Presentation and Evaluation of a New Graduate Unit of Study in Engineering Product Development

Engineering education has a key role to play in equipping engineers with the design skills that they need to contribute to national competitiveness. Product design has been described as “the convergence point for engineering and design thinking and practices”, and courses in which students design, build, and test a product are becoming increasingly popular. A sound understanding of product development and the implications associated with developing a product have been strongly linked to sustainability outcomes. This paper presents an evaluation of a new Master level engineering unit offered at Deakin University in product development technology. The unit allowed the students an opportunity to engage with the entire product development cycle from the initial idea to prototyping and testing through strategic assessment, which drove the unit content and student learning. Within this, students were also afforded an opportunity to explore resource usage and subsequent minimisation. Student evaluation surveys over two successive years found that students were responsive to this type of learning and appreciated the opportunity to do hands-on work. Improved student effort and engagement indicate that the students likely had better learning outcomes, as compared to traditionally taught units.