Case study of failure analysis of engineering components: Effects on employable skills, conceptual understanding, and perception

The need exists for a new approach of engineering training which incorporates the development and the assessment of work-based skills that cannot be imparted and examined with traditional instructional delivery and written examinations respectively. To address this need, this study explores a twenty-week case study to teach employable skills and concept of failure analysis to final year mechanical engineering students in a Nigerian University. The case study worked upon by each group and a plurality of solutions with a view to helping students develop a range of professional, transferable and team working skills under the guidance of the first two authors. We carried out continuous assessment of the competences gained by our students via fortnightly review meetings, oral presentation, working models, written project reports and interviews. Students' conceptual understanding was enhanced while they also developed skills in independent critical thinking, formulation, analysis, optimisation and evaluation of the performance of their designs and communication of their ideas effectively. Finally, this study highlights our rationale for adopting the case study and the good practice we have identified, and also discusses our experiences of the adoption and implementation of this type of learning activity.