Developing Engineering Students' Communication and Information Retrieval Skills Utilizing Capstone Projects

Abstract

The pedagogy of engineering requires a better understanding of the requirements of students' abilities to learning the skills necessary for working in the engineering community. In many engineering courses around the world, one of the key aspects required of the students is that they complete an independent project in their final year of studies incorporating information retrieval and subsequent communication skills. The current work provides details teaching and learning approaches to enhance student abilities and expertise involving research skills, communication skills, and information retrieval integrated within capstone projects. Findings from this the work indicated that both domestic and international students benefited from the intensive tutorial activities involving computer based information retrieval skills. The implementation of active tutorial sessions resulted in increased grades for the majority of students, highlighting the importance of intensive active learning events for final year capstone engineering students.