Examining Workplace Affordance and Student Engagement in Engineering Co-op and Internship Literature (original) (raw)

2020, Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education

Coops and internships complement students' classroom learning and constitute important contributors to the quality of engineering education. In light of Stephen Billett's affordance-engagement framework, we reviewed 30 selected empirical studies on undergraduate engineering students' coop and internship experiences. From these studies, we identified three themes with respect to workplace affordances and individual engagement in engineering coops and internships. Our analysis not only showed that Billett's framework offers an enlightening approach to examining engineering students' workplace learning experiences but also it made the equity dimension of the framework explicit. We call for engineering coop and internship programs and researchers to go beyond learning outcome assessment alone and shift the attention to uncovering the factors in workplace learning experiences that might have influenced the achievement of desirable learning outcomes.

Engineering Co-op and Internship Experiences and Outcomes: The Roles of Workplaces, Academic Institutions and Students

Canadian Engineering Education Association, 2018

Work-integrated learning, particularly in the form of co-ops and internships, has long been an integral part of many engineering programs. While recent government interest in work-integrated learning has raised its profile, it is unclear how the three main actors – the workplace, the academic institution and students themselves – interact with each other to enhance students’ learning experiences and outcomes. This paper attempts to fill this gap by examining engineering co-op and internship literature as well as programming practices at nineteen North American universities. In light of a conceptual framework foregrounding the triad that shapes co-op and internship experiences and the resulting learning outcomes, we identified four themes that respectively demonstrated the achieved learning outcomes and the roles of workplaces, academic institutions and students in the work-integrated learning process of engineering co-ops and internships. The paper contributes to the discussion on engineering education by developing a framework out of the findings for understanding the work-integrated learning process in engineering co-ops and internships.

Strategies to Increase Equity of Access to Engineering Internships

29th Australasian Association for Engineering Education Conference, 2018

STRUCTURED ABSTRACT CONTEXT Internships, one type of Work Integrated Learning (WIL), are an important part of the development of employability competencies. Research across professions other than engineering has indicated that unpaid internships may be subject to class based privilege and induce financial stress. Educational practices in engineering enabling unpaid internships may further disadvantage students from equity groups: low socio economic status, disability, culturally or linguistically diverse, rural or remote students, and women in non-traditional areas. PURPOSE Funded by the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education, the extent of unpaid work placements, the role of positive social capital, accessibility and barriers to successful WIL for equity group students are being examined. We ask how the practices of the engineering industry and higher education community may embrace diversity by facilitating access to successful WIL opportunities. Successful WIL is identified by enhanced career, education or employability prospects, and positive student wellbeing. APPROACH The mixed-methods study includes: interviews; a survey including free-response questions and a resilience instrument; and analysis of students' reflective reports. Seven participants interviewed to date have related their experiences of engineering-related internships; how they secured positons, the quality of their experiences, whether they were paid, and the impact of these experiences on their approach to their engineering education, career progression and well-being. These seven participants shared perceptions of over 17 internships of which six were unpaid. Preliminary insights from these initial interviews and free-responses from the first round of surveys only are reported in this paper. The outcomes from an integrated data analysis process incorporating: further interviews; survey data including the resilience instrument data; and reflective reports, will be published by the funding body at the conclusion of the study.

Students' learning outcomes from engineering internship: A provisional framework

Studies in Continuing Education, 2021

There is widespread consensus that internships provide great opportunities for engineering students to develop diverse knowledge and competencies. Yet, compared to learning in the classroom, learning in the workplace is less predictable. This study aims to address the research question "What are engineering students' perceived learning outcomes from their internship experience?" by using a qualitative approach to pinpoint commonalities and differences in students' perceived learning outcomes. Content analysis and constant comparative analysis were used to analyze interview data collected from ten engineering students in Hong Kong. Four categories of learning outcomes were revealed: knowledge, academic-related generic competencies, non-technical generic competencies and technical competencies. Our findings are contrary to the literature indicating that most engineering interns perceived the development of technical competencies (e.g. information technology (I.T.) skills) and non-technical generic competencies (e.g. teamwork skills and positive attitudes). Diversity in engineering students' perceived learning outcomes of internship was subsequently illustrated by a provisional framework. The findings help pave the way for constructive alignment in internship course design such that identification of students' perceived learning outcomes will facilitate the setting of realistic and clear intended learning outcomes.

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