%0	Conference Paper
%A	Jayawardena, Chulantha Lakmal
%A	Peramunugamage, Anuradha
%C	Sri Lanka, Asia
%C	United Kingdom
%D	2026
%G	English
%K	engineering design
%K	collaborative learning
%K	open practice
%K	open educational resources (OER)
%K	peer learning
%R	10.1109/EDUCON67543.2026.11574152
%T	Open eDesign Platform for Empowering Student Co-Creation and Capacity Building in Engineering Education
%X	The Open eDesign Platform is an innovative, collaborative digital environment designed to transform engineering education through open access, student co-creation, and data-driven design practices. At its core, the platform leverages the principles of open education and Creative Commons (CC) licensing to foster a culture of sharing, reuse, and continuous improvement in design-based learning. It serves as a repository and showcase for student-generated design projects, presentations, demonstrations, datasets, and analytical reports, all curated to support peer learning, academic research, and pedagogical innovation. This initiative responds to the growing need for scalable, inclusive, and practice-oriented engineering education. By enabling students to co-create and publish their design outputs under CC licenses, the platform not only empowers learners to take ownership of their work but also contributes to a global pool of educational resources. These projects span a wide range of engineering applications, integrating technical problem-solving with creativity, sustainability, and user-centered design. Each submission includes accompanying reports that document the design process, methodologies, datasets used and outcomes, thereby facilitating reproducibility with process transparency. The Open eDesign Platform is also a strategic capacity-building initiative that aims to equip students, educators, and institutions with the tools and frameworks necessary to engage in open design practices. Through workshops, training modules, and collaborative challenges, the platform cultivates essential skills in digital literacy, data management, design thinking, and interdisciplinary collaboration. It encourages educators to adopt open pedagogies and integrate student-led projects into their curricula, fostering a more participatory and experiential learning environment. Moreover, the platform supports the development of a community of practice among engineering students and educators. By facilitating feedback, peer review, and iterative improvement, it nurtures a reflective design culture that values critique and innovation. The platform currently hosts 32 instructional videos and project reports, with effectiveness evaluated through engagement metrics, collaborator feedback, and learning outcomes, while ensuring ethical consent from all industry partners for shared outputs. The Open eDesign Platform represents a paradigm shift in traditional engineering education by bridging theory with practice through open collaborations to build the capacity of future-ready professionals. Furthermore, by harnessing the student co-creation and open data, it lays the foundation for a more equitable, dynamic, and impactful learner-centered ecosystem.
%8	06/2026
%*	yes