Session
M1A – Implementations of
PBL
Session Chair – Alex Stojcevski,
Monday 11:00 – 12:30
Jucarra Room
M1A1 Civil
Engineering Education of the Future
Roger Hadgraft and David Smith; The
This paper uses the latest Body of Knowledge
specification (BOK2) from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) as
inspiration for a substantially project-based civil engineering curriculum. It
demonstrates that a series of carefully chosen projects, combined with modules
of learning materials, will meet the BOK2 guidelines. This approach also allows
the productive use of online learning materials for new technical topics.
M1A2 Using
Real Industry Problems to Engage PBL Students
Alec Simcock, Juan Shi and Richard Thorn;
PBL is a mode of program delivery which requires
substantial effort and commitment to ensure students develop communication and
professional skills along with their technical competencies. PBL curriculum
design is very important as it ensures the characteristics of PBL are fully
utilised to achieve the desired learning outcomes and satisfy the graduate
attributes of both Victoria University (VU) and Engineers Australia (EA).
Externally sourced problems have been used in the second semester of the second
year program in the
M1A3 Harmony
in Engineering Curricula: Striking a Balance between Traditional, PBL and WIL
Approaches to Learning and Teaching
Natalie Gamble, Carol-joy Patrick, Rodney Stewart and Charles Lemckert;
Griffith University
Traditional classroom-based teaching, problem-based
learning (PBL) and Work Integrated Learning (WIL) are three commonly utilised
approaches to Learning & Teaching (L&T) in universities. All these
approaches have their place in engineering education, but it is important to
recognise the advantages and disadvantages associated with each. As
contemporary learning approaches grow in popularity in engineering curricula,
it is critical for academic staff to ensure they strike a balance between
providing students with the theoretical/conceptual knowledge they require for
problem-solving, and the hands-on experience they need to ensure they are
suitably educated and employable when they graduate. This paper provides an
overview of Griffith University’s revised Bachelor of Engineering (Civil
Engineering) program, and demonstrates how academic staff at Griffith
University have been striving to strike a balance between the provision of
fundamental engineering knowledge and the practical application of that
knowledge through a tiered approach to L&T. Students are progressively
introduced to PBL, beginning in first year with case studies and small group
tasks, and culminating in the final year with a capstone PBL subject as well as
an independent WIL exercise that integrates their learning from preceding years.
M1A4 A
Hybrid Just-in-Time / Project-Based Learning Approach to Engineering Education
Holger Maier; The
This paper introduces a hybrid
Just-in-Time-Teaching (JiTT)/ Project-Based Learning (PBL) approach to ensure
students are immersed in an active learning environment that enables them to
achieve higher-order learning outcomes, while having a support structure that
provides fundamental information in an engaging and efficient manner. The
approach is illustrated for the level 2 course Water Engineering IIS2 in the
M1A5 The
Development of a Problem-Based Learning and Teaching Strategy in an
Aviation-Related Project at the Australian Defence Force Academy
Raymond Lewis and Michael Harrap; UNSW@ADFA
Compared to the seven other Australian
Universities that offer an Aviation degree, the aviation-related project is a
major component of the Bachelor of Technology (Aviation) degree program
curriculum at the
Session M1B – First Year
Session Chair – Rebecca Baylis, The
Monday 11:00 – 12:30
Golden Cane Room
M1B1 Sustainability
of Peer Mentoring and Peer Tutoring Initiatives to Increase Student Engagement
and Reduce Attrition
Elizabeth Godfrey; The
Student engagement and the need to reduce
attrition are drivers for many first year support initiatives. It is recognised
on exploring literature and even websites that many of these initiatives are
short lived – often dependent on the enthusiasm, passion of one individual and
affected by shifting priorities in funding distribution. Adding to the
body of knowledge of what works and what doesn’t, this paper reports on
experiences with a student led peer-mentoring scheme and a staff led peer
tutoring assistance centre. In the belief that these and other similar schemes
are needed to enable talented students to reach their potential, and to maximise
completion to graduation rates, recommendations to ensure their sustainability
are offered.
M1B2 The
Role of CQUniversity’s Student Mentoring and Leadership Program in the
Engineering Program During and Beyond University
Gemma Mann and Llewellyn Mann; CQUniversity
Mentoring is an integral part of producing
“advanced engineering capability”. Being a mentor during the engineering
undergraduate course is a good way to learn about effective mentoring and to
develop professional and transferable skills to take into engineering
practice. The CQUniversity student mentor program provides a structured
setting to obtain guidance as a mentor and to provide access to relevant
professional development. The cycle of mentee to mentor to mentor to mentee
gives practice in the process to create a successful and efficient balance
between learner and leader. Further, the role that mentors can play in
developing a mentee’s professional identity as an engineer is vital and
currently being investigated.
M1B3 Engaging
and Supporting Students in the New Common First Year Engineering Program at
UniSA
Syed Mahfuzul Aziz; The
UniSA has introduced a common first year program
for all of its undergraduate engineering degrees from 2008. The common first
year program aims to provide students with a foundation in multidisciplinary
areas of engineering. To a large extent it is a strategic response to
increasing competition for local and international students. A key element of
the common first year program is to engage students in professional practice
right from the beginning. The new program provides opportunity for students
demonstrating high performance in the first year to pursue an accelerated
three-year pathway to degree completion. This will reduce cost to students,
shorten the time to market graduates and potentially assist in overcoming the
shortage of engineers. A team-based approach has been adopted across UniSA’s
Division of IT, Engineering and the Environment for developing teaching and
learning and student support strategies in the common first year. This paper
presents some of these strategies and the initial experience gained, as there
appears to be a great deal of interest about the first year engineering
programs in Australian Universities.
M1B4 Engaging
Students in their Education: Making a Strong First Impression with
Engineering 101
Billy O'Steen, Conan Fee and Richard Jordan;
In an effort to more fully engage first year
engineering students at the
M1B5 Driving
Workplace Learning Opportunities for Secondary and Tertiary Students in the
Medical Technology Industry
Fiona Shipman and Anne Trimmer; Medical Technology Association of
Medical Technology Association of Australia
(MTAA) is the national peak industry body representing companies in the medical
technology industry. MTAA recognises the need to expose students to the
many career opportunities available to them through workplace learning
programs. To support students identify meaningful work placements, the
MTAA established a Medical Technology Industry Workplace Learning Directory.
Session M1C – Professional
Skills
Session Chair –
11:00 – 12:30
M1C1 Developing
Professional Practice Skills Through Reflection on Experience
The Bachelor of Engineering program at
The combined program is designed around the triple themes of intellectual,
social and professional development. The result is that students are able to
articulate their learning, and recognise their strengths and weaknesses in
these areas at any stage in their program of study.
M1C2 The
Use of Self Tracking Skill Matrix to Encourage Student Centred Learning
Mushtak Al-Atabi; Taylor’s University College
This paper describes the use of skill matrix to assist the students in tracking
and documenting how did they meet the course objectives of first year
Mechanical Engineering module “Engineering Design and Professional Skills”. The
use of this matrix provided both the instructor and the students with an early
detection method to detect any problem in achieving any of the course outcomes
allowing a quick remedy. Furthermore, it provided the students with an
opportunity to reflect on each course outcome and how does it develop in
relation to other course outcomes. This allowed better appreciation of these
course outcomes by the students and encouraged them to assume ownership of
their learning process. This matrix can easily be generalised and exported to
other modules and it can prove to be a valuable tool in demonstrating the
achievement of course and programme outcomes.
M1C3 Development
of a New Foundation Unit in Engineering
Graham Town and Daniel McGill;
We present our experiences in the design and
delivery of a foundation unit for first-year students in electronic engineering
and related specialisations. The aim of the unit was to provide engineering
students with foundation skills for their subsequent engineering studies, with
an emphasis on communication skills, working in groups, and design. The unit
development process commenced as part of a project to introduce engineering
academics to problem-based learning, with the development of the foundation
unit set as a workshop project. The project had limited success in the latter
context, however the resulting foundation unit proved very popular with most
students.
M1C4
A Tool to Help Students
Manage Study Time
Mark Thiele;
An Excel-based student organisational study tool
was introduced to first-year undergraduate engineering and information
technology students at
M1C5 Reflecting
on Reflection – 10 Years, Engineering, and UQ
Lydia Kavanagh and Liza O'Moore
After ten years of including reflection within
the engineering undergraduate curriculum at the
Session M2A –
Educational Research Methods A
Session Chair – Anna Carew, The
13:30 – 15:00 Jucarra
Room
M2A1 Beyond
The Engineering Pedagogy: Engineering The Pedagogy, The Game of Experiential
Learning
Mahmoud Abdulwahed, Zoltan K Nagy and Richard E Blanchard;
Modern constructivist pedagogical research
emphasizes developing student-centred educational practices. This requires
students to do extra effort and they should be equipped with the motivation to
conduct such extra work load. However, the situation is dilemmatic since many
students (in particular, undergraduates) tend to do their studies with the
minimum effort needed to reach their goals. In this paper we analyse this
dilemma from the game theory perspective, where we try to find conditions where
students are willing to voluntarily take extra course work. We model the
strategic interaction between the student and the teacher by a 2x2 non
cooperative game. We suggest a mechanism for transferring the game equilibrium
into the desired one, i.e. experiential learning equilibrium. We also show an
experiment for identifying the energy needed to shift the equilibrium towards
the desired one. The paper presents one of the very few game theoretical models
that were developed in pedagogical research.
M2A2 Improving
Learning in Engineering Mechanics: The Significance of Understanding
Thomas Goldfinch and Timothy McCarthy; University of
Anna Carew; The
Mechanics is a key foundation topic for many
engineering disciplines, the study of which usually constitutes a significant
proportion of first and second year engineering undergraduate studies. Many
engineering students experience substantial difficulties with introductory
mechanics, and it is widely noted in the literature that pass rates in
mechanics courses tend to be unacceptably low. This paper details the interim
findings of, and issues arising from a literature search focusing on how
engineering educators understand, describe, identify and deal with the causes
of poor performance in introductory mechanics. The most striking conclusion
drawn from this literature search is the lack of conclusive research into the
more fundamental causes of difficulties for students studying mechanics.
M2A3 Beyond
The Engineering Pedagogy: Engineering The Pedagogy, Modelling Kolb’s Learning
Cycle
Mahmoud Abdulwahed, Zoltan K Nagy and Richard E Blanchard;
Experiential Learning is a modern radical
approach of conducting education. Kolb’s four stages experiential learning
model have been well received since it was proposed during mid 1980’s. In this
paper, we approach the analysis of Kolb’s Cycle from an engineering point of
view, where we develop a mathematical model of the learning curve when Kolb’s
experiential learning cycle is use. Furthermore, we analyse the characteristics
of the derived model for example, learning stability and learning robustness.
We conclude with set of important characteristics of Kolb’s cycle that we could
clearly explore after utilizing the control engineering tools. The most
important characters are accommodating the uncertainties of the students
learning ability. This paper is one of the few trials traced in the pedagogical
literature where control engineering methods are applied for studying
pedagogical process.
M2A4 Professional
Development at University: Student Perceptions of Professional Engineering
Practice
Vinay Domal, Brad Stappenbelt and James Trevelyan; The
This study examined student perceptions
regarding professional engineering practice. We surveyed secondary school
students attending engineering camps, engineering students in their first and
fourth years, graduate engineers and experienced engineers to ascertain their
impressions about what constitutes the daily activities of a professional
engineer. We asked respondents to rate 39 aspects of engineering practice
identified from the research later reported in (Trevelyan 2008). These aspects
were rated by the participants according to their perception of the importance
and the frequency encountered in engineering practice. We also asked where the
participants learned or where they believed they were going to learn how to
perform the various tasks associated with these aspects. We grouped the aspects
into six functional themes; technical skills, technical knowledge, management,
teamwork, communication, and interpersonal skills. We found that student
perceptions of professional engineering practice changed significantly as they
progressed from year ten, through first and onto fourth year engineering at
university. Year ten students rated technical knowledge as highly important to
engineering practice, with relatively low ratings given to the other five
areas. It may be argued that this corresponds reasonably with general
public perception of professional engineering activity. First year engineering
students realised the importance of communication and management skills in
engineering practice. They believed that the university would assist them in
developing these skills to the expectations of industry. As students progress
through their degrees however, as judged from the perception of final year
engineering students, it becomes clear that university fails in training them
for industry requirements. This is particularly evident with regard to
management skills where we can observe the greatest deviation between industry
and student responses of relative importance. The findings indicate that most
of these tasks are learned on the job and the university does not contribute
significantly in training graduates to perform to the level of industry
expectations. It is likely that student perceptions regarding professional
engineering practice are reflective of the emphasis that is placed on the
various aspects of their technical and non-technical development in the
educational curriculum. This raises concerns regarding the alignment of the
engineering curriculum to industry requirements. It appears that despite
adherence to the accreditation requirements for the engineering degree,
graduates are not being produced with the required or desired attributes.
M2A5 Responsibility
and Accountability
Paul Hector Elliott; AUT University
This paper is about addressing the fundamental issues of ‘responsibility and
accountability’ in engineering education with regards to the cultural
background and the aspects of teaching and learning of Pasifika students who
have chosen the engineering pathway as a tool for economic benefits. Some of
the fundamentals to name a few would include assisting teaching staff in
tertiary institutions appreciate and understand the cultural backgrounds of the
marginalized (Pasifika students), and for institutions to assist teaching staff
in developing more culturally democratic learning environments for their
students, through engaging culturally inclusive philosophies of teaching and
learning.
Session M2B – Work
Integrated Learning
Session Chair – David Jorgensen, CQUniversity
13:30 – 15:00 Golden
Cane Room
M2B1 Work Integrated
Research Higher Degree Studies: Experiences, Benefits, Barriers and Coping
Strategies
Le Chen, Rodney Stewart, Rachelle Willis and Tracy Britton;
Attributed to the changing social, political and
economic landscape of the ‘knowledge economy’, Australian universities are
under pressure to produce researchers that have a variety of skills which meet
the demands of an increasingly diverse job market. As a consequence, the
Australian PhD now includes a range of doctoral degrees. This paper reports on
the experiences of two PhD students engaged in an informally managed research
higher degree program described in this paper as a Work Integrated Research
Higher Degree (WIRHD). Their learning process shares the attributes from both
the traditional PhD program and professional doctorates. However, because of
the blended nature of the learning contexts, what students need to manage
within the WIRHD is much more complicated than the established RHD programs. An
exploratory case study approach exploring experiences, benefits, barriers and
coping strategies was conducted with the view to develop a preliminary
integrative framework that attempts to explain the various contexts that
influence the learning experience of WIRHD candidates. The paper concludes with
some recommended strategies for helping WIRHD candidates to manage the
challenges associated with their learning process.
M2B2 Articulation
in Engineers Australia
Eric Hobson; Engineers
The National Articulation Committee of Engineers
Australia was set up in 2001 to assist Engineering Associates and Engineering
Technologists with at least five years experience to achieve Stage 1 Competency
for the categories of Engineering Technologist and Professional Engineer by
means other than through completion of benchmark qualifications. Access
to an articulation process since 2001 has assisted some 100 Members of
Engineers Australia to articulate to a different category, the majority
becoming Professional Engineers. More are in the pipeline. The
paper describes the historical development of articulation and details the
processes in place.
M2B3 Work
Placement Reports: Student Perceptions
Mark Lay, Levinia Paku and Janis Swan; The
Engineering students complete work placement
reports after being on placement in industry, the aim is to increase work place
learning and to increase students understanding about the placement,
themselves, career direction and skills obtained. Third and fourth year
engineering students perceptions on their report writing experience, academic
feedback quality, and the effect of completing work placement reports on their
learning and report writing ability, were surveyed. Third year students
enjoyed the experience more than fourth year students and perceived greater
benefits. Fourth year student opinion was mixed, reflecting greater
experience and cynicism. Fourth year students rated feedback from
academics higher than the third years, perhaps because their reports were more
interesting for the academics. The fourth year students were much more
cynical on the benefits of reflecting and reviewing what they had learned, and
many considered this not important for being an engineer.
M2B4
Determining the Feasibility
of a Medical Technology Industry Internship Scheme
Fiona Shipman and Anne Trimmer; Medical Technology Association of
MTAA is the national peak industry body representing companies in the medical
technology industry. MTAA is determining the feasibility of establishing
an internship program to support tertiary students enter the workforce.
With support from their university, this program aims to provide opportunities
for students to complete an agreed project with an MTAA member host company. As
a part of this process, a discussion forum was held in July to determine
potential delivery models and requirements of host companies, interns,
universities and MTAA. This paper will detail the feasibility of
preparing for an internship pilot scheme in 2009.
M2B5 Adapting
Project Based Learning to Distance Education – Case Studies
Remadevi Dhanasekar, Ian Devenish; CQUniversity
CQUniversity introduced Project based learning
(PBL) courses for the undergraduate engineering degree programs with an
objective of increasing students’ self-directed learning to enable them to gain
deeper understanding of the course content through research, problem solving,
investigative activities and design of projects. These PBL courses have
been offered in internal delivery mode and are now being made available in
distance (FLEX) mode. This paper provides case studies of two of
the PBL courses including the mode of offering, content, assessment strategies
and guiding steps for students to meet the learning outcomes of the courses in
detail.
Session M2C – Technology
in Engineering Education
Session Chair – Amanullah Maung Than Oo, CQUniversity
13:30 – 15:00
M2C1 Exploring
the Basics with Circuit Simulation: Support for Self-Teaching of Electrical
Engineering Fundamentals
George Banky;
Students enrolled in the first year electrical
engineering subject at Swinburne University of Technology were encouraged to
use an electronic circuit simulation software, Multisim 10 from National Instruments,
for self-teaching while: (i) confirming any qualitatively predicted circuit
behaviour, (ii) validating any quantitative results of problem-based activities
and (iii) first predicting the cause, then verifying these predictions, for the
behaviour of potentially faulty circuit components. The students’ exposure to
this software was facilitated, not only by the mandatory purchase of a copy of
the software, but by them being timetabled for all their tutorial sessions into
a computer laboratory (rather than a conventional classroom) where under
academic supervision they were able to work on desktop computers that had
preinstalled copies of the said software. Analysis of two surveys and five
post-event focus groups clearly revealed general learner acceptance for using
the simulation software for self-teaching in both communal and private settings.
M2C2 Improving
Oral Presentation Skills of Engineering Students with the Virtual-i Presenter
(ViP) Program
Thomas Cochrane and Michael O’Donoghue;
The growing size of engineering classes is
impacting on the ability for students to acquire oral presentation skills. A
unique program called the Virtual-i Presenter (ViP) was developed to allow
students to create, view, and evaluate oral presentations using a PC and webcam
outside of class time. The program is simple to use and recreates how a student
would deliver an oral presentation in class. ViP helps students improve their
oral skills by permitting them to see and hear themselves, practice repeatedly,
and obtain feedback from peers and academics through an inbuilt evaluation
system upon submitting their final presentation. Selected parts of
presentations can also be viewed and discussed in class to address technical
merits and key presentation skills. Student surveys on using ViP showed
presentations were practiced an average of 4 times and 63% of students
preferred short ViP presentations to live ones.
M2C3 Holistic
Educational Development Integrated Through Mechatronics Design
Milan Simic and John Mo; RMIT University
This paper presents a method in educational development of resources and
programs based on multidisciplinary approach. The development is built around
the process of Mechatronics program introduction in tertiary education within
M2C4 Using
Tablet PCs for Laboratory Work in a Postgraduate Wireless Technology Subject
Kumbesan Sandrasegaran and Rachod Patachaianand;
In this paper, we present our experiences in a
UTS LTPF and HP funded project to enhance the learning outcomes of postgraduate
students in Engineering Courses at
M2C5 Increasing
Student Engagement in Online Environments Using Multimedia Flash Presentations
Holger Maier; The
This paper presents an approach to increasing
student engagement in online environments using multimedia flash
presentations. Such presentations can be used to provide context to
assist with student motivation (e.g. practical applications, news / current
affairs, industry case studies), as well as an active learning environment,
both of which are vital for student engagement, and hence student learning
experiences and outcomes. The approach is illustrated for the level 2
course Environmental Engineering II in the
Session M3A – PBL
Innovations
Session Chair – Aliya Valiyff, The
15:30 – 17:00 Jucarra
Room
M3A1 Using
Student Experience of Problem-Based Learning in Virtual Space to Drive
Engineering Educational Pedagogy
Peter Gibbings;
This paper reports outcomes of an investigation
into the different ways students’ go about problem-based learning (PBL) in
virtual space. Five qualitatively different conceptions of PBL in virtual
space were discovered, and each reveals variation in how students attend to
learning by PBL in virtual space. Results indicate that PBL in virtual
space when appropriately designed with respect to students’ online learning
experience can: 1) be responsible for making students aware of deeper ways of
experiencing PBL in virtual space, and 2), engender graduate attributes and
capabilities of problem solving, ability to transfer basic knowledge to
real-life scenarios, ability to adapt to changes and apply knowledge in unusual
situations, ability to think critically and creatively, and a commitment to
continuous life-long learning and self-improvement.
M3A2 Hardware-Based
Engineering Problem Solving for On-campus and External Teams
David Buttsworth, Ray Malpress & Mark Phythian;
We contend that engineering analysis and design
will continue to rely on the synthesis of experimental observations and
theoretical analyses. For the past three years, we have been providing
teams of on-campus and external students the opportunity to work with actual
engineering hardware as a focus for engineering analysis and problem
solving. Providing external teams of student the opportunity to problem
solve with actual engineering hardware represents a number of challenges.
By focusing on initial value problems and requiring the teams to specify
the necessary parameters that they expect will achieve the desired system
performance, we have been able to expose both on-campus and external teams to
problem solving with physical systems and actual engineering hardware.
M3A3 Problem
Based Learning Applied to a New Unit of Study on Programmable Logic Design
David Wong, Keith Imrie and Yimin (Steven) Xie;
A problem-based-learning (PBL) approach has been
used in the development of a new unit of study, ELEC241 Programmable Logic Design,
in the Department of Electronic Engineering of Macquarie University. A major
component of this unit is a team-based project to design and build a digital
controller to control the traffic lights of a complex traffic intersection. The
project supports the CDIO (Conceive, Design, Implement, Operate) approach to
engineering education that is being advocated by many university
teaching-and-learning committees and educational/professional associations
world-wide. The conceive, design, implement and operate stages of the project
are described. Programmable logic devices (Generic Array Logic or
Field-Programmable Gate Arrays) are used for the implementation of the
controller. Notes on PBL issues are given.
M3A4 Twenty-One
Years of the Warman Design and Build Competition
Warren Smith; UNSW@ADFA
The Warman Design and Build Competition has been
running across Australasian Universities for twenty-one years. Presented in
this paper is a brief history of the competition, documenting the objectives,
scenarios, key contributors and champion Universities since its beginning in
1988. Assuming the competition has reached the majority of mechanical and
related discipline engineering students in that time, it is fair to say that
this competition, as a vehicle of the National Committee on Engineering Design,
has served to shape Australasian engineering education in an enduring way
M3A5 Projects
Discriminate Between Professional Engineering and Engineering Technology
Courses
Alec Simcock;
The need to attract more students into
engineering in general and the engineering courses at Victoria University (VU)
in particular were some of the primary reasons for our change of teaching
paradigm form traditional to Problem Based Learning. At the same time we
decided to improve articulation between the TAFE and Higher Education sectors
of VU by introducing an Engineering technology degree. This paper outlines some
of the background to these changes and then illustrates, by the use of an
example, how we are using projects as one of the features which discriminate
between our professional engineering and our engineering technology course.
Session M3B – Diversity
Session Chair – Lyn Brodie,
15:30 – 17:00 Golden
Cane Room
M3B1 Does
Parental Influence Hinder or Foster Students’ Academic Progress?
Ljiljana Jovanovic;
The Certificate in Health Studies AK3207 is a
foundation programme offered by Foundation Studies at
M3B2 Spatial
Ability: Issues Associated with Engineering and Gender
Anthony Williams, Ken Sutton and Rebecca Allen; The
The link between students’ spatial ability and
their success in a range of engineering courses has been recognised in recent
years but its full impact is not understood. This paper reports on
research into the spatial abilities of novice designers, engineering students
being a major component of this group. The paper focuses on the
relationship of spatial ability to gender as well as spatial ability and UAI.
This paper also provides an overview of the spatial abilities according to
discipline.
M3B3 Inspiring
Secondary and Tertiary Students Through Applied Electronics
Les Dawes, Duncan Campbell, Brenton Dansie, Hilary Beck and Sam
Wallace;
The decline in engineering enrolments
internationally, coupled with a high attrition rate and dramatic skills
shortages, has focussed attention on the imperative to stimulate interest among
secondary school students in the study of Engineering. Several programs
have been developed for this purpose already with varying success. This
paper reports on the ATN Engineering in Schools project at Queensland
University of Technology (QUT), which stimulates interest in electronics for
Years 9 and 10 as prerequisites to subject selection for senior secondary
school. This program was established under the auspices of the
M3B4 Gender
Differences in Student Attitudes Toward Engineering and Academic Careers
Zora Vrcelj and Shana Krishnan; The
Past research has attributed many reasons for
the under-representation of women in engineering and academic careers which
start from childhood and progress all the way to professional levels in
adulthood. The focus of this research is on understanding barriers to further
education experienced by female students in engineering in order to encourage
them into postgraduate study and an academic career. A pilot study, an
extensive survey of current students, both undergraduate and postgraduate, and
focus group meetings were undertaken to identify the ways female students at
present feel supported in pursuing a civil engineering degree and the forms of
further support that could be provided. The surveys sought answers on how best
to address the obstacles that discourage women from pursuing and completing
graduate degrees.
M3B5 Self-Guided
Field Trips for Students of Environments
Graham Moore, Roger Kerr and Roger Hadgraft; The
The Bachelor of Environments is one of the New Generation Degrees within the
Melbourne Model at the
Session M3C – Program
Initiatives
Session Chair –
15:30 – 17:00
M3C1 Is
the Evolution of Engineering Education Degree Programs Sustainable?
Program changes in engineering education at the
M3C2 The New
Software Engineering Program at the University of Sydney
David Levy, Bob Kummerfeld, Sanjay Chawla, Rafael Calvo and Alan
Fekete; The University of Sydney
The new Software Engineering degree program implemented in 2008 at the
University of Sydney has been designed as a collaborative effort between the
School of Electrical and Information Engineering and the School of IT.
The design of the new curriculum is based on the ACS, ACM and IEEE curriculum
recommendations and the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK), as
well as the results of a detailed industry review. Close attention was paid to
Computing Curriculum 2001 (CC2001) and to Software Engineering 2004 (SE2004).
The curriculum design had to meet the above constraints, a 25% reduction in units
of study offered due to falling enrolments, accommodate a flexible first year
program, integrate with the programs of both Schools, strongly focus on active
and project-based learning and on graduate attributes to ensure the new program
incorporates the full set of knowledge and attitudes that students should
possess as they graduate from university
M3C3 Challenges
and Opportunities for Construction Education in Australia
Willy Sher, Anthony Williams and Catharine Simmons; The
The university education of construction
professionals is unique as curricula straddle diverse areas, including
technology, design, law, management and finance. Furthermore, the
opportunities for would-be Construction Managers, Quantity Surveyors and
Building Surveyors (CMQSBS) are extensive. A buoyant construction
industry is currently fuelling high student expectations. Currently
CMQSBS programs contribute over 1000 graduates annually. This paper
reports progress on Australian Learning and Teaching Council grant which, inter
alia, showcases innovation and best practice within these disciplines.
Preliminary findings from an online survey as well as interviews and focus groups
are documented here as well as some observations of how these disciplines might
be improved.
M3C4 Revised
Civil & Environmental Engineering Degree Program at the University of
Adelaide
Holger Maier; The
As part of the
M3C5 Multi-Campus
Learning and Teaching at CQUniversity using ISL: A Case Study
Nirmal Mandal; CQUniversity
Teaching and learning (L&T) issues relating to multi-campus delivery of
resources and communication are discussed in this paper. Issues relating to ISL
facility to communicate with other campuses from one campus are
quantified. Emphasis is put forward only for teaching of the first and
second year engineering students at CQUniversity.
Session T1A – Invited
Educational Research Methods
Session Chair – Lesley Jolly, Strategic Partnerships
14:30 – 15:30 Jucarra
Room
T1A1 A New
Direction for Engineering Education Research: Unique Phenomenographic Results
that Impact Big Picture Understandings
Shanna Daly and Robin Adams;
Llewellyn Mann; CQUniversity
As the pace of engineering keeps increasing, new
innovations foci in engineering education research are needed. This paper
presents one such innovation, away from looking at the skills engineers are to
develop to focus on their embodied understanding of practice around aspects of
professional practice. It does so through the use of a qualitative research
approach known as phenomenography. The results of three a research projects
guided by phenomenography are discussed and provide a unique lens for
understanding aspects of the world that influence the practice of engineering,
namely those of design across disciplines, sustainable design and
cross-disciplinary practice. This paper summarizes the results from these three
phenomenographic studies, emphasizing the implications these results reveal
about the direction engineering education needs to head.
T1A2 Professional
Identity: A Framework for Research in Engineering Education
Llewellyn Mann,
The development of a student’s professional
identity as an engineer is key to understanding education from the student’s
perspective, and framing future engineering education research. This paper
investigates the idea of a professional engineering identity and puts forward
the idea that a student’s engineering education should be focused on them
developing an identity as a professional engineer. This identity not only
includes the knowledge and skills usually developed in engineering programs,
but attitudes and self beliefs toward being able to practice as an engineer.
Understanding what influences the development of this identity, both positively
and negatively, point to future research in engineering education.
T1A3 Exploring
Engineering Culture
Elizabeth Godfrey; The
Much has been written in the last ten years
about “engineering culture” and the need to change it, particularly when we are
discussing the non-technical graduate attributes or the representation of
non-white, non-male individuals in the profession. But in order to change
culture we need to understand it and this requires “not an experimental science
in search of law but an interpretive one in search of meaning”. This is
territory that few engineers care to venture into, but Liz’s work shows us how
we might begin. She has discussed the difficulties of ethnographic work in
engineering settings and provided us with a model of engineering culture that
should stimulate fruitful debate about that elusive entity “engineering
culture”.
T1A4 Exploring
Synergies Between Learning and Teaching in Engineering: A Case Study Approach
Wageeh Boles; Queensland University of Technology
Roger Hadgraft; The University of Melbourne
Understanding how we take in, process and
present information as part of the learning process, provides clues on how
specific teaching methods can be utilised to maximize learning. The literature
suggests that a mismatch between learning styles or preferences and teaching
styles and approaches may present a barrier to learning and contribute to
attrition. This paper presents some early findings of an ALTC Associate
Fellowship program, involving three universities, which uses a case study
approach to explore the interactions between students’ learning styles on the
one hand, and lecturers’ teaching styles, goals and philosophies, on the other.
The paper also initiates discussions on how teaching approaches may be tailored
to address the diversity of students’ learning styles over the duration of the
engineering program, to enhance their learning experience and outcomes.
Session T1B – Graduate
Attributes & EA Competencies
Session Chair –
14:30 – 15:30 Golden
Cane Room
T1B1 STRATÉGÉ
- Study of Mobility of Australian and European Union Engineering Students and
Tools to Assist Mobility
David Buisson and Robert Jensen;
This paper presents the preliminary results from
examining how universities of technology can better prepare graduates in
engineering in both the EU and
T1B2 Assessment
of Learning Outcomes – Supporting Change and the Move From Input to Output
Standards
Liz Willis and John Dickens; The Higher
In this paper we will describe how the
Engineering Subject Centre has worked with the Engineering Council
T1B3 Redeveloping
Capstone Projects in UTS Faculty of Engineering: Has Aligning Assessment
with Engineers Australia Competencies Improved Learning Outcomes?
Keith Willey, Rob Jarman and Anne Gardner;
UTS: Engineering Capstone Projects are undertaken
in the final semester(s) of study and provide an opportunity for students to
demonstrate a capacity to perform at the level expected of a professional
engineer. The existing subject requirements had remained relatively unchanged
for over 10 years and some project supervisors had expressed concern regarding
a perceived drop in quality of project work – and its assessment. To
confirm the largely anecdotal viewpoint a benchmarking survey was undertaken
during Autumn Semester 2007. The results of this survey were used to
design a new subject structure. The new structure aligns assessment to
competencies published by Engineers Australia, focuses on providing students
with a more comprehensive learning experience, improved support in developing
their project proposals and integrated feedback mechanisms. In this paper
we analyse the initial evaluation of these changes to determine how successful
they have been at improving student learning outcomes.
T1B4 Global
Accreditation for the Global Engineering Attributes: A Way Forward
Arun Patil, Chenicheri Sid Nair and Gary Codner;
Engineering graduates today need to work within
multicultural and multinational workplace environments with adequate
professional attributes or competencies. In addition to the mandatory
engineering (technical) capabilities, today’s engineering graduate need to
perform managerial, financial and other several tasks in the workplace. The
relevant literature on students’ learning outcomes shows that graduates from
university courses are not necessarily getting the skills and competencies that
are required by industry or employers. The ‘competency gap’ between engineering
graduate attributes and employers’ expectations are elaborated in this paper
using a case study of engineering graduates of
Session T1C – Library
Session Chair – Jocelyn Poirier, Cundall
14:30 – 15:30
T1C1 Test
them, Teach them, Test them; Can a One-hour Library Tutorial Improve Students’
Information Literacy?
Susan Brookes and Aiguo Patrick Hu; The
The Faculty of Engineering at the
T1C2 Light
Bulb Moments: Identifying Information Research Threshold Concepts for Fourth
Year Engineering Students
Phil Yorke-Barber, Loretta Atkinson, Gisela Possin and Leith Woodall;
The University of Queensland
The librarians in the Dorothy Hill Physical
Sciences and Engineering Library undertook a project to identify information
research threshold concepts which fourth year undergraduate students must know
to produce high quality research assignments. The methodology used to identify
threshold concepts was to survey students, librarians and academics. A
suggested threshold concept in information research is the critical evaluation
of information resources to establish their authority, quality and credibility.
This paper aims to demonstrate how a threshold concept approach clarifies the
student experience in information research and provides a framework for the
design of future information skills training.
T1C3 Are
Your Foundations Sound? Information Literacy and the Building of Holistic
Professional Practitioners
Craig Milne and Jennifer Thomas;
An engineer cannot be holistic without being
information literate. Information literacy is “a set of abilities
requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed and have the
ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information"
(ALA, 2006). These abilities are identified within university graduate
attributes and the Australian Engineering Competency Standards – Stage 1. This
paper outlines the process of addressing information literacy within the
undergraduate engineering curriculum at Queensland University of
Technology. It explores the blending of information literacy into a large
faculty-wide first year unit. Discussed are collaborative partnerships
between faculty academics and librarians in content creation, teaching and
assessment, success factors and areas for ongoing development to enhance
learning outcomes.
T1C4 Using
an Authentic Learning Environment to Help Students see that there’s more to
Research than Google and Wikipedia: a Reflection
Sandra Cochrane and Steven Goh; University of Southern Queensland
Authentic learning environments open up
opportunities to help students learn about the value of research skills and the
importance of professional sources (two aspects of information literacy).
Individual students begin to see how limiting a reliance on Google and
Wikipedia is to the development of their professional knowledge base. But, it
is important to recognise that these skills and knowledge are built over time.
Information literacy is not achieved in one course alone. It grows as
discipline knowledge grows over an entire program.
Session T2A –
Educational Research Methods B
Session Chair – Shanna Daly, The
16:00 – 17:00 Jucarra
Room
T2A1 Does
Pedagogy Still Rule?
Marisha McAuliffe, Douglas Hargreaves, Abigail Winter and Gary
Chadwick;
Theories on teaching and learning for adult learners
are constantly being reviewed and discussed in the higher educational
environment. Theories are not static and appear to be in a constant
developmental process. This paper discusses three of these theories; pedagogy,
andragogy and heutagogy. It is argued that although educators engage in many of
the principles of either student-centered (andragogy) and self-determined
(heutagogy) learning, it is not possible to fully implement either theory. The
two main limitations are the requirements of both internal and external
stakeholders such as accrediting bodies and requirements to assess all student
learning. A reversion to teacher-centered learning (pedagogy) ensues. In
summary, we engage in many action-oriented learning activities but revert to
teacher-centered approaches in terms of content and assessment.
T2A2 What
do they Know? An Entry-level Test for Electricity
Chris Smaill,
Industry demands an increasing number of
engineering graduates. However, if first-year engineering numbers are to grow,
much of the growth is likely to come from students with lower achievement
levels. In order to support these students effectively, and to ensure the
courses they take remain appropriate, the academic preparedness of these
students must be determined. Recent changes to the way
T2A3 An
Experiment in Improving Engagement with Students in Lectures and Tutorials
Jasmine Banks;
The aim of this study was to experiment with
activities that can be done during lectures and tutorials to improve engagement
with students. The various activities took place during lectures and
tutorials of ENB240 – Introduction to Electronics, a second year Electrical
Engineering subject. In the first stage of the project, students were asked
what could be done to both improve engagement in lectures and tutorials and to
assist with their learning. Based on student responses, various activities were
undertaken during the semester including: online quizzes; worked examples on
the document camera; using an audience response system with keypads; and
passing around physical devices in class. At the end of the semester,
“Worked examples on the document camera” was reported by the most students as
assisting with their learning, while “Use of keypads” was reported by the most
as improving engagement in the lecture.
Session T2B – Graduate
Attributes A
Session Chair – Liza O’Moore, The
16:00 – 17:00 Golden
Cane Room
T2B1 Conversational
Auditing of Stage 1 Competencies for Accreditation and Beyond
Anna Carew,
Herein we describe our process for auditing and
mapping the teaching and assessment of the Engineers Australia’s Stage 1
Competencies listed as the ‘PE3s’. The mapping was catalysed by an
impending Engineers Australia accreditation review of the
T2B2 The
Teaching of a History of Technology Course in an Engineering Program – Comments
and Observations on Relevance to Graduate Attributes and Learning
Outcomes
Raymond Lewis and Jane Stewart-Lewis; UNSW@ADFA
Many universities and engineering accreditation
bodies stress the importance of engineering programs that include a breadth of
learning beyond the technical aspects of engineering and science. Many
university and engineering accreditation boards emphasis the development of
learning skills and the provision of opportunities for a liberal education.
However, the perceived need to cover curriculum content sometimes obscures
these stated ideals. This paper discusses a history of technology course that
attempts to redress some of the observed failings of content-driven courses.
The discussion focuses on two examples of lecture content that illustrate the
corrigible nature of engineering and science knowledge and also provides
elucidation of the teaching and learning methodology. The examples of then are
discussed with regard to the manner by which they help the student attain the
graduate attributes of a deeper understanding and a social responsibility that
is associated with their chosen discipline.
T2B3 Curriculum
Lifeboat: A Process for Rationalising Engineering Course Content
Anna Carew; The University of Tasmania
Euan Lindsay; Curtin University of Technology
The problem of how to deal with overloaded
curriculum and out-of-date content faces many engineering course
co-ordinators. Engineering is a rapidly evolving field, and recent
changes in the higher education landscape (e.g. changed accreditation
expectations; changing demands of incoming students) mean curriculum
rationalisation is a priority. As Professor Norman Fortenberry has said
(EE, 2008): “That which is not core we must be willing to let go”. In this
paper we describe a process to aid course co-ordinators and academic teachers
in negotiating shared content priorities. The ‘Curriculum Lifeboat’
process is presented as an enjoyable academic development activity which serves
as a precursor to rationalising content at unit level. We describe how to
run a Lifeboat and detail two examples of outcomes from the process; a small
group Lifeboat run at course level, and a pair Lifeboat focussed on priority
concepts for first year statics.
Session T2C – Technology
& Assessment
Session Chair – Adam Thompson, CQUniversity
16:00 – 17:00
T2C1 The
Use of a Concept Inventory to Provide Individual Automated Feedback from Online
Tests
Tom Molyneaux;
Tests based on the idea of a Concept Inventory
have been developed in many engineering and science areas over the last two
decades - the most well known being the Force Concept Inventory used to assess
understanding of Newtonian mechanics. Generally these have been used to assess
the effectiveness of variation in teaching methods. This paper presents an
alternative approach to assessing students’ misconceptions that provides not
only an assessment of conceptual understanding in terms of a conceptual
inventory but also provides the student with guidance on what to do next.
The technique aligns errors with likely misconception(s) - these links carry a
level of confidence. As a student progresses through the online tests the
level of confidence that there is, or is not, a particular misconception grows.
The resulting diagnosis is then used to direct students to relevant learning
material where the misconception is deemed serious.
T2C2 “Where
did we go wrong?” An Examination of Students Treatment of Experimental
Error in Engineering Mechanics Laboratories
Tim Anderson, Rob Torrens, Mark Lay and Mike Duke; The
The ability of engineers and applied scientists
to undertake experimental measurements is a fundamental requirement of the
profession. However, it is not simply good enough to be able to perform
experiments if we are not able to interpret the results. In this study, reports
prepared by mechanical engineering students were examined to determine how
students dealt with the disparity between experimental measurements and
theoretical results in their Engineering Mechanics laboratories. Analysis of
the reports, and discussions with students in their laboratory classes,
revealed a superficial understanding or regard for experimental error. This
superficial treatment of experimental error is, most likely, due to a number of
factors that are discussed. Some possible strategies for addressing the issue
are also examined.
T2C3 Can
Practical Intelligence from a Laboratory Experience be Measured?
Zol Bahri Razali and James Trevelyan; The
Empirical studies of engineering practice
suggest that implicit and tacit knowledge acquired through hands-on activities
in laboratory classes is valuable in engineering practice. Implicit and tacit
knowledge or “practical intelligence” occurs when a person learns
unintentionally, could also be a useful learning outcome from a laboratory
experience. Nonetheless, when evaluating laboratory exercises, the assessment
involves only explicit outcomes and student perceptions. Practical intelligence
has not yet been assessed or measured. Industry surveys provide strong evidence
that engineering graduates do not seem to be aware of the kinds of practical
intelligence needed in their work. This may result from the implicit
devaluation of practical intelligence which might significantly impair
engineering students’ ability to acquire and value this knowledge. Therefore,
developing ways to include effective assessment of practical intelligence could
be one way to overcome this difficulty. A methodology for developing effective
assessment of practical intelligence is proposed in this paper.
T2C4 Some
Reflections on On-line Tutoring and Plagiarism
Nathan Scott and Brian Stone; The
In 1995 the authors developed and implemented an
online tutoring system for first year engineering dynamics. This involved a set
of problems with diagnostic feedback and a sub-set of problems that earned
credit. Initially the system was very effective but over the years the degree
of plagiarism has increased. This paper is concerned with describing the
history of events, describing remedies that were put in place, examining their
outcomes and suggesting ways forward. In particular the issue of why students
choose to cheat and not spend the time mastering a topic is discussed.
Session W1A – Futures
Session Chair – Nirmal Mandal, CQUniversity
12:45 – 14:15 Jucarra
Room
W1A1 Successful
Use of a Wiki to Facilitate Virtual Team Work in a Problem-Based Learning
Environment
Sandra Cochrane, Lyn Brodie and Greg Pendlebury; University of Southern
Queensland
This paper investigates the use of a wiki to
support forty-two virtual teams and their development of three team reports for
assessment in a core first year course. ENG1101 Engineering Problem Solving 1
uses a problem-based learning paradigm to facilitate the development of
effective teamwork, communication and problem solving skills, as well as the
acquisition and application of key technical knowledge to real world
engineering problems. Our early analysis of student evaluation responses, the
monitoring of teams’ wiki use and teams’ assessment outcomes support our choice
of a wiki as a learning platform
W1A2 Beyond
The Classroom Walls: Remote Labs, Authentic Experimentation with Theory
Lectures
Mahmoud Abdulwahed, Zoltan K Nagy and Richard E Blanchard;
Recent calls of constructivist pedagogy
emphasize the role of delivering education in more authentic and real contexts.
It urges the change of the classical classroom lecture model towards more
active participation of the students. Engineering is to large extent an applied
science, it is very important to be taught in its genuine context rather than
the current more theory oriented model. One important issue is to support the
classroom theoretical lectures with real applications. Laboratories are
provided essentially as core part of engineering education as a platform of
showing the applicability of theory into practice, however, most labs are not
portable and can not be moved into the classroom to show the links between
theory and practice in real time. One solution is close the distance through
remote operation of the lab rig during the lecture. This approach is also
useful in enriching the number of utilized rigs through sharing among
institutes. This paper reports on the approach of utilizing and sharing remote
experimentation for classroom theoretical lectures. It also reports the
students opinion towards the novel approach.
W1A3
Preparation for Teaching Engineering on a Remote Campus
Alan McPhail; CQUniversity, Sydney
The University is planning to teach the first
two years of an established engineering program on a remote campus. We report
on the context, preparation and strategies to ensure that students will develop
the same engineering attributes as students on the home campus.
W1A4 A New
Paradigm for Professional Development Framework and Curriculum Renewal in
Engineering Management Education: A Proposal for Reform
Steven Goh; University of Southern Queensland
Management education for engineers has been confined to traditional management
programs offered by business schools, often in the form of an MBA. However, the
changing environment for future engineering managers demands a revitalised
framework and refreshed curriculum for professional development, especially in
postgraduate education. The fluid nature of the management education market has
introduced many influencing factors such as corporatisation of management
education and proliferation of short courses. This change in delivery and
curriculum preference is mainly as a result of the changing dynamics and needs
of both employers and employees within the engineering context. Hence, this
paper presents to the engineering profession a proposal to reform the
professional development framework and curriculum renewal for engineering
management education within an Australian context.
W1A5 Staff
Resources and Business Case Issues in Programme Design, Development and
Implementation
Vasantha Abeysekera;
The discussions in this paper centre on the
affordability of staff resources vis-a-vis workload norms particularly in
relation to new programmes of study. A simplified procedure for arriving at
staff resources using standard workload norms is described. The affordability
of such requirements is assessed through a simplified business-case model.
These are lean and rapid approaches which help develop strategies for resolving
imbalances between resource requirements and affordability with ease. These
simplified approaches assist in making informed choices and for gaining new
insights in preference to standard budgetary procedures. Recruitment of staff
during the establishment phase of a new programme must be seriously thought
through to avoid disastrous consequences. Related strategies should be
established with a focus on commercial realities. The simplified approach
described herein creates transparency on decisions regarding staffing levels
and provides an opportunity for all staff to be part of such decision making
and thereby diffuse any tensions that might prevail over workload allocations.
Session W1B – Remote
Labs
Session Chair – Euan Lindsay,
12:45 – 14:15 Golden
Cane Room
W1B1 Teaching
Operating System Concepts Through On-Demand Virtual Labs
James Lucas and Steve Murray;
Computer laboratories in universities are in
most cases tightly controlled managed services in order to ensure a high level
of availability to all students. This involves restricting user privileges and
removing the ability to modify configurations and system programs. These
environments are not well matched to the practical side of teaching operating
system concepts especially when it comes to experimentation with the kernel of
an operating system. Through the use of computer virtualisation technologies we
can provide students with the computing resources to experiment with an OS.
W1B2 Infrastructure
for Remotely Accessible Laboratories at the University of Southern Queensland
Tony Ahfock, David Buttsworth, Mark Phythian and Andrew Maxwell;
University of Southern Queensland
Technological developments during the last two
decades have made it possible for educational institutions to establish systems
for the remote access of hardware and software resources. Teaching staff around
the world have come to recognize the educational and other benefits of
laboratories that their students can remotely access. A number of remotely
accessible laboratories are now in operation. Remote access of hardware and
software resources is of particular interest to the Faculty of Engineering and
Surveying at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) because of its high
proportion of students studying in distance mode. Work towards setting up
remotely accessible laboratories at USQ started at the end of 2006. This paper
reports on the University’s remote laboratory communication infrastructure and
the reasoning behind its design. It also provides details of the various
techniques that are being used for interfacing with laboratory hardware. The
paper includes a discussion on the initial experience of staff and students
involved with the use of the remote access system and what is being done to
improve user experience.
W1B3 Responding
to Our New Students: Flexible Remote Laboratories for Regional Learners
Adam Thompson and Llewellyn Mann; CQUniversity
Just as engineering practice is changing at an
ever increasing pace, so are out students. They are no longer content to sit as
one among a faceless crowd at set times in set places. The pressures of work
commitments, as well as different learning styles means that a different
approach is required. The hardest aspect of this are the laboratories required
as part of the accreditation process. This paper discusses the use of flexible
remote laboratories to help meet this challenge, particularly with labs that
require consumables.
W1B4 Evaluating
the Effectiveness of a Remote Laboratory for Microelectronics Fabrication
Aaron Mohtar, Zorica Nedic and Jan Machotka; The
The development of a second remote laboratory in
the School of Electrical Information Engineering (EIE) follows the success and
effectiveness that our first remote laboratory, Netlab, achieved. This
laboratory will be used to conduct experiments in the relatively narrow field
of Microelectronics Fabrication, where remote laboratories rarely exist due to
the obstacles specific to this field. This type of laboratory requires a
substantial amount of human interaction, where users control the position of
micro-probes under a microscope to test the electrical characteristics of
electronic circuits on a silicon wafer. Since this remote laboratory is a
pioneer in this field of education it requires careful deployment and
development. In this paper, we present the tools that will be used to evaluate
the effectiveness of this new remote laboratory.
W1B5 A New
H.E.L.P. Kit for Teaching Practical AC Electronics to Undergraduate Distance
Students
John Long, Lee De Vries, Hall Robynne and Abbas Kouzani; Deakin
University
An important part of educating students in
electronics and electrical engineering is laboratory practicals. Providing
effective practical experience to students by distance education has always
been a significant challenge to the engineering educator.
Session W1C –
Collaboration Initiatives
Session Chair –
12:45 – 14:15
W1C1 Using
Moodle, An Open Source Learning Management System, To Support a National
Teaching and Learning Collaboration
Trish Andrews; The University of Queensland
Chris Daly; The University of New South Wales
W1C2 Promoting
and Monitoring Self-regulated Learning Techniques in Engineering Schools
Alan Jowitt;
Self-regulated learning (SRL) comprises a set of
processes that students can use with the objective of improving academic
performance. SRL has been the subject of research for over two decades and
there is a general acceptance that the methodology has some real value in
helping students to increase academic achievement. There remains some
uncertainty about how best to introduce SRL to students, to encourage use of
SRL, and to measure the benefit (or otherwise) of its practise. Tools for SRL
have been developed and are available to students and educators. This paper
discusses how SRL may be taught and how student usage of the techniques may be
encouraged and monitored.
W1C3 Civil
Engineering with Architecture @ UNSW
Mario Attard and Zora Vrcelj; The
This paper describes an innovative new
multi-disciplinary single undergraduate degree with a major in Civil
Engineering and a minor in Architecture completed within four years. The
program is Civil Engineering with Architecture. It is not a combined degree, it
is a “with” degree. The core of the Civil Engineering Program is maintained and
supplemented with almost a full year of courses from the Architecture faculty.
The program aims are to provide an appreciation of architectural principles, an
understanding of the architect's role, the interaction between architects and
engineers, and the importance of ethics, context, sustainability, unique
innovative design and aesthetics. Students graduating from this program will be
better equipped to collaborate with architects and other professionals in the
built environment to produce integrated and sustainable design.
W1C4 Collaborative
Partnership for Development of Mechatronics Engineering Education of the Future
A collaborative partnership between
W1C5 An
Online Teaching Resource for Acoustical Engineering
Andrew Hore and Brian Stone; The
In producing online teaching resources for
acoustical engineering students, an applet shell is a fast and effective choice
in order to produce a wide range of programs. This online material is not
intended as a substitute for traditional classes, the applets can act as
supplementary material to help strengthen a student’s understanding of the
subject area. The online format of these types of teaching aids means they can
be easily used in any tertiary classroom setting, regardless of class size. By
creating basic functionality for a shell an academic does not need to waste
time writing code that performs tasks not associated with producing the
acoustic theory part of the program. Nor are they required to know exactly how
those tasks are performed. This paper describes the creation of a shell
designed specifically for acoustical engineering that enables students to both
observe graphs but more importantly to hear the sounds on the computer’s
speakers as they adjust the input. Using a collaborative approach between a
programmer and an academic a Java shell was created that can be used to create
many online acoustical resources for students similar to the examples presented
in the paper.
Session W2A – Examples
of PBL
Session Chair – Thomas Goldfinch, The
14:30 – 16:00 Jucarra
Room
W2A1 Evaluation
of Modes of Electronic Delivery of Construction Management Courses
Willy Sher and Thayaparan Gajendra; The University of Newcastle
The profile of construction management students is changing. In
W2A2 The
Role of Project Based Learning and Reverse Engineering in the Education of
Manufacturing Processes
Aliya Valiyff, Rebecca Baylis and Christopher French; The University of
Adelaide
Today's engineering industry calls for graduates
who have not only well developed technical skills, but also expertise in the
fields of communication, interdisciplinary team work and manufacturing. Project
based education is one such way in which these skill sets can be nurtured.
Although the effectiveness of project based learning in relation to improving
the student’s technical knowledge, team work and management skills are well
documented, the application to the education of manufacturing has yet to be
quantified. In a field such as Aeronautical engineering where specialist
techniques and processes are utilized, it is a challenge to offer practical
hands on experience on every aspect of a project. This paper discusses the role
of project based learning and reverse engineering in the education of
manufacturing processes.
W2A3 Reflections
on Inductive-based Teaching of Fundamental Engineering Science Subjects
Josef Rojter; Victoria University
As part of
W2A4 Problem-based
Learning in Teaching Formal Specification
Roslina Sidek and Fauziah Zainuddin; Universiti Malaysia Pahang
Learning process is very important in academic
industry. Students are the person that will give the service to the
country after they finished their study yet. So, as academician, we
underlined the way we teach really important to our student. We proposed
a process to make student understand about the subject which is Formal Methods
by using problem-based learning process. We discussed about the
traditional approach with proposed approach. This method can help student
in construct formal specification. This approach can train our student more
critical thinking, independent and confident.
W2A5 Evaluating
Learning Outcomes in PBL Using Fuzzy Logic Techniques
Srikanth Venkatesan and Sam Fragomeni;
Problem Based Learning (PBL) is a popular
pedagogy in many parts of the world. A significant advantage of PBL is
that the problems (or projects) can be chosen (or developed) to achieve (or
deliver) certain learning outcomes. As students are encouraged to work in
groups, the final product which is the result of a group work forms the basis
of assessment. Often group marks are allocated to individuals. In some
instances the assessor comes with own rules of individual assessment within a
group. However the measurement of learning outcomes is usually ignored. The
common practice is to rely on the final summative assessment. This paper shows
that this reliance could be inappropriate, based on the analysis of a recent teaching
assignment delivered in PBL mode. In particular fuzzy logic techniques have
been adopted to measure the learning outcomes. A class size of 130 students
were analysed to develop the methodology and the results of key student groups
are presented in this paper.
Session W2B – Assessment
Session Chair –
14:30 – 16:00 Golden
Cane Room
W2B1 Quality
Control of Assessment in Large Engineering Courses
Jim Greenslade; The
In some large engineering courses, assignments
are being replaced by invigilated tests, due to issues of plagiarism. However,
it is a concern that tests may not have the same formative benefit as regular
assignments. Whether assignments or tests are employed, the quality of marking
remains a key to any successful assessment process. Recent research on the
variability of grades between markers in large courses is presented. Strategies
to more closely engage lecturers in the assessment process are proposed, along
with more targeted training and moderation of markers. Measures of acceptable
variance, and threshold tests for early identification of potential marking
problems, are discussed.
W2B2 Assessment
Strategy for Virtual Teams Undertaking the EWB Challenge
Lyn Brodie;
The Engineers without Borders (EWB) Challenge
has been incorporated into a core first year course in the Faculty of
Engineering and Surveying at
W2B3 Cross-Institutional
Comparison of Mechanics Examinations: A Guide for the Curious
Thomas Goldfinch and Timothy McCarthy; University of Wollongong
Anna Carew and Alan Henderson; The University of Tasmania
Anne Gardner; University of Technology, Sydney
Giles Thomas; Australian Maritime College
This paper describes a process used to compare
final mechanics exam papers for first year engineering mechanics courses at the
W2B4 Hearing
Each Other - How Can We Give Feedback that Students Really Value
Neil McCallum, Julian Bondy and Margaret Jollands;
In 2008
W2B5 BE
(Hons) Final Year Project Assessment – Leaving out the Subjectiveness
Guy Littlefair and Peter Gossman; AUT University
Final year projects for BE(Hons) programmes are
the linkage between the academic and the industrial domains. Projects are often
judged by respective employers as the measure by which students are considered
and are also closely surveyed by professional bodies when accreditation is
sought. In some instances, final year projects can lead to publications in
conferences and journals and also allow students to continue their academic
study into research degrees. However, the assessment of both the final thesis
and the process of conducting the project are often subjective and open to
challenge. This paper discusses a comprehensive strategy for removing some of
the inconsistencies and proposes a transparent and robust assessment model
which can be applied in similar areas elsewhere. This approach has been
developed at the
Session W2C – Graduate
Attributes B
Session Chair –
14:30 – 16:00
W2C1 Milestone
– Based Assessment: An Alternative Continuous Assessment Strategy for
Laboratory Learning Outcomes
Euan Lindsay;
Engineering programs often feature units that
contain a semester-long laboratory project, in which students complete an
extended piece of work throughout the full duration of the semester. This
paper presents an alternative assessment approach called “Milestone-Based
Marking”. As students make incremental progress they can claim
incremental marks, and are able to receive incremental feedback on their
progress. Each of the milestones is rated for difficulty – Easy,
Standard, Hard or Challenging. Easy milestones require less effort than
Hard milestones, providing students with a clear guide as to how best to invest
their time and effort. This approach changes the nature of the assessment
from a purely summative process to a largely formative process. This
approach has been used successfully across a number of units, with students
indicating that they believe that the approach is fair, and that it better
supports their learning.
W2C2 Engineering
Students or Student Engineers?
Euan Lindsay, Roger Munt, Helen Rogers, David Scott and Karen Sullivan;
This paper reports on an innovative unit that
embeds the acquisition of communication and professional skills into a
technically based project. The project revolves around two engineering
artefacts: a popsicle-stick bridge and a mousetrap-powered car. The
design and construction of each artefact are conducted by different teams of
students – each team designs a bridge and constructs a car, or vice
versa. The core principle behind this approach is requiring the students
to act as Student Engineers, rather than as engineering students.
Requiring students to work both as designers and constructors introduces them
to the different communication requirements of each role. More powerfully,
they also portray the role of the clients for each others’ engineering project,
providing a valuable alternative perspective. The project has led to
significant improvements in students’ communication skills as well as their
development of their identities as professional engineers.
W2C3 Calibrating
Engineering Graduate Capabilities Against Assessment Tasks: A Preliminary Study
Long Nghiem and Maureen Bell;
This paper investigated the connection between
assessment tasks and graduate capabilities. Surveys conducted as part of this
study revealed differences in planning for the development of, and student
achievement of, graduate capabilities and that assessment tasks were valuable
tools to guide and facilitate the development of intended graduate
capabilities. Drawing from the obtained data, a prototype framework for
curriculum design was proposed, allowing for better alignment of assessment
tasks and graduate capability development in systematic subject design.
W2C4 Hyperlinked
Concept Map Enhancements for Electronic Study Materials
Mark Phythian and Jishu Das Gupta;
The use of topic maps and concept maps has long
been encouraged by instructional designers as a means of providing an overview
of content in study materials. Educational theory and practice affirm the
effectiveness of concept mapping: as a concise summary of a body of knowledge;
as a practical means by which students can construct and record their own
knowledge; and as a means of evaluating student understanding. This paper
presents the aims, methodology and initial findings of a project commenced in
Semester 1 2008, to include hyperlinked concept maps as an enhancement to
electronic study materials. The project aims to evaluate their effectiveness:
in improving student understanding of the concepts in the course; and as a
means of navigating and accessing electronic study materials. The course of
study is in the field of Microcomputer Design.
W2C5 The
Effectiveness of Using Self and Peer Assessment in Short Courses: Does it
Improve Learning Outcomes?
Keith Willey and Anne Gardner;
The authors have previously reported the
effectiveness of using self and peer assessment to improve learning
outcomes. It thoughtfully provides opportunities to practise, develop,
assess and provide feedback on graduate attributes even within subjects where
traditional discipline content is taught. In this previous research we
have shown that it is most beneficial to use self and peer assessment multiple
times a semester. In this paper we investigate whether it will be just as
successful in achieving similar benefits when used in short courses.