Enhanced learning by promoting engineering competencies

An engineering graduate needs to master a number of important skills: problem solving, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, etc. In this paper we describe how a course in computer security, taught in the Computer and Information Engineering programme at Uppsala University, has been developed over a period of three years. The aim is to better develop the engineering competencies of students, improving their understanding of course contents, training their ability to reflect on it, and to apply their knowledge when facing realistic problems. The course is designed to activate students, based on practical labs and theoretical tasks which are solved in groups. The student reports are assessed at seminars, where the solutions are presented orally, peer-reviewed and discussed. The seminars encourage and reward activities at the higher levels of taxonomies such as Bloom's. The results of the development, based on a CEQ-based course evaluation, indicate that students take a deeper approach to learning. They develop their problem-solving skills to a high degree, appreciate the practical solving of open-ended problems, and take responsibility for collaborative learning. Their overall satisfaction with the course is quite high, despite indications that they find the workload high.