Waychal, P. K., & Sahasrabudhe, A. D. (2013, June), A Framework for Liberal Learning in an Engineering College.  Paper presented at 2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia. 10.18260/1-2--19061

\bibitem{asee_peer_19061}
  Waychal, P. K., \& Sahasrabudhe, A. D. (2013, June), \emph{A Framework for Liberal Learning in an Engineering College.}
  Paper presented at 2013 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia.
  10.18260/1-2--19061

Pradeep Kashinath Waychal and Anil Dattatraya Sahasrabudhe.  "A Framework for Liberal Learning in an Engineering College.".  2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia, 2013, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2013.  https://strategy.asee.org/19061 Internet.  18 May, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_19061}
  Pradeep Kashinath Waychal and Anil Dattatraya Sahasrabudhe.
  "A Framework for Liberal Learning in an Engineering College.".
  \emph{2013 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia, 2013, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2013.
  https://strategy.asee.org/19061 Internet.  18 May, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_19061
author = "Pradeep Kashinath Waychal and Anil Dattatraya Sahasrabudhe"
title = "A Framework for Liberal Learning in an Engineering College."
booktitle = "2013 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2013"
month = "June"
address = "Atlanta, Georgia"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://strategy.asee.org/19061}
number = {10.18260/1-2--19061}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -       A Framework for Liberal Learning in an Engineering College.This paper presents findings from a liberal learning course conducted at a premierengineering college in India. The course was conducted to inculcate a lifelong learningprocess that helps to extend the knowledge base beyond engineering and help studentsappreciate the interplay of engineering with other disciplines and make students betterlearners. The study also examines challenges in managing changes in faculty and studentcommunity and use of moodle to manage the course.Liberal learning has been in use in different forms in different civilizations. Aristotlehad defined it as learning of a free man and emphasized the spirit in which the learning ispursued. In the last few centuries, industrialization started re-defining educationalagenda. It introduced industry oriented engineering courses that did not pay muchattention to liberal learning. Recent trends show that liberal learning is regaining itspopularity. Some leading institutes like Princeton, Yale, and CMU run programs forengineers to help them gain clear appreciation of technology and the socio-politicalforces that shape it. The Indian engineering education system has yet to adapt theparadigm.We define liberal learning as self-learning of self-chosen areas with self-defined scope.This course is introduced at the sophomore level for about 350 undergraduate students.To bring in the required structure to the learning process, we have developed aframework consisting of process and data elements. The process consists of four distinctand slightly overlapping phases. These are Define, Harvest, Synthesize and Share and areillustrated in figure 1. The data framework is showed in figure 2 and consists of Areasand sub Areas. The Areas are identified by the academic leadership and includephilosophy, medicine, social sciences, environmental sciences, sports, defense studies,etc.. The sub Areas are outcomes of discussions amongst faculty mentors who chose tomentor and the students who chose to study the Areas.The faculty mentors need not be expert but need to have interest in the Area andexperience of learning processes. The topics and the corresponding focus questions areidentified by the students with little help from their faculty mentors. For each subarea,clusters of around 15 students are formed along with student conveners and co-conveners. The course expects that students, besides learning new Areas would becomebetter learners. Towards that they carried out self assessment in terms of attributes ofgreat learners and their learning approaches and styles and prepared a development plan.The final assessment will examine results of the plan and evaluate the presentations thatmay be supported by other forms of expressions like audio-visual clips, skits, poetry, etc.The evaluation is done at cluster level by peers with faculty and experts playing the roleof moderators which offers a great learning experience to the students.We are mid way through the semester and believe that will be able to analyzeacquisition of knowledge and improvement in the learners by the end of the semester. Itwill, though, take some time and additional research to understand if the students havelearnt appreciating the interplay between engineering and non engineering disciplines andbe able to put that to the best use.Figure 1: Process Framework   Define                  Harvest                                                     Share   Identify                        Gathering    Synthesize                       information                    Sharing  topic and                          Synthesizing     with all                      from various  define the                          view points       the                      sources and  learning /                         based on the   stakeholde                          making   problem                              harvest          rs                      meaning of /  statement                      analyze thatFigure 2: Data Framework
AU  - Pradeep Kashinath Waychal
AU  - Anil Dattatraya Sahasrabudhe
CY  - Atlanta, Georgia
DA  - 2013/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - A Framework for Liberal Learning in an Engineering College.
UR  - https://strategy.asee.org/19061
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--19061
ER  -