Integration of a spreadsheet software in first year introduction to engineering and seminar course to develop students’ digital skills

Abstract

The Introduction to Engineering (ITE) and Industrial Seminar and Profession (ISP) courses conducted at the School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, are integrated courses, which implement the Cooperative Problem-based Learning (CPBL) methods in the same semester. Based on these integrated courses, the main aim of this paper is to present results of a study that investigate the qualitative impact of spreadsheet hands-on seminar on the first-year students' digital skill. At the beginning of the semester, students given sustainability-based project to work on, which requires them to collect and to report the data in a series of presentations and written reports. In order to present those data, they need to use analysis tools such as a spreadsheet software. The students were introduced with some in-depth applications of the Microsoft Excel software through the seminar sessions in the ISP course. With the knowledge gained, they are expected to implement it in the CPBL project. Throughout the semester, the students are required to prepare reflection journals every 3 weeks to analyze, reflect and evaluate their learning process. In order to evaluate the students' development of their digital skills, instructors will analyze the journals to identify common attributes that they have managed to gain. This analysis may also help the instructors to further improved the activities for the coming semester to further enhance the student digital skills.