Impact of the Joy of Engineering Social Immersion Module on Experiential Learning and Skill Development among First-Year Engineering Students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.16920/jeet/2026/v39is2/26058Keywords:
Community Engagement, Engineering Education, Experiential Learning, Social Immersion.Abstract
The present work studies the Joy of Engineering (JoE) Social Immersion Module that deals with combining both theoretical knowledge and practical focusing on community. Mixed method approach was used to collect the data. Total 543 participants have taken part in the survey. Quantitative analysis such as descriptive statistics, independent samples t-tests, Pearson's correlations, and Cronbach's Alpha were considered to the study. The qualitative responses were subjected to thematic analysis. The findings indicate that students are consistently very content, as evidenced by average scores exceeding 4.0 across all items, particularly regarding their observational skills, empathy for rural challenges, and willingness to assist with future community initiatives. Female participants have showed better high scores in all the categories and medium effect sizes with improved emotional and collaborative engagement. Positive correlations were observed between perceptions and skill development which clearly shows relation between engagement and competency growth. Among the qualitative tests the effective results are observed in direct communication with locals and the challenges faced by the populations and also the teamwork collaboration. Students were able to bring upon new ideas and fixing the issues for the problems with communication, logistics, and team coordination. Making the field trip longer, more communication and improving the project activities were some of the ideas. Overall, the present work finds that the JoE Social Immersion Module shows good way to teach the students about the community problems and solving them in real life.
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