. In fact, a study from 2019 of final year students across 11 Australian institutions reported that 29% of final year students had not completed their industrial practice, and hence were unable to graduate despite completing their studies. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated these issues, with a transition to online learning causing decreased student attendance and participation.

This has required innovative approaches to integrating WIL into engineering courses to provide students with industry exposure. From four authentic learning practices, virtual work integrated learning (VWIL) was selected as the best choice for students to achieve the WIL objective of exposing students to relevant real-world experience. It was also the most robust option for an online learning environment and was adaptable to changing course learning outcomes. A review of popular VWIL implementations identified desktop site tours (DSTs) as a flexible, user-friendly and time efficient method for academics to increase student exposure to industry. This study follows the implementation of a DST in undergraduate chemical engineering courses, evaluating its capacity to help students achieve professional competencies.

Students spent two hours in a sustainable engineering design course observing the various types of chemical engineering flow diagrams. Afterwards, they asked to identify unit operations from the DST that could be classified as raw materials, production, or finishing. Prior to and after the tutorial, students were asked to indicate their agreement to a series of survey statements to observe their response to the DST’s ability to aid their professional development. Students’ responses to these statements were mixed. Over 90% of students reported that they found the module effective in improving their understanding of sustainable product design and engineering processes. However, at least 15% of students disagreed that it helped to improve problem solving, teamwork, and communication skills, with significant differences observed between pre- and post-survey responses (p < 0.05).

Recommendations for future study are to assess improvement objectively by incorporating DSTs into student assessments, and to observe the impact of the DST on improving student professional skills over a longer period.