INTEGRATION OF THE STEAM APPROACH AND ONLINE PLATFORMS: NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION
Keywords:
STEAM, engineering education, online platformsAbstract
The convergence of STEAM pedagogy and online platforms offers engineering programs a pathway to cultivate design thinking, creativity, and scientific rigor in technology-rich, collaborative environments. This article examines how integrating science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics with learning management systems, virtual laboratories, and collaboration suites can reconfigure the learning experience toward authentic, industry-aligned problem solving. Using an IMRAD structure, we articulate a rationale for STEAM–platform integration, propose design principles for course implementation, and analyze pedagogical effects on engagement, conceptual understanding, and professional competencies such as documentation, teamwork, and ethical conduct in digital spaces. Synthesizing insights from the literature on blended learning, interaction, and remote labs, we argue that the most significant gains arise when platforms are used as media for inquiry and creation rather than content delivery alone. The discussion highlights assessment implications, including the use of versioned artifacts and analytics to evaluate both technical quality and process. We conclude that thoughtfully staged integration enhances equity, replicability of experiments, and the transfer of design practices to professional contexts.
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