Defining, teaching and assessing lifelong learning skills

Lifelong learning skills have always been important in any education and work setting. However, ABET EC 2000 recently put a new focus on these skills in engineering education. Outcome 3i states the expectation that engineering graduates must have "a recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage in lifelong learning". The paper first defines a set of attributes/skills, which are necessary for students to develop as lifelong learners. It is postulated that the "recognition of the need" requires skills in the affective domain, while the "ability to engage " requires skills in the cognitive domain. Next, the paper offers course design elements, which help students develop lifelong learning skills. Finally, the paper presents a method for assessing these skills. Assessment of data from a variety of engineering courses at San Jose State University are presented and analyzed. This assessment method can be used for any of the eleven outcomes in ABET EC 2000, criterion 3.