**2. Concept of open-ended laboratory**

OEL initiative exemplifies the intended outcome of experiential learning cycle where the learners encounter new experiences via designing and conducting laboratory experiments, reflecting on the made observation and interconnecting the inconsistencies between experience and understanding. These features provide a solid basis for the learners to create or modify existing abstract concept of the experiments undertaken. These experiences will be put into context where the learners actively and adaptively experimenting and integrating previous knowledge with the new knowledge and put into practice by developing appropriate experimental procedures in order to achieve the set objectives given for a particular problem statement [1].

In contrast with the OEL initiatives, the traditional laboratory (TL) approach lies in the concept of information assimilation process where information is transmitted through a symbolic medium, assimilated by the learner, and generalized before actually being applied. Therefore, most TL approach is carried out following theoretical-based lectures attended by the learners before a meaningful TL can be conceived [2]. This resulted in a laboratory procedures consisted of detailed set of instructions for the experimental set up by the instructors in closed manner with the expectation of the learners should obtain and foolproof the experimental results that would support the theory learned in the class. Though this approach would be optimal on the side of the instructors in establishing the theories learned in the classroom but it also creates a *faux accent* on the learner's sides as it skips many important steps in designing an experiment and reduced the efficacy of a laboratory experimental sessions in teaching important laboratory skills to learners, thus, placing it to only a step higher than a mere laboratory demonstration to the learners. In practice, learners not just lost the opportunity to develop skills in designing an experiment but usually mislaid the logic of the experiment as well as they put more psychomotor efforts to manipulate and following instructions when executing the experiments rather than invest time to develop higher thinking order cognitive skills involving the experimental setup.

**1. Introduction**

outcome-based education.

laboratory (OEL) exercise.

problem statement [1].

**2. Concept of open-ended laboratory**

learners.

Chemical engineering laboratory course has always been a core module in any chemical engineering curriculum around the globe. Some universities have even started the course as early as sophomore year toward their final year to reinforce chemical engineering fundamentals and apply the knowledge and skills gained from courses to actual chemical engineering experiments. This guided and prescriptive laboratory course is no longer adequate within the context of synergies between twenty-first century learning skills and the establishment of

24 Laboratory Unit Operations and Experimental Methods in Chemical Engineering

In the advent of Industrial Revolution 4.0 and the challenges to produce learners equipped with the essential twenty-first century skills, chemical engineering laboratory course has become one of the essential tools for innovative teaching and learning processes beyond the boundaries of conventional setting. It is a platform that engages learners in multidimensions of cognitive, psychomotor, affective skills where knowledge is being applied in a practical manner thus making it the most suitable stage to increase the experiential learning of the

Experiential learning provides a solid platform for stimulating the learners' intuitiveness to be more systematic, inquiry-based with specific end in mind. Thus, providing opportunities for the learners to be more engaging intellectually, creative, and taking initiative while making decision and be accountable for the outcomes attained at the end of the exercise. Conceptual mapping of existing knowledge on previous subject learned with the new knowledge can be accentuated using experiential learning methodologies. Experiential learning philosophy relies in the learning through experience where learners can reflect on their actions to gain understanding on the consequences of that action and arrange the understanding into a generalization of principles of accumulated knowledge which can be obtained via open-ended

OEL initiative exemplifies the intended outcome of experiential learning cycle where the learners encounter new experiences via designing and conducting laboratory experiments, reflecting on the made observation and interconnecting the inconsistencies between experience and understanding. These features provide a solid basis for the learners to create or modify existing abstract concept of the experiments undertaken. These experiences will be put into context where the learners actively and adaptively experimenting and integrating previous knowledge with the new knowledge and put into practice by developing appropriate experimental procedures in order to achieve the set objectives given for a particular

In contrast with the OEL initiatives, the traditional laboratory (TL) approach lies in the concept of information assimilation process where information is transmitted through a symbolic medium, assimilated by the learner, and generalized before actually being applied. Therefore, OEL works in tandem with the experiential learning process where learners conceived the conceptual and practical of the undertaken action with the understanding that it involves consequences in a particular circumstance and finally being able to reflectively generalizing the principle across a range of circumstances. OEL would bring the learners' learning experience nearer to the real professional life situation of practicing scientist and engineers as most engineering laboratory procedures are developed and manipulated through experience and knowledge accumulated from scientific literatures rather than handed in the form of standardized procedures as in testing laboratory works. It is important to note that neither OEL nor TL should be seen as competitive to each other but rather the two learning processes are complementary to each other. The keyword here is to strike a balance between both approaches as both are necessary for optimal learning since the emphasis between depth and breadth of laboratory skills varies greatly in both approaches. The TL has the advantages of greatly reducing the time and effort necessary to cover many new laboratory techniques, whereas OEL increases intrinsic motivation among learners as they connect the skills to realworld context and will definitely assist the knowledge retention for years to come.

Departing from TL toward OEL, one will find that there are varying degrees in the level of laboratory openness. **Table 1** shows the gross representation in level of laboratory openness. Level 0 would represent a fully laboratory demonstrations while level 5 for undertaking a full laboratory research project. Levels 1 and 2 are where the TL dominates and OEL be more dominant in Levels 3 and 4. In practice, the time for delivery at the upper level will definitely take more time than the lower level as learners require time to define the needs of open nature of elements in that level compared to time taken to understand the nature of a given elements. Al level 4, OEL elements intensify the time taken to complete tasks the learners need to develop in the laboratory procedures and dissecting the problem analysis of the experiment. A typical profile of the laboratory based on the level of openness is given in **Table 2**.

It is advisable for learners to undergo a series of progressive openness from lower levels so that the learners could acquire many useful laboratory skills that would be of help when going to the next level and finally acquire research and investigation skills that would be useful to carry out in a laboratory research project. One could see that if learners are not being


The delivery of OEL has many models which the instructors would have to see as which models would give the best fit to the learning processes organization as different learning institutions have different strength and capability. The factors to weigh, in addition to selecting the level of laboratory openness, would be the degree of independence given to the learners in OEL for decision-making. As OEL would be more open than TL, the questions arise on the role of instructors in assisting learners in determining the scope of the problem statements, selected experimental procedures, selected parameters, and data collection. OEL initiatives would take a longer period of time not just by the learners but also by the instructors as the

Experiential Learning via Open-Ended Laboratory Initiatives

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.77015

27

role of laboratory instructors are now redefined to include supervision.

**of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia**

**3. Open-ended laboratory in undergraduate program in the School** 

and give students opportunity to delve into a wide variety of experimental topics.

The OEL were running for 4 weeks with one supervisor to craft the question or the problem statement, monitor and marking the group and individual performance of the student. Each group was given 3 h duration of in-lab sessions and 2 h duration of out-lab sessions in each week. The distributions of in-lab and out-lab sessions were shown in **Tables 3**–**6**. In-lab and out-lab sessions were spread between week 1 and week 4 where the student can have a mixture of session in each week. In-lab session means the students can carry the laboratory work during laboratory session where it normally starts in week 3 after the students have familiarized with the experimental rig and came up with the appropriate standard operating procedure (SOP) of the experiment, while an out-lab session is the discussion handled outside or during the laboratory session which do not involved directly with the laboratory experiment. In addition, students were briefed on the safety on the laboratory prior to the OEL Lab in the first week. This safety briefing is carried out by the school safety officer. In week 1, the supervisor will hand in in-lab and out-lab activity to the student as shown in **Table 3** and the

A case study of OEL practiced in the School of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia is presented in this section. OEL initiative has been introduced to the laboratory courses offered by the School since academic session 2013/2014 and has been the standard practice until now. The implementation of OEL has been adapted from the OEL approach reported in [3, 4]. The laboratory courses involved three courses: EKC291, EKC394, and EKC493 that would be taken by students at their second, third to fourth year, respectively. Each laboratory course is a two credit hours course which means about 4 h of laboratory session per teaching week. The level of laboratory openness in OEL approach is made increasing with the students' incremental years of study. The laboratory courses are a mix between OEL and TL approaches. The students were divided into groups of three/four, and each team is given one OEL project during the semester, while another eight laboratory works are meant for TL. Prior to the introduction of OEL in the laboratory courses, students would have been required to conduct about 12 experiments in TL approach. The School believes that 1 OEL + 8 TL format in three laboratory courses would be best compromise to both develop generic laboratory skills by the students

**Table 1.** Level of openness in laboratory.

#### **Level Typical profile**


**Table 2.** Typical profile based on level of openness of the laboratory.

exposed to OEL and only used to participate in TL, it is going to be a steep learning curve for the side of learners to be able to do a full laboratory research project in a later stage. In this perspective, OEL act as the scaffolding for the full research project.

The delivery of OEL has many models which the instructors would have to see as which models would give the best fit to the learning processes organization as different learning institutions have different strength and capability. The factors to weigh, in addition to selecting the level of laboratory openness, would be the degree of independence given to the learners in OEL for decision-making. As OEL would be more open than TL, the questions arise on the role of instructors in assisting learners in determining the scope of the problem statements, selected experimental procedures, selected parameters, and data collection. OEL initiatives would take a longer period of time not just by the learners but also by the instructors as the role of laboratory instructors are now redefined to include supervision.
