**1. Introduction**

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 outcome-based education.

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

Experiential Learning via Open-Ended Laboratory Initiatives

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

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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 real-

world context and will definitely assist the knowledge retention for years to come.

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

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.

skills involving the experimental setup.

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 learners.

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 laboratory (OEL) exercise.
