Student's Journey and Personal Development in an Engineering Program

Student’s journey through the engineering educational program is academically demanding, and along the way, the student is required to develop professional interpersonal skills. To promote student‘s positive journey, the engineering program at Reykjavik University (RU) implemented an intense two-day event called Disaster Days, normally occurring in the fourth or fifth week into the first semester. In this event, students are challenged with a simulated disastrous situation where they have to face a sudden complex event that must be tackled in a single day. In this study, we used semi-structured interviews to ascertain to what extent the event affected the student´s journey through the engineering program. Emerging clearly from these interviews with 15 students is that the students like this brief shift from the traditional individualistic learning environment, they value being confronted with group work with new people and that the event opens doors for a lasting social network. In particular, this experiential learning event has proved fruitful for developing the student’s appreciation for group work. These interviews show that we can confidently conclude that this immersive short event provides a good start for the student’s journey throughout the engineering program at RU and is arguably an important part of the curriculum to enhance interpersonal skills.