Exposing Students to Engineering in Society

Abstract

Engineering and for that matter engineering training is pivotal in solving problems that confront societies. This paper introduces academia to a course named Engineering in Society run at the College of Engineering of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. The paper also reports on an assessment of the course content, mode of delivery and impacts, and recommends improvements to enhance its learning outcomes. The impact assessment was done through the administration of questionnaires to four hundred and thirty-seven current and immediate past students of the College’s Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. The respondents were students in the second, third and fourth years of the BSc Electrical and Electronic Engineering programme as well as its immediate past alumni. The results of the impact assessment show that over 85% of the respondents from the various categories consider the course to be essential for their career development. Between 56.76% and 79.38% of respondents from the various groups are satisfied with the mode of delivery of the course. Not less than 69% of the responds agree to the attainment of at least one of the learning outcomes of the course. The respondents consider the community project component of the course as the most impactful. The study has revealed an increasing trend of students contracting others to do their community projects for them as well as an increasing trend in plagiarism of submitted reports. Among others, the study recommends some revision of the course content and mode of delivery to maximize the impact of the course. Additionally, the university should do away with the submission of reports in printed copy and rather migrate to online submission of reports, with plagiarism checks. The course, with the suggestions made, is recommended for adoption by engineering training institutions.