The Future of Engineering Education: Continuity, Chaos & Collapse, OR Transformation
Postsecondary education is in flux. Recent global, technological, and economic disruptions have impacted long-standing systems, processes and practices that shape tertiary education. Undergraduate engineering programs, many of which continue to use traditional instructor-controlled, content-focused approaches, are struggling with freely available "knowledge", student engagement, and diminishing employment opportunities for their students and graduates. This conceptual paper explores three potential futures that undergraduate engineering may experience in the upcoming decade. The ‘continuity’ scenario highlights the simulated learning and perceived efficiency that comes with generative AI. The ‘chaos and collapse’ scenario foresees cognitive atrophy and the erosion of trust between faculty and students. The ‘transformation’ scenario explores a redesigned system where human judgment is key in a system where humans and machine intelligence work together to perceive, decide, create and act. It then suggests ways forward for engineering educators and administrators as they shape a sustainable future for their programs.