Enabling First-Year Engineering Students to Demonstrate Technological Literacy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33830/ijrse.v7i2.1705Keywords:
logic gates, demonstration, graduate attributes, simulation, technological literacyAbstract
Graduate attributes have been introduced at many universities around the globe, as higher educational institutions seek to make their graduates more employable. The International Engineering Alliance released a list of 12 graduate attributes that engineering students need to demonstrate through their educational career. One of these attributes is termed Modern Tool Usage which may be equated to the term “technological literacy”. The purpose of this article is to highlight an activity that was used to enable first-year engineering students in South Africa to demonstrate the acquisition of this attribute. This activity may help fellow engineering educators to design and develop similar activities for their students. A descriptive case study is used focusing on quantitative data taken from 2020 to 2024. The results indicate that many students (on average, 77%) were proficient in designing and developing a 5-slide PowerPoint presentation, where they explained the operation of a logic gate using simulation software along with their own voice. It is recommended to make use of these types of presentations to enable student agency, ownership, authenticity, autonomy, and originality.
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