Developing soft skills in engineering students through the design and production of educational materials for inclusion

Abstract

This work reports the development of transversal and soft skills in engineering students upon participation in a social service project called "Edumakers: education for inclusion." Activities were based on a challenge-based learning approach, where the challenge was to design and manufacture inclusive teaching materials for people with visual disabilities aged 6-12 years. Through a qualitative research approach, we systematically observed a group of students participating in Edumakers. Using semi-structured in-depth interviews with four students with an experience of at least three consecutive semesters in Edumakers, we collected information that allowed us to identify three categories during the analysis: motivation, active learning, and intellectual curiosity. We thus confirmed that students fully immersed in the challenge and persisted in the design and manufacturing process developed complex thinking and social intelligence skills. Specifically, the students expressed empathy for the visually impaired user, which allowed them to acquire a construct about educational inclusion.