Strengthening the Attainment of Major Competencies of Program Outcomes through Open-ended Experiment using Statistical Designs

Unit operations are very essential part of the chemical engineering and allied disciplines; and hence, basic knowledge about the principles and equipment used for various unit operations is mandatory for process engineer. Unit operations course introduces the foundation of process engineering concepts at the second year of undergraduate program of Bachelor of Engineering in Biotechnology. This course mainly focuses on the most essential unit operations utilized in Chemical and allied process industries such as mass transfer, heat transfer, momentum transfer and mechanical operations. The conventional teaching approach practiced so far in Unit Operations Laboratory course was not so effective in the attainment of certain specific core competencies of Program Outcomes (POs). To tackle this challenge, we introduced a system of classifying laboratory experiments into four distinct categories: Demonstration, Exercise, Structural Inquiry, and Open-ended experiments. These categorized experiments were thoughtfully crafted to target various significant technical and professional outcomes such as Investigations of Complex Engineering Problems, Communication, Life-long learning, Follow of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and Good Laboratory Practices (GLP). The evaluation criteria for each type of experiment were aligned with program outcomes, competencies, and performance indicators. This alignment proved highly beneficial in achieving a more precise assessment of program outcomes. This study focuses on implementing an interactive and collaborative learning approach in the Unit Operations laboratory course. of Experiments. More precisely, the study employs Central Composite Design (CCD) and Response Surface Methodology (RSM) concepts to examine how various factors influence the Leaching (Solid-Liquid Extraction) process. The leaching process is most important unit operations used in the extraction of substances from solids. The study helped in addressing several important competencies pertaining to the Program Outcomes- PO-4: Demonstrating the capacity to design, execute experiments, and analyze data; PO-10: Exhibiting effective communication skills; PO-12: Embracing lifelong learning; PSO-13: Adhering to Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and Good Laboratory Practices (GLP). The assessment of student performance employed a rubric-based approach, and the attainment of program outcomes was documented. It was observed that, open-ended experimental approach, led to the improvements in the attainment of PO’s in terms of competencies and performance indicators. To enhance the teaching-learning process, formal and anonymous feedback was gathered from students to identify areas of improvement and deficiencies.