TDG – Developing Transferable Skills Facilitation Strategies for Improving Integrative Project Courses in Engineering

Abstract

This TDG project focuses on studying the transferable skills of HKU engineering students and how integrative project courses in individual disciplines have (or have not) contributed to the development of these transferable skills. Through a Faculty-wide soft skills survey, we first assessed how students in the Engineering Faculty have been developing their transferable skills such as teamwork, problem solving, critical thinking, and interpersonal communications. We then investigated how students learn in integrative project courses by conducting a correlation study between student performance in integrative project courses and the “Structure, Behavior, Function” learning theory. Inspired by the survey results and the education research study, our team subsequently developed a revised teaching pedagogy for the integrative project course in medical engineering to encourage students to develop their soft skills. In general, this project is intended to give teachers insights on how hands-on project courses can be more effectively delivered and managed. This would in turn benefit the students’ transferable skills development through project courses and help them to become more well-rounded individuals for the workplace. From the perspective of scholarship in teaching and learning, our work has also contributed to a better understanding of how integrative project courses enable students to develop their transferable skills.

Deliverables (HKU Portal Login Required)