New Pathways to Explore for Updating Engineering Curricula in Venezuela

Alejandro Guillén Mujica

doi:10.67294/sb4e1j79

Authors

Alejandro Guillén Mujica Central University of Venezuela Author https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8782-4640

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.67294/sb4e1j79

Keywords:

Industry 4.0, Artificial Intelligence, Competency-Based Education, Special Degree Projects, Official Gazette 42,903

Abstract

The concepts and facts involved in university education are evolving rapidly, just as they are in all aspects of daily life. Recently, Industry 4.0 has emerged alongside Artificial Intelligence (AI)—elements that impose the need for capable, cutting-edge professionals who can face the challenges presented by highly technified organizations with self-governing cybernetic elements. One tool available to universities is the implementation of programs oriented toward Competency-Based Education (CBE), which argue that the knowledge to be taught goes beyond the mere transmission of knowledge; instead, they also seek to develop a set of skills, attitudes, aptitudes, and abilities that can ensure graduates achieve successful job performance. On the other hand, Venezuela requires university professionals called upon to fill the positions that will open given the expected economic recovery; hence, the need to evaluate aspects related to the accreditation of prior learning and the existing possibilities as alternatives for developing Special Degree Projects (SDP). Following the philosophical current of positivism and framed within qualitative evaluative research, the study presented here seeks to clearly establish the advantages of the CBE model and the aspects established in Official Gazette No. 42,903 regarding the accreditation of prior learning.

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