Collaboration Day 2003

Following the 2003 AAEE Conference at RMIT, a small group of a dozen or so stayed on for an extra half a day to try to define some collaborative projects for action. Some recommendations included:

·         Review existing teaching resources and apply for grants to fill some gaps.

·         Mobilise the mathematics community.

·         Extend the use of project-based learning.

·         Teaching Sustainability.

·         Establish an information literacy group (eg around Heather Ross at RMIT and others). This links to knowledge management and lifelong learning.

·         Establish regional and problem-oriented AAEE groups, with leaders/coordinators/champions.

These ideas might help us make more progress at this year’s Collaboration Day, which will follow the conference on Thursday morning, 9-12 noon. A complete summary of the discussion follows.

Some initial ideas

·         Collaboration needs projects and how to accomplish them

·         We could share common teaching resources (learning objects)

·         We should teach sustainability from year one onwards – leading to profound curriculum change – multidisciplinary case studies and projects

·         Mathematics in engineering education needs attention

·         Sustainability of learning is helped by activating student-student learning

·         AAEE could foster more special interest groups, eg national coalitions/communities of practice

·         Systems thinking is important

·         Perhaps a national engineering festival?

·         What are the fundamentals? Mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology, sociology, law, business, …

·         AAEE Design Competitions, reports, essays – provide student motivation

·         National curricula?

Some drivers

·         Diversity – real problems

·         Ingenuity

·         Relevance of disciplines – identity of engineering – engineering as an education for life (way of thinking)

·         Scarcity of resources within higher ed

·         Entrepreneurship – build an alliance with our Business colleagues?

·         Structural change

·         Infrastructure ($40bn)

·         National wealth dependent on engineering innovation

·         ANZ School of Government model (multi-university)

Competencies

·         Invent/synthesise

·         Choose materials

·         Manufacture

·         Articulate/write concisely

·         Modelling

·         Information literacy

·         Define system/problem boundaries

·         Distinguish means and ends

·         Critique/feedback/critical thinking

·         Conscious of own learning style and needs

·         Build relationships

·         Listen actively

·         Ethics/morals

·         Intellectual property

·         Conceptualisation

·         Parallel possibilities

·         Write simple computer models

·         Simple electrical circuits

·         History

·         Build things (with hands)

Projects for students

·         Bay Island

·         Disability solutions

·         Homelessness

·         Underwater timer

·         Disasters

·         Transport

·         Energy

·         Water

·         How to learn

·         Future planning

·         Biodiesel

·         Feeding the world

·         Robots

·         Manufacturing

·         New materials

·         Asteroids

·         Drugs

·         Measuring instruments

·         Waste management

·         Env. Degradation

·         Global trading

Projects for staff (collaboration)

·         Engage with late primary school
(eg IMSAC-PBL @ http://www2.imsa.edu/programs/pbl/cpbl.html)

·         Cultural change in engineering

·         AUTC review (provide resources)

·         Engineering game

·         Engineering festival

·         Public lectures

·         Postgrad cross disciplinary opportunities

·         Knowledge management

·         Sponsored internships

·         Remodel first year
(eg see Foundation Coalition @ http://www2.imsa.edu/programs/pbl/cpbl.html)

·         Map groupwork across disciplines

·         Understand similarities and difference between disciplines

·         National exams/assessment (eg for entry and for competence)

·         Better dissemination of AAEE proceedings

·         Regional AAEE groups

·         Attract non-eng students into eng courses/subjects/competitions

·         Staff development (a GradCert in Engineering Ed)

·         Build alliances (eg with design disciplines)

·         Attitude changes in first year

·         Socio-technical systems

·         Trade-off of generic skills and technical skills

·         National teaching technologies (review what is available)

·         What is the role of universities? Eg provide society’s leaders. Is this what we aim for?

First year

·         Socio-technical systems – staff development; AAEE workshops

·         Needs to be digestible for a diverse range of students

·         Role of service teaching?

·         Dealing with attitudes and expectations, eg content (what is to be covered) versus how it is to be engaged

·         Lack of resources, eg time and space

·         Authentic assessment

·         Dealing with large classes – the scalability of student-centred learning

Vision

·         A work-like environment – a desk, tools, projects, coaching, reflective activity – active learning

A Schematic

Constraints

·         Centralized university practices

·         Sense of ownership of the resources, eg rooms, desks, computers

·         Proving outcomes (assessment and evaluation)

·         Accreditation

·         Finding champions within institutions

·         Financial impact on all groups, eg service teachers

·         Contextualising service teaching

·         Technical competencies

·         Integration within the curriculum, both horizontally and vertically

·         Lifelong learning

Some ways forward

·         Mobilise the mathematics community, eg Milton Fuller et al, EMAC, AAMT, Math. Institute

·         Further develop the revolutionary vision, eg Nathan Scott, Roger Hadgraft, et al.

·         Revisit cultural change – David Radcliffe et al

·         Sustainability – Euan Nichol et al

Possible outcomes

·         Review of existing resources (with links, eg clearinghouse activity)

·         This could enable some grant application to address gaps. Some position papers could prepare the way for this.

·         Expand participation (eg following this year’s conference).

·         Establish regional AAEE groups, with leaders/coordinators/champions.

·         Establish an information literacy group (eg around Heather Ross at RMIT and others). This links to knowledge management and lifelong learning.