Comprehensive Strategy to Inculcate Professional Skills among First-Year Students: A Collaborative Learning Approach

Inculcating teamwork, communication skills, and lifelong learning are essential metrics of Outcome Based Engineering (OBE). Ensuring these in early professional courses will enhance the ability of the students to adopt the OBE effectively in the forthcoming semesters. Effective planning and deployment of pedagogy of engagement will aid the students and faculty members to attain the desired outcomes with effective utilization of resources. This article unearths the challenges and documents the lessons learned in deploying collaborative learning in the First Year (FY) engineering education. It establishes a comprehensive assessment methodology from OBE perspective. Further, it addresses professional skills such as teamwork, communication skills, and lifelong learning in a structured manner. The Action Research methodology is adopted by taking into account the OBE approach enshrined in the Programme Outcomes (POs) as suggested by the Indian statutory bodies. The collaborative learning approach of 'Student, Teams, Achievement, Division' (STAD) is utilized by establishing a heterogeneous group. The Define-Measure-Analyze- Improve-Control (DMAIC) approach is used for project deployment and sustainment. Statistical analysis is used to interpret the results effectively. The study shows that the desired outcomes are achieved with a minimum duration of the teaching-learning process. Moreover, statistical analysis shows that even weaker students can reach the set attainment target due to heterogeneous group formation and collaborative learning. Eventually, the structured approach assists in developing a framework for the effective Shreeranga Bhat Department of Mechanical Engineering, St Joseph Engineering College, Mangaluru, Karnataka, India shreerangab@sjec.ac.in deployment of collaborative learning by establishing robust assessment tools to address the POs related to professional skills. The study shows that collaborative learning can be effectively deployed in FY engineering education with specific reference to POs related to professional skills within the optimal duration, provided a structured approach is embraced. It is also observed that heterogeneous group formation assists slow learners to elevate themselves to progressive learners due to teamwork and the influence of wiser students.