International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET) | 2021
Qualitative Development of Students’ Digital Skills by Integrating a Spreadsheet Software in First Year Introduction to Engineering and Seminar Course
Abstract
The Introduction to Engineering (ITE) and Industrial Seminar and \nProfession (ISP) courses conducted at School of Chemical and Energy \nEngineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, are integrated courses \nwhich implement the Cooperative Problem-based Learning (CPBL) \nmethods in the same semester. Based on this integrated courses, the \nmain aim of this paper is to investigate the qualitative impact of \nspreadsheet hands-on seminar on the first year students digital skill. \nAt the beginning of the semester, students are given sustainability-based project to work on, which requires them to collect and to report \nthe data in a series of presentations and written reports. In order to \npresent those data, they need to use analysis tools such as a \nspreadsheet software. The students are introduced with some in-depth applications of the Microsoft Excel software through the seminar \nsessions in the ISP course. With the knowledge that the students gain, \nthey are expected to implement it in the CPBL project. A qualitative \napproach has been adopted to implement the study. Student’s \nreflections were used as the data source to identify common attributes \nthat they have managed to gain from seminar sessions. This study has found that all students had primarily learned about digital skills. They perceived hand-on activity during the seminar as a good platform to acquire knowledge on basic calculation and developed learning skill on Excel. Moreover, students recognized the skills they are learning will be useful in other courses and future careers.