DLP: A tool to develop technical and soft skills in engineering

Abstract

This article describes how to develop and implement a tool that enables engineering students to acquire soft-skills taking advantage of the purely technical engineering educational tasks. Delphi Learning Package (DLP) tool is based on a Delphi strategic consulting method. Generally, this method is used to obtain long-term forecasts from knowledge of groups of experts. Some adjustments have been made to Delphi method in order to apply it to learning and acquiring soft-skills in engineering. For instance, this tool can be used to guide students toward obtaining key parameters for a technical matter or to find the best solutions to an intricate multiple-solution problem. Thus, students will have to use not only knowledge learned on the subject of engineering, but also knowledge resulting from handling-related documentation. By tackling a multiple-solution problem, students develop different soft skills such as critical thinking, synthesis ability, inference, and argumentation. In order to judge the value of this tool, two pilot projects have been developed involving fourth year students with a major in Telecommunications Engineering. This tool can be used freely by contacting the authors of this article.