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Engineering curriculum development based on education theories

Article  in  Current science · May 2018

DOI: 10.18520/cs/v114/i09/1829-1834

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 GENERAL ARTICLES

Engineering curriculum development based on

education theories
Jitendra Prasad*, Avijit Goswami, Brijesh Kumbhani, Chittaranjan Mishra, Himanshu Tyagi,
Jung Hyun Jun, Kamal Kumar Choudhary, Mukesh Kumar, Naveen James, V. Ravi Shankar Reddy
Satwinder Jit Singh, Deepak Kashyap, Milind Sohoni, Nandita DasGupta, Prabhu Krishna Raina,
Samir Kumar Saha, Sanjay Mittal, Suman Chakraborty and Sarit Kumar Das

Education theories stress not only societal context of education, but also educational philosophy,
anthropology and psychology of learning. A formal curriculum theory, viz. Taba–Tyler rationale,
has been proposed to incorporate philosophical, sociological, anthropological and psychological
contexts of engineering education in the curriculum. The newly developed undergraduate curricu-
lum at the Indian Institute of Technology Ropar is based on such education theories and has been
presented as a case study. It has been demonstrated that the resulting curriculum can lead to
unique courses that collectively bring out unique features such as core competency, strong connec-
tion to society, hands-on learning, creativity and innovation.

Keywords: Curriculum development, engineering education, entrepreneurship, innovation, societal needs.

Introduction and motivation discipline, still relevant and frequently referred while
developing curricula5,6. They can be easily extended to
CURRICULUM development process consists of identifying designing engineering curriculum suitable for India.
courses or subjects, prescribing their contents, organizing Curricula at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs)
their sequence and learning experience1,2. To come up with have been based on that of the West, especially Massa-
a logical structure of curriculum, the objectives should be chusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, because of
clearly established first. Srinath1, however, noted that the a history of collaboration between IITs and some US uni-
curricula in most of engineering colleges in India have sel- versities7. Inclusion of abstract sciences, and the Western
dom been based on any rational objectives, but have been humanities and social sciences (HSS) in an IIT curricu-
simply copied from other engineering institutes. lum indicates the influence of MIT. As a result, current
Identification of the objectives requires detailed analy- curricula in the IITs may be more suitable for the West
sis. The works of Ralph Tyler 3 (regarded as ‘the father of than for India and may be responsible for the brain-
educational evaluation and assessment’) and his illustri- drain7,8. Thus there is need for customization of engineer-
ous co-worker Hilda Taba4, elaborate the process of cur- ing curriculum to India1,5,7–10. The Nayudamma Commit-
riculum development, including steps to decide objectives tee’s IIT Review Report also recommends the following
and evaluate learning experience. The Taba–Tyler ration- in this regard8 : ‘steps are required to reduce the incidence
ales are general, not specific to a particular country or of migration abroad of fresh graduates from IITs. This
may be done through conscious career development plan-
Jitendra Prasad, Avijit Goswami, Brijesh Kumbhani, Chittaranjan
Mishra, Himanshu Tyagi, Jung Hyun Jun, Kamal Kumar Choudhary, ning for bright students, their involvement in technology
Mukesh Kumar, Naveen James, V. Ravi Shankar Reddy, Satwinder Jit missions and rural development schemes rather than rely
Singh, Deepak Kashyap, Prabhu Krishna Raina, Sarit Kumar Das are in on restrictive measures alone. The Department of
the Indian Institute of Technology Ropar, Nangal Road, Rupnagar Humanities and Social Sciences in the IITs must empha-
140 001, India; Milind Sohoni is in the Department of Computer Sci-
sise in the curriculum the socioeconomic ethos in which
ence and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai,
Mumbai 400 076, India; Nandita DasGupta is in the Department of technology development is taking place in India, so as to
Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai inculcate distinct Indian values.’
600 036, India; Samir Kumar Saha is in the Department of Mechanical As Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is
Engineering, MCKV Institute of Engineering, Liluah, Howrah 711 204, conducted by the IITs based on their own curricula, other
India; Sanjay Mittal is in the Department of Aerospace Engineering,
engineering colleges automatically follow an IIT curricu-
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur 208 016, India; Suman
Chakraborty is in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian lum and seldom have freedom to design their own 7,10. An
Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721 302, India. IIT should, therefore, consider its responsibility as a
*For correspondence. (e-mail: jprasad@iitrpr.ac.in) leader of engineering education and develop its engineering

CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 114, NO. 9, 10 MAY 2018 1829

GENERAL ARTICLES
curriculum from scratch based on well-established theo- The following specific aims may be selected based on
ries of curriculum development incorporating the needs philosophy of education: (i) awareness about history of
of Indian society. science and technology in the Indian subcontinent; (ii) to
There are ready-made, basic guidelines for engineering transform culture in terms of social engagement, innova-
curriculum, as laid out in the Washington Accord to tion, do-it-yourself (DIY) and entrepreneurship; (iii) to fa-
which 17 countries are permanent signatories, including cilitate individual development by providing different
the US through Accreditation Board for Engineering and options for the students to choose from, such as Minor,
Technology (ABET) and India through National Board of Honours and concentration; (iv) to facilitate individual
Accreditation (NBA)11. The recommendations of the development by encouraging students to participate in
Washington Accord are general in nature and philosophi- group activities (curricular as well as extra-curricular)
cally reflect the Taba–Tyler rationales, but still need to be and thus inculcating team-work and leadership; and (v) to
customized to the needs of Indian society11. facilitate individual development by imparting ethics
Engineering is all about solving societal problems and values, including gender equality, anti-plagiarism,
applying science and technology. In the West, companies professional honesty, etc.
play an active role in identifying societal problems, and
the team-work of their specialized engineering employees Specific aims based on study of the learners
solves these problems. A strong, abstract science-based,
research-oriented engineering curriculum, therefore, may According to Tyler 3 and Taba4, first of all Maslow’s
suit the West as the objectives of the engineering colleges hierarchy of needs should be satisfied13. Accordingly, an
there are mostly to produce manpower for these compa- extra-curricular system may be recommended to address
nies12. In India, however, there is a lack of companies students’ physiological needs (air, water, food, privacy),
that identify and solve societal problems peculiar to the security needs (personal, health, financial security), love
country. There is also a culture of innovation and and belonging needs (friends, family), self-esteem needs
entrepreneurship in the West, especially in the US, which (hobbies, interests, self-respect) and self-realization needs
obviates the need of strongly connecting engineering cur- (altruism, social work, spirituality).
riculum to society. India still does not have such a culture
and hence curriculum should be accordingly tailor-made
Specific aims based on contemporary life outside the
to inculcate innovation and entrepreneurship, with a focus
campus
on identifying the problems Indian society is facing and
solving them using engineering principles1.
India is a net importer of engineering products14, which
In accordance with Tyler3 and Taba4, the following
may be due to lack of innovation or entrepreneurship,
steps were followed for curriculum development process
absence of DIY culture and insufficient manufacturing in
at IIT Ropar: (i) identification of specific aims of the cur-
the country. It is therefore important to emphasize inno-
riculum; (ii) selection and organization of the content;
vation, DIY and entrepreneurship in the curriculum.
(iii) selection and organization of learning experience;
Innovation tools such as micro-controllers, their pro-
(iv) preparation of implementation notes, and (v) evalua-
gramming, sensors, CAD, 3D-printing, workshop train-
tion of the learning experience after implementation.
ing, mobile programming, etc. should be taught to every
student as early as possible.
Identification of specific aims We have observed decline of social responsibility and
ethics in students, as many of them have been being
According to Tyler 3, the specific aims may be identified penalized every year for plagiarism and cheating during
based on the following: (i) Philosophy of education; (ii) exams. A course on ethics is, therefore, needed.
study of the learners; (iii) study of contemporary life out- IIT graduates typically opt for business (through MBA
side the classroom; (iv) statement on psychology of learn- studies), civil services, higher studies and core industries
ing, and (v) subject specialists’ opinion. (including Military Engineer Services and Indian Engi-
neering Services). Problems from all these sectors may,
therefore, be introduced to the students. There may be
Specific aims based on philosophy of education
many ‘installments’ of the DIY component, one each, for
example, for defence, civic issues, infrastructure, rural
According to Taba3, the purpose of education is as
issues, agriculture, health, etc.
follows: (a) to preserve and transmit cultural heritage; (b)
to act as an instrument to transform culture, and (c) to
facilitate individual development, including values and Specific aims based on psychology of learning
feelings, and preparation for the future and changing
environment by bringing about autonomy, individuality According to Tyler3, values cannot be taught to the students
and creativity. unless they can feel about it. Moreover, it takes a long

1830 CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 114, NO. 9, 10 MAY 2018

 GENERAL ARTICLES
time to change the character of a student older than 16 (for self-study, assignments, etc.) to students for every
years. As learning is not confined to the classrooms alone one contact hour (of lecture)19. Indian engineering insti-
and students also learn from their environment; hostel life tutes typically give 1 h for preparation for each hour of
and institute environment should be regulated to make lecture due to high credit requirements.
students learn what cannot be taught in the classrooms. The US universities following the semester system
According to Tyler3 , the following factors help in have typically 120–130 semester-credits required for an
remembering the subjects taught in schools: (a) connec- undergraduate (UG) degree (e.g. MIT)20. Those following
tions among the topics, and (b) using the concepts quarter system have 160–180 quarter-credits (e.g. Caltech
frequently, in daily life. and Stanford)17,18. The course load is thus 12–16 credits
The following specific aims may be accordingly cho- per semester or quarter. To keep up with the international
sen: (i) to teach ethics and social responsibility through standards, total credits have been decreasing over time in
feeling; (ii) to introduce history of technology as a sub- the IITs.
ject to roughly connect most of the core courses, and (iii) Based on the subject specialists’ opinions, the follow-
to introduce and relate learning to common engineering ing specific aims were considered at IIT Ropar: (i) to
products used in daily life, such as smartphones, bicycles, include unique features in the curriculum according to the
motorcycles, cars, computers, laptops, printers, etc. institute’s vision; (ii) to include recommendations of the
Washington Accord; (iii) to intensify the courses and
provide sufficient preparation hours to the students as
Specific aims according to subject specialists practised by top engineering colleges, such as MIT, Stan-
ford and Caltech; (iv) to enhance quality of learning
The following may be considered ‘subject specialists’: (a) experience so that the students easily grasp the funda-
an institute’s vision regarding the curriculum; (b) guide- mentals; (v) to enhance professionalism and soft skills in
lines of the Washington Accord (especially the recom- the students to address the recruiters’ feedback; (vi) to
mended knowledge profile, and graduate attribute make courses more practical, and (vii) to strongly con-
profiles11); (c) the existing systems at leading engineering nect the final year project to industries.
colleges in the world (e.g. MIT, Stanford, Caltech, etc.);
(d) recruiters’ feedback; (e) recommendations from Selection of content and its unique features
industries; (f) prominent academicians; (g) individual
departments; (h) individual faculty members; (i) alumni, Students have been given the following four options for
and (j) students. the 4-year UG programme: (i) B Tech in an engineering
As ABET is a signatory of the Washington Accord, the major discipline (145 credits), (ii) B Tech with Minor
US engineering programme reflects the recommended (B Tech plus 15-credits minor coursework in any disci-
knowledge profile and graduate attribute profiles. Some pline other than the major discipline), (iii) B Tech with
important observations not necessarily coming from the Concentration (B Tech plus 15-credits concentration
ABET requirements are described below. coursework within the major discipline), and (iv) B Tech
There are typically 30–36 weeks of instruction in a with Honours (B Tech plus 15-credits honours course-
year in the US. These are typically divided either into two work plus 10-credits research project.)
semesters (15–18 weeks each) or three quarters (10–12 Every course has been given a (L–T–P–S–C) designa-
weeks each). For example, MIT and IITs follow the tion, where L, T, P and S respectively, denote the number
semester system, whereas Stanford and Caltech follow of lecture, tutorial, practical and self-study ‘hours’. C is
the quarter system. Approximately 15% of the US univer- the total credits for the course. Here ‘hours’ mean 50 min.
sities follow the quarter system, including the University of In general, S = 2L + (P/2) – T and C = (L + T + P + S)/
California system (excluding Berkeley), the University 3 = L + (P/2).
of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University The following courses (L–T–P–S–C designation in
of Washington. About 71% of the US universities follow brackets) are required to be completed for a basic B Tech
semester system15. degree:
The total number of hours that a student is required
to spend on attending lectures, tutorials and labs, and Humanities and social sciences (21 credits):
preparing for the class (including reading assign-
ments/homework) per week varies among universities.  History of technology [3/2-1/2-0-5/2-1.5]
For example, at MIT, freshmen require to spend 52–54 h  Professional English communication or English lan-
every week16, while senior students have lower load. Cal- guage skills [2-2/3-2-13/3-3] for students weak in
tech and Stanford, on the other hand, have weekly load of English
around 42 and 45 h respectively17,18.  Economics [3-1-0-5-3]
Regardless of the academic term systems they follow,  Industrial management [3-1-0-5-3]
the US universities typically provide 2 h of preparation  Professional ethics [1-1/3-1-13/6-1.5]
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 114, NO. 9, 10 MAY 2018 1831
GENERAL ARTICLES
 Human geography and societal needs [1-1/3-4-11/3-3] Open electives (six credits):
 HSS electives (six credits)
It should be noted that the ‘programme core’ must
Sciences (30 credits): include sufficient number of relevant engineering science
courses not already covered by the ‘general engineering’
 Physics for engineers [3-1-4-7-5] category. Rest of the programme core should have pro-
 Chemistry for engineers [3-1-2-6-4] gramme-specific, application-oriented courses. As a
 Calculus [3-1-0-5-3] sample, the ‘mechanical engineering’ programme at IIT
 Linear algebra, integral transforms and special func- Ropar has the following proposed core courses:
tions [3-1-0-5-3]
 Biology for engineers [3-1-0-5-3]  Engineering mechanics [3-1-0-5-3]
 Programme-specific science-maths I [3-1-0-5-3] (de-  Solid mechanics [3-1-0-5-3]
partmental choice; e.g. ‘differential equations’ opted  Thermodynamics [3-1-0-5-3]
by all engineering departments)  Machine drawing lab [0-0-4-2-2]
 Programme-specific science-maths II [3-1-0-5-3] (de-  Theory of machines [3-1-0-5-3]
partmental choice; e.g. ‘probability and statistics’,  Fluid mechanics [3-1-0-5-3]
‘probability and stochastic processes’, ‘introduction to  Design lab I [0-0-4-2-2]
organic chemistry and biochemistry’, etc.)  Machine design [3-1-0-5-3]
 Sciences electives (6 credits)  Heat and mass transfer [3-1-0-5-3]
 Manufacturing technology I [3-1-0-5-3]
General engineering (23.5 credits):  Thermo-fluids lab I [0-0-2-1-1]
 Manufacturing lab I [0-0-4-2-2]
 Technology museum lab [0-0-2-1-1]  Dynamics and control [3-1-0-5-3]
 Workshop practice [0-0-4-2-2]  Manufacturing technology II [3-1-0-5-3]
 Introduction to computer programing and data struc-  Design lab II [0-0-3-3/2-1.5]
ture [3-1-3-13/2-4.5]  Thermo-fluids lab II [0-0-3-3/2-1.5]
 Introduction to electrical engineering [2-2/3-2-13/3-3]  Manufacturing lab II [0-0-4-2-2]
 Engineering drawing [0-0-3-3/2-1.5]
 Basic electronics [2-2/3-2-13/3-3] Taba–Tyler rationale emphasizes interests and individual
 Introduction to engineering products [0-0-2-1-1] purpose of the students. Therefore, the students are given
 Tinkering lab [0-0-3-3/2-1.5] 24 credits to choose courses based on their individual
 Introduction to environmental science and engineering requirements and interests, in form of six credits each of
[2-2/3-2-13/3-3] HSS electives, sciences electives, programme electives
 Programme-specific general engineering [3-1-0-5-3] and open electives. It is important that the departments
(e.g. ‘Introduction to materials science and engineer- offer important courses as electives that could not be
ing’, ‘materials science for electrical and electronics offered as core due to several constraints. For example,
engineers’, ‘materials science for civil engineers’, HSS department must offer philosophy, psychology and
‘signals and systems’, etc.). sociology as electives. Similarly, important science
courses (especially in physics and chemistry) should be
Programme core and electives (total 48 credits): offered as electives so that students can gain confidence
in basic sciences. Course advisors should also recom-
 Program core (36–42 credits) mend such courses, based on the purpose and interest of
 Program electives (6–12 credits) individual students.
Thus, the designed curriculum has the following unique
Capstone projects (nine credits): courses:
(i) History of technology, which will briefly cover
 Development engineering project [0-0-6-3-3] some important events of science, technology and engi-
 Capstone project I and II, each [0-0-6-3-3] neering that led to modern engineering products and
engineering education.
Industrial internship and comprehensive viva (3.5 credits): (ii) Technology museum lab, which will make students
Extra-curricular (four credits): build and play with historically important products, such
as Galileo’s telescope, steam engines, electric motors,
 NCC I/NSO I/NSS I [0-0-2-1-1] etc.
 NCC II/NSO II/NSS II [0-0-2-1-1] (iii) Introduction to engineering products (lab), which
 NCC III/NSO III/NSS III [0-0-2-1-1] will make students disassemble and assemble important
 NCC IV/NSO IV/NSS IV [0-0-2-1-1] engineering products such as motorcycles, washing
1832 CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 114, NO. 9, 10 MAY 2018
 GENERAL ARTICLES
machines, refrigerators, mobile phones, TVs, laptops, directly solving societal problems. The given sequence
tablets, etc. of these courses was decided based on the psychology of
(iv) Tinkering lab, which will briefly cover CAD, 3D education, viz. in accordance with Bloom’s taxonomy21.
printing, kinematic mechanisms (including gears and Similarly, the ‘professional ethics’ course was decided
CAM), micro-controllers, electric motors and controllers, based on philosophy of education.
and RF controllers which will enable students to build After identification of specific aims and selection of
remotely controlled vehicles. the content, the courses may be organized in such a way
(v) Human geography and societal needs, where stu- to minimize the resources. Every course should not only
dents will visit villages, hospitals, towns, etc. to identify have detailed syllabus, but also L–T–P–S–C designation
societal problems. along with prescribed learning experience and detailed
(vi) Development engineering project, where students course objectives; for example, in terms of the knowledge
will develop a complex and economical product to solve profile of the Washington Accord11.
one of the problems identified during ‘human geography The students should have an objective learning experi-
and societal needs’. ence3,4. According to the Taba–Tyler rationale, ‘learning
(vii) Capstone projects, whose aim will be to design experience’ is the outcome of students’ active interac-
and build an engineering product (e.g. in response to a tions with their environments. The teachers are, therefore,
challenge proposed by professional bodies such as ASCE, needed to control or simulate the environment to facilitate
ASME, IEEE, etc.), which will compete with other behavioural change in accordance with the learning
designs (by fellow students) to earn grades. objectives. Every student has a different strength for the
(viii) All courses will, by default, have a tutorial com- modalities of learning, namely visual, kinesthetic and
ponent (T = L/3), wherever appropriate. auditory modalities22. In general, the active or experien-
(ix) There is a predefined self-study component for tial learning (hands-on learning followed by reflection)
every course (S = 2L + (P/2) – T), which will be moni- has higher efficiency than passive learning such as listen-
tored and evaluated by the instructors. ing, reading and writing23.
(x) High laboratory to lecture credit ratio (40% : 60%, Special attention should be given to society-oriented
approximately). courses or projects (e.g. human geography and societal
(xi) Every laboratory will have roughly half of the lab needs and development engineering project) as they will
hours devoted to learning the basic skills and the other require extensive planning and coordination24. As such, a
half to using those skills to design an experiment and reasonably high quality and quantity of work should be
carry out an experimental study. expected from all projects, which should be carefully
(xii) All courses will have credits. While it may not be managed, i.e. planned, organized, staffed, coordinated
necessary to give credits for courses such as industrial and controlled, applying management principles25,26.
internship and extra-curricular activities (NCC, NSS, Without close monitoring and weekly evaluation by
NSO), they will have credits in order to motivate students faculty members, a project will not serve its purpose.
for good work. An output-based assessment, such as that prescribed by
the Washington Accord (ABET, NBA, etc.), may be
The curriculum, thus, includes the following unique fea- adopted to determine if the programme objectives or
tures: (a) Connection to society (i.e. going to the society individual course objectives have been met. A ‘Teach-
to find problems and solve them applying innovation); (b) ing–Learning Centre’ may be recommended to facilitate
Hands-on learning (i.e. high practical/DIY components); teaching and learning according to the designed curricu-
(c) Creativity and innovation (i.e. creating or doing some- lum and existing education theories. On a macroscopic
thing new and original), and (d) Core competency (i.e. level in an institute, principles of total quality manage-
strong fundamentals through compulsory tutorials and ment may be applied25,26. Quality control of curriculum,
more preparation time to students). instruction and assessment should accordingly be part of
the vision, mission and strategic plans of an institute27.
Although implementation is out of scope for this study,
Discussion and conclusion we assumed that existing knowledge in educational man-
agement and administration may be applied for efficient
The Taba–Tyler rationale draws curriculum objectives implementation of the present curriculum25,26. Our focus
not only from subject specialists, but also from societal was to show applicability of education theories to design
needs, requirements of individual students, philosophy an engineering curriculum from the ‘first principles’. The
and psychology of education. For example, the unique procedure followed gives importance to philosophy, soci-
courses on history of technology, technology museum ology and psychology of education, which automatically
lab, introduction to engineering products, tinkering lab, make the curriculum relevant to the society and to the
human geography and societal needs, and development students themselves. A detailed report on the designed
engineering project were decided based on the need of curriculum is available at the IIT Ropar (http://www.
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 114, NO. 9, 10 MAY 2018 1833
GENERAL ARTICLES
iitrpr.ac.in/new-curriculum). This curriculum is being 17. Caltech Catalog 2015–16; http://catalog.caltech.edu/ (accessed on
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learning/time/academicload.pdf (accessed on 14 July 2015). doi: 10.18520/cs/v114/i09/1829-1834

1834 CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 114, NO. 9, 10 MAY 2018

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