Fostering lifelong learning in a capstone design environment: An implementation assessment

The Accreditation Board for Engineering Education and Technology (ABET) criteria require that engineering programs demonstrate that students attain “a recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage in lifelong learning”. To meet this requirement, the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology has implemented a program to foster self-directed lifelong learning during the senior year. Several of the modules developed by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), as a part of Professional Practice Curriculum (PPC), are implemented to the capstone senior design course in an effort to provide students the desired self-directed learning skills. This paper presents the implementation and administration of the ASME-PPC self-directed learning modules into the capstone senior design course environment. Program outcomes assessment and student feedback are examined to develop the program further while proposing future improvements on which modules to include in which order, and how to improve the effectiveness of the homework assignments. A discussion on whether to implement some of the modules on different undergraduate courses during the junior year and thereby introduce students to self-directed learning early in the curriculum is also presented.