Developing professional skills: Introducing students to graduate attributes in first year engineering at RMIT

Engineers Australia (EA) is the professional body that oversees the professional accreditation of all graduate engineering students in Australia. Since 2008, ePortfolios have been progressively introduced into various engineering disciplines at RMIT at a course, and now at a program level. The introduction of ePortfolios into engineering ensures that students have opportunities to evidence Engineers Australia¿s graduate attributes. This case study is a work-in-progress review of the successful introduction of ePortfolios into a first year engineering course, Professional Practice 1, within the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering (SAMME). Here, ePortfolios were introduced in orientation week and subsequent assessment tasks were embedded in the curriculum. The use of PebblePad enabled rapid and personalised feedback from a specially-selected teaching team which resulted in a significant rise in the Course Evaluation Survey results to nearly 80%. This forms stage one of a broader longitudinal study of ePortfolios with an engineering program.