A study about engineering education development and curriculum renewal with a focus on the use of curriculum mapping tools and sets of learning outcomes

Abstract

This thesis is concerned with improving the process of curriculum renewal in engineering degrees by the use of Generic Graduate Sets of Learning Outcomes (GGSLOs) and curriculum mapping tools. GGSLO’s are an embodiment of professional competencies that engineering students should attain during their degree. These GGSLO’s can therefore be used by academics to improve professional aspects of their units-of-study. One of the central issues with GGSLO’s is that they list an extensive number of competencies, some of which may overlap in meaning and be similarly interpreted by the academics. In the first part of the thesis, a data driven numerical approach is therefore used, to try and reduce the number of learning outcomes in a GGSLO. The approach is based on the mapping of unit-of-study learning outcomes from a degree stream to the generic graduate learning outcomes in the GGSLO, and an analysis of the combined data from multiple units-of-study, to determine similarities between the generic graduate learning outcomes in the GGSLO. The second part of the thesis investigates more broadly the issues affecting the limited use and implementation of generic graduate leaning outcomes into engineering curricula. A number of limiting factors are identified from literature, but the thesis extends the body of knowledge by investigating the limiting factors using naturalistic case studies with individual academics. The second question is premised on the idea that GGSLO’s are useful in curriculum renewal and that curriculum mapping tools should be an effective means to achieve implementation of generic graduate learning outcomes into the curriculum. The case studies therefore investigate the perception of academics in using GGSLO’s and curriculum mapping tools for curriculum renewal, and through these case studies, I seek to understand why generic graduate learning outcomes are currently not being effectively used or implemented in the curriculum renewal process.