IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0358558.html

Enhancing engineering competencies through Outcome-based Education: A mixed-methods study in an intelligent control course

Author

Listed:
  • Jing Yang
  • Zhenqing Li
  • Yoshinori Yamaguchi

Abstract

Bridging the gap between theory and practice remains a persistent challenge in engineering education, especially in complex, algorithm-heavy courses like intelligent control. In such contexts, students often know the abstract concepts but struggle to turn them into workable engineering solutions. Outcome-Based Education (OBE), which focuses on what students can do, offers a promising way forward. However, detailed evidence on how well OBE works at the individual course level in technically demanding fields is still limited. In this quasi-experimental, mixed-methods study, we redesigned an undergraduate intelligent control course around OBE principles, using constructive alignment together with project-based and case-based learning. We compared an intervention cohort (n = 97) with a historical control cohort (n = 89) who had taken the same course the previous year under traditional lectures. Quantitative results from pre- and post-course surveys, exams, and project scores showed meaningful gains for the intervention group across several areas: learning engagement (t = 9.87, p

Suggested Citation

  • Jing Yang & Zhenqing Li & Yoshinori Yamaguchi, 2026. "Enhancing engineering competencies through Outcome-based Education: A mixed-methods study in an intelligent control course," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 21(10), pages 1-12, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0358558
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0358558
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0358558
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0358558&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0358558?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0358558. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.