2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

General engineering courses are an important means to cultivate outstanding engineer talents with the abilities to handle complex engineering systems and solve complex engineering problems. Their core characteristic is authenticity. Based on the authenticity learning theory, this study has constructed the 5AX design model for general engineering courses tailored to postgraduate education , which includes activities such as adapting to authentic engineering scenarios, experiencing complete industrial processes, completing authentic engineering tasks, conducting authentic engineering collaborations, and evaluating the authentic value of engineering. Moreover, taking the "Advanced Engineering Cognition and Practice" course to postgraduate students at Zhejiang University Engineer School as a case, this study explores how the model is applied in practice. It is found that the case course has four characteristics: constructing diverse scenarios for realizing authentic learning, integrating the complete industrial process into course construction, improving the flexibility of accessing interdisciplinary resources, and adopting an assessment form that emphasizes group cooperation and the real value of projects. It can effectively promote graduate students' learning of interdisciplinary knowledge and the cultivation of their teamwork abilities, systematic thinking abilities, engineering practice abilities, and understanding of the engineering industry. Overall, this study has significant implications for the construction of engineering general courses for postgraduate students pursuing professional engineering degrees.