A holistic re-imagining of engineering education


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The pedagogy project of Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar

IITGN has designed a campus and community modeled to encourage its students to become socially, culturally, ethically, and environmentally conscious engineers, capable of self-learning, taking responsibility for their own and others' actions, and creative problem-solving. This holistic approach aims to foster a well-rounded development in students, preparing them not only for technical excellence but also for their roles as responsible global citizens. By integrating social, cultural, ethical, and environmental responsibility into the very fabric of the institution, IIT Gandhinagar seeks to create a nurturing environment that cultivates students' awareness and empowers them to make a positive impact on society.

Since its inception, there have been deliberate efforts to incorporate elements of social, cultural, ethical, and environmental responsibility into IIT Gandhinagar's architecture, culture, and community design. These aspects are not merely add-ons but are deeply ingrained in the institution's DNA, shaping the values and behaviors of its students and faculty. Moreover, teachers and administrators at IIT Gandhinagar have continuously explored and implemented various pedagogical strategies over the years, striving to enhance the learning experience and contribute to the overall development of students. This research project aims to identify and investigate the various pedagogies employed on campus, examining their influence on students' learning outcomes and their evolving identities as engineering professionals. By gaining insights into the strengths and weaknesses of these strategies, the project seeks to inform future educational practices and contribute to the continuous improvement of the institution's academic programs. 

Purpose of the research study

The purpose of this research study is multifaceted. It involves conducting multiple studies to evaluate the effectiveness of various pedagogical strategies at IIT Gandhinagar. The research team begins their investigation with an in-depth analysis of the Foundation Program, which serves as a crucial starting point for students' academic journey. By evaluating the content delivered in the foundation program, the study aims to assess its alignment with the desired engineering attributes and explore how students perceive and internalize these attributes after their participation in the program. The research team, comprising dedicated scholars and educators, will collect and analyze the data collected, utilizing rigorous methodologies to ensure the reliability and validity of their findings. Ultimately, the research project aspires to contribute valuable insights to the field of education and facilitate evidence-based improvements in pedagogy at IIT Gandhinagar and beyond.

Ongoing Studies

  1. Foundation Programme: We seek to investigate the influence of the Foundation Programme, a 6-week orientation program for first-year students at IITGN. This program incorporates a variety of creative mental and physical activities with the objective of instilling in students the significance of being active, ethically sound, and socio-culturally aware engineers. Our study aims to explore the extent to which these extended orientation programs contribute to developing well-rounded engineers and to understand the students' perceptions of such initiatives. According to our preliminary findings, after having gone through such an orientation programme, students are giving more weightage to engineering attributes such as creativity, ethics, societal context, and cultural awareness.
  2. Engineering Design Self-Efficacy: This study evaluates the self-efficacy levels of engineering students undergoing the engineering design and prototyping courses at IITGN. Comparative study is being done to understand the impact of hand-on learning experiences on design and innovation self-efficacy of undergraduate students enrolled in different courses on engineering design. The study also delves into the differences in self-efficacy based on gender. Preliminary results indicate that there are significant differences in the self-efficacy levels of students enrolled in different courses in terms of confidence, motivation, anxiety, success expectancy, innovation, and interests. The results of this study will be useful for academic administrators in engineering institutes to make more informed decisions in framing the courses in the domain of engineering design and prototyping. 
  3. Micro-Credentials: The ongoing research study explores the effectiveness of micro-credentials by evaluating learning outcomes and skill acquisition. The findings will assist students in making informed decisions about their education and career paths while optimizing the micro-credential programs at IITGN. Furthermore, the research focuses on enhancing industry relevance by investigating the extent to which micro-credentials contribute to meeting industry requirements and improving employability. For more information on micro-credential programs and short courses at IITGN, relevant links are provided.
Academics Overview Short Courses

Meet the Team

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Prof. Sameer Sahasrabudhe
Project Investigator

Sameer Sahasrabudhe is a Professor of Practice in Design, at IIT Gandhinagar. He has a cumulative experience of over 27 years in various fields such as advertising, animation film-making, and educational multimedia production.

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Prof. Aditi Kothiyal
Project Investigator

Assistant Teaching Professor, Creative Learning

BE: College of Engineering Guindy, Anna University, 2001
MS: The Ohio State University, 2004
PhD: IIT Bombay, 2019 

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Dr. Ajita Deshmukh
Project Scientist

Dr. Ajita is a dedicated educationist with over two decades of experience in teaching and research. Holding an M.Sc. in Organic Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Education focused on leveraging social media as an educational scaffold, her interdisciplinary career is rooted in pioneering innovative pedagogies and harnessing digital tools. Her work emphasizes Open Education, podcasts, and MOOCs, showcasing a commitment to accessible and impactful learning. With expertise in qualitative research methodologies, she delves into their application to enhance teaching practices, empowering educators and students alike. Her areas of proficiency include STEM education, teacher training, and cultivating dynamic, learner-centered environments.

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Garima Nagal
Project Assistant

Garima Nagal is a dedicated cognitive researcher with expertise in neuropsychology and education. Her work delves into understanding how cognitive and emotional processes influence learning and professional development. With a strong foundation in EEG, ERP, and advanced data analysis, she explores evidence-based strategies to enhance student engagement, self-efficacy, and educational outcomes.

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Dhairya Pandya
Project Assistant

Dhairya Pandya is an instructional designer and theater practitioner who holds a Master of Arts in Education and a Master of Science in e-Learning. His work focuses on enhancing science communication at both the school and higher education levels through the application of theatrical techniques.

Alumni of the project

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Dr. Avanish Singh Chauhan
Post-Doctoral Fellow

Academic with a flair for process improvement initiatives in teaching-learning activities of HEIs. Research interests spread across New Product Development Process, Engineering Management, Sustainable Development, and Educational Design.  

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Dr. Surbhi Sethi
Senior Research Fellow

Dr. Surbhi, an EdTech enthusiast, holds a Ph.D. in "Technology-Enabled Blended Learning: The Changing Canvas of Higher Education in Post-COVID India." With a keen interest in development studies and public policy, her primary research focuses on the nexus of higher education, technology, and industry.

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Shweta Srivastava
Junior Research Fellow

Shweta Srivastava, an inquisitive anthropologist, strives to enhance inclusivity and efficiency within engineering spaces. She is primarily working on the Foundation Programme and its contribution in creating culturally aware and ethically sound engineers.  

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Kamakshi Khosla
Post Doctoral Fellow

Kamakshi Khosla is a first-year doctoral student at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Gandhinagar, with interests spanning the cognitive science of science and engineering, history and philosophy of science, psychology of STS, and cognitive anthropology. Through her doctoral research, she seeks to unpack and understand the cognitive and epistemic reasoning processes governing model-based reasoning as practiced within interdisciplinary engineering sciences as biomedical engineering. A second line of work within this theme entails situating, refining and fitting existing “discovery” learning theories to the cognitive -epistemic practices of engineering sciences, conceived broadly.  

Publications

  1. Kothiyal A., Chauhan A., Sahasrabudhe S., Vadali M., Making Confident Designers: Effect of a design and prototyping course and gender differences in students’ engineering design self-efficacy; Best paper award, at Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI 2024), Lausanne, Switzerland.
  2. Khosla K., Kothiyal A., Sahasrabudhe S., Glassboxing the Blackbox: On how Social Reality gets loaded into Engineering Design, at Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI 2024), Lausanne, Switzerland.
  3. Shrivastava S., Chauhan A., Kothiyal A., and Sahasrabudhe S, Laying the Foundation: Student Perceptions on Extended Orientation Programme for Creating Holistic Engineers, Proceedings of the International Conference on Technology for Education T4E 2023 (pp 95-101), Edtech Society, Mumbai, India.
  4. G. Nagal, A. Kothiyal, S. Sahasrabudhe, "Evaluating the impact of an extended orientation program on first-year engineering students’ perceptions of engineering attributes and self-efficacy", Proceedings of the International Conference on Technology 4 Education 2024 (T4E2024), Springer (to appear)
  5. S. Sethi, S. Sahasrabudhe, A. Kothiyal, "Micro-Credentials in Higher Education Institutions: Impact on Career Advancement and Professional Development", Proceedings of the International Conference on Technology 4 Education 2024 (T4E2024), Edtech Society (to appear)

Achievements

Best Paper Award

Prof Aditi Kothiyal, Assistant teaching professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences; former Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Avanish Singh Chauhan; Prof Sameer Sahasrabudhe, Professor of Practice, Humanities and Social Sciences; and Prof Madhu Vadali, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering, won the award for the ‘Best Research Paper’ at the Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education. The committee awarded the paper for its research rigour and educational usefulness.

The paper reported on a study comparing two courses of IITGN, an integrated design and prototyping course with a separate design and prototyping course sequence in terms of students’ engineering design and innovation self-efficacy at the end. The researchers found that participants in the integrated course showed higher self-efficacy for design and innovation. They also found differences in self-efficacy between the genders with males reporting higher self-efficacy than females.



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