Why is practical learning important for engineering students?

You can learn much within a four-walled classroom, but there is a lot more to explore outside the boundaries in some instances. Imagine learning to swim without getting into the water. The case for engineering students is similar. The greater the number of practical tasks you carry out, the more you learn. Hence, if you want to become thoroughly familiar with the field, you need to indulge in practical learning. 

Many people see engineering only as a valuable and lucrative career choice. However, it may be a good profession, but it’s no walk in the park. Engineering being a technical field requires constant effort, hard work, determination, and most importantly, thorough practical knowledge. You will need to put those textbook skills into practice to ace your degree. It would help if you also had sufficient industrial exposure to master the profession.

Below, we have outlined a few reasons why practical learning is so crucial for engineering students.

1. Explore your area of interest

Practical learning will make you familiar with various technologies and applications as well as different engineering fields. It will make it easier for you to analyze and choose your graduate and post-graduate degree specialization. For instance, if you have an investigative and realistic interest in electronics and want to create a global change, you might opt for an MSEE online or on-campus degree. Once you have decided on your particular area of interest, you can move forward to achieving your goals.

• Practical learning is more interactive

Theoretical and textbook learning can quickly get boring, and students might lose their interest. Practical knowledge, on the other hand, is considerably more exciting and makes learning easier. Once you have got your heart in something, you are likely t give it your best. Another interesting fact about practical learning is that it yields quick results.

Unlike theoretical knowledge, learning with practice does not require you to wait for an exam to find out whether you have done something wrong or not. Instead, you get your results instantly, and you can immediately work on your issue. 

3. Enhances your skills

Engineering is a very technical field. You can’t just read a chapter from a book and expect to qualify as an engineer. Instead, it would be best if you had adequate training and expertise to improve your skills. Although theoretical knowledge can teach you proficiency and effectiveness, it can’t provide you with the training and expertise you can easily understand through practical education. Nonetheless, practical learning greatly compliments your theoretical skills. 

4. Improves your learning

While most students might memorize and write/learn all the concepts, some might struggle and find it quite hard. One significant advantage of practical education is that, unlike theoretical learning, it does not require any memorization. Instead, the primary focus of practical learning is more towards understanding and experiencing. Simultaneously, memorizing or learning the theoretical concepts may sometimes result in a great deal of stress and pressure on students.

5. Stores information for longer

Suppose you try to memorize paragraphs and theorems from books. In that case, you’ll notice that you will start forgetting them after a short period. However, practical learning experiences are likely to stay in your mind for a longer time. Learning from experiments, activities, projects, and trips spark your interest. Therefore, you are likely to remember what you learned practically for more extended periods. 

6. It makes you ready for the industry.

Practical knowledge helps you develop an understanding of various concepts which theoretical learning can’t. For instance, you might find it extremely difficult to analyze a phenomenon or situation by just reading about it. However, practical knowledge allows you to see it happening in front of your eyes physically. Hence, the concept naturally sticks to your mind in the best manners and for a long time. 

A better understanding and idea of things makes you ready for industrial exposure. Practical learning teaches you all the rules and regulations followed in an industrial environment and ensures you have a wonderful experience. You will learn how to face real-time problems and get to experience a working environment. 

7. Improves your co-working skills

Strong management and communication skills are perhaps the two most impressive qualities of onsite and offsite workers. Such skills reflect on your leadership qualities and instantly increases the chances of your employment. Since practical tasks are mostly group-based, you get an excellent opportunity to work on your teamwork skills well before you start searching for a job. Moreover, you can also ask for reviews by your teammates and judge your performance and work on it accordingly. 

8. Practical work encourages self-learnings

Theoretical learning leaves little to no room for exploration. Most of the time, students learn what’s asked of them and move on. In a way, they are dependent on either a particular script, book, or extract. In contrast, practical learning encourages exploration and self-learning. It allows students to think beyond the textbook. They learn more effectively and develop a deeper understanding of the topic. Self-study also lets students’ study and learn at their own desired pace. It substantially reduces anxiety and stress that students might go through otherwise.

9. Teaches you about applications

Unless you know the use of something in real life, studying about it is entirely useless. For instance, you might consider linear algebra as a worthless course because you don’t know about any of its real-life applications. However, once you find out how useful it is in designing economic policies, you’ll realize its importance in practice. Hence, your theoretical knowledge is only valuable when merged with practical learning.

10. A confidence booster

Practical learning allows you to make multiple attempts when your experiment/project does not work out correctly. Experimental work also allows students to use a broader range of apparatus and techniques. More effective and advanced tools lead to more focused work, which lifts a student’s confidence. It is so because the chances of error reduce and the student’s work becomes more competent.

Conclusion

Engineering is a demanding and taxing degree, and reading and learning from textbooks only won’t do much good. If you want to become adept in the field, you must develop the necessary practical skills. Practical work encourages experiential learning and is a much-needed change from the boring and tedious classroom learning. Remember, practice makes perfect! Hopefully, the above points helped in proving why practical learning is vital for engineering students.