2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This empirical research full paper investigates the extent to which students in a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) environment perceive the competencies they develop as being digital in nature. All degrees at the Faculty of Engineering and Science (ENG) and The Technical Faculty of IT and Design (TECH) at [BLINDED]University currently incorporate a PBL Competency profile as a compulsory exercise for all students in their 2nd semester of their masters study. These profiles are intended as a reflective exercise for the students; they are also designed to assist students in communicating their overall competence while searching for internships and graduate employment.

The profiles are structured around the [BLINDED] PBL Competency Framework. This framework contains 48 individual competencies, grouped into four categories: meta-reflective, problem-oriented, interpersonal, and structural. Students are free to choose which of these competencies they incorporate in their profile. On average, students include between six and eight of these competencies.

This study investigates the relative prevalence of different competencies in the profiles developed by students. A total of 1095 PBL Competency profiles were reviewed in this study across more than 50 STEM study programs, and each was evaluated for the presence or absence of each of the 48 competencies in the PBL competency framework, and the extent to which these competencies were presented by the students as digital competencies.

Analysis of these distributions shows that very few of the students present their competencies as digital in nature, with a vanishingly small percentage presenting their competencies as digital native. Further, a significant proportion of the competencies in the framework are never presented by the students as digital in nature.

These findings have significance for how students are scaffolded to develop digital literacies within a PBL curriculum and for the development of their self-efficacy regarding these competencies.