AJEE Online

ISSN 1324-5821

ABSTRACTS

Teaching critical appraisal skills to postgraduate, English as a second language, engineering students

KEYWORDS: Engineering; critical appraisal; international student; English as a second language.

ABSTRACT: Teaching engineering students critical appraisal skills that are relevant to their discipline is a key skill for postgraduate study. International English as a second language students, however, may have had limited exposure to critical thinking in their prior learning and may arrive in Australia with approaches that are problematic. Discipline-specific English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses integrated in the Engineering Curriculum are an ideal, albeit challenging, environment to teach critical thinking and appraisal. This paper describes the development and student evaluation of an Engineering EAP program focussing on teaching critical appraisal to students at Melbourne University. In this paper, I describe teaching and assessment processes and qualitative feedback from an open-ended survey of three semester cohorts of students about the cross-cultural challenges of engaging with critical appraisal. The paper argues that discipline-specific EAP courses are an appropriate place to teach critical appraisal skills and that qualitative student feedback provides a useful complement to program evaluation.

REFERENCE: Melles, G. 2008, Australasian Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 23-32.

Designing problems for problem-based learning courses in analogue electronics: Cognitive and pedagogical issues

KEYWORDS: Problem solving; analogue circuits; collaborative work; education technology; engineering education; amplifiers.

ABSTRACT: Designing problems for problem-based learning (PBL) courses in engineering has always been a challenging task, especially in environments where the only method of imparting technical education has been through traditional a lecture/tutorial/practical (L/T/P) approach. This paper describes the cognitive and pedagogical issues involved in conducting a PBL course in analogue electronics, designing of problems, analyses of solutions submitted by the student groups and how learning objectives were achieved. It also presents a detailed analysis of the problem statements designed and open-ended metacognitive triggers built on PBL students thinking, to understand how the facilitator supported the collaborative knowledge construction. The knowledge and skill tests scores of both the traditional and PBL threads are presented and compared.

REFERENCE: Mantri, A., Dutt, S., Gupta, J. P. & Chitkara, M. 2008, Australasian Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 33-42.

Gender differences in student attitudes toward engineering and academic careers

KEYWORDS: Engineering career; gender; women in engineering; women in academia; civil engineering; graduate degrees.

ABSTRACT: 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 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.

REFERENCE: Vrcelj, Z. & Krishnan, S. 2008, Australasian Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 43-56.

The competence dilemma in engineering education: Moving beyond simple graduate attribute mapping

KEYWORDS: Professional competence; accidental competencies; competence model.

ABSTRACT: A decade ago, major reviews of engineering education in Australia and the USA resulted in a new, outcomes-based approach to program accreditation in engineering. These outcomes are based on a set of Graduate Attributes derived to meet the perceived needs of industry into the future. However, recent reports suggest that engineering graduates may not have the competencies required for contemporary practice, even though program outcomes have been designed to meet the stated needs of industry. This observable gap between education and practice points to a set of underlying causes that we call the competence dilemma in engineering education. This paper reviews the fundamental assumptions on which outcomes-based education is built, in a way that was not considered at the time of the earlier changes to program accreditation. It also critically examines the nature of this perceptual gap between the Graduate Attributes that universities are striving to produce in their graduates and the competencies needed in practice in order to perform satisfactorily in industry. This entails the inclusion of the students’ attitudes and self-concept in the conception of professional competence. This analysis of this competence dilemma suggests a more holistic view of competence formation. On this basis, the paper presents the results of an exploratory study into identifying alternative ways in which students’ competence is formed and influenced in education. The analysis of the empirical study leads to a multi-scale systems model of engineering competence, where the attitudes and self-image are located on a metalevel, and organise and contextualise the individual’s particular set of competencies in a
specific work situation. At a time when authorities in both countries are reviewing the operation and success of outcome based education in engineering, this paper points to an evidence-based way forward to address the competence dilemma.

REFERENCE: Vrcelj, Z. & Krishnan, S. 2008, Australasian Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 43-56.

Peer assessment of past exam scripts

KEYWORDS: Peer assessment; examination; written solutions; tertiary education.

ABSTRACT: The examination process can produce hundreds of answer booklets or scripts every year. These are usually stored for a period of time and then discarded. This paper reports on a project that investigated the use of past scripts as a learning resource for students in a first-year engineering unit. Students were required to assess a range of hand-written solutions submitted by past students to a particular exam question, identifying errors and awarding a mark to each script. The aim of the task was to improve critical thinking by exposing students to good and bad problem solving, and to illustrate the importance of clear and logical written solutions. The students’ marking behaviour was analysed and an online survey was also conducted to obtain student feedback. Most of the students found the assessment task very challenging, but also a useful learning experience. A random sample of the students’ exam scripts was reviewed to see whether the assessment task had affected their presentation of written solutions. A small improvement was observed in the student’s work when compared against the previous year and another unit.

REFERENCE: Hesterman, D. C. 2008, Australasian Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 57-76.

A toolbox for Blackboard

KEYWORDS: Blackboard Toolbox; Building Blocks; online learning.

ABSTRACT:Most users of web applications are aware that they are not as “nice” to use as desktop applications. They are generally slower and clunkier. This is not normally the fault of the application, but rather the browser environment in which such applications execute. Teaching staff at institutions that have deployed an online course management system such as Blackboard may be reluctant to make extensive use of it because of the overhead involved in setting up and maintaining an online presence for each course that they are involved in. This paper describes a “Blackboard Toolbox” that has been developed at the Manukau Institute of Technology. The toolbox provides a desktop interface to Blackboard and simplifies the use of most of its key functional areas. In particular it provides quick and easy access to the content areas, digital dropbox, gradebook, users, assessments and groups. The digital dropbox tool includes an additional user interface where submitted files can be easily marked, returned to individual student’s dropboxes, and the grades entered in the gradebook. The toolbox makes use of Blackboard’s Building Blocks technology.

REFERENCE: Roberts, T. 2008, Australasian Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 77-90.

Improving outcomes-based engineering education in Australia

KEYWORDS: Graduate attributes; accreditation; engineering education; outcomes-based education; distance education; competency standard; generic attributes; student portfolio.

ABSTRACT:Graduate attributes are now a ubiquitous feature of higher education in Australia and internationally, and have been part of engineering education for more than a decade. The idea of graduate attributes is an apparently simple concept, focusing on educational outcomes, rather than inputs and process. While there is evidence of some benefits in engineering education arising from the introduction of outcomes-based accreditation, there is also evidence of many short-comings of the graduate attributes approach. There would be significant value in Engineers Australia providing additional, discipline-specific guidance on attribute development. There would be significant value in Engineers Australia simplifying and consolidating the current multi-document accreditation system. A genuinely outcomes-based accreditation system would be based (only) on the demonstrated individual student attainment of appropriate graduate attributes, which might be delivered/gained by a range of means, including distance education. To fully meet the letter and spirit of the law for accreditation, programs will need to adopt some method of certification of individual student attainment of graduate attributes – one such method would be the use of student portfolios.

REFERENCE: Palmer, S. & Ferguson, C. 2008, Australasian Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 91-104.

The Green Petrol Heads: Developing practical professional engineering skills that generate interest in sustainable engineering

KEYWORDS: Problem-based learning; professional and vocational skills; sustainable energy.

ABSTRACT: In 2007 a group of final-year honours students from the School of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Adelaide rode their biodiesel motorbike prototype (The Biobike) from Darwin to Adelaide under gruelling Australian summer conditions. They were competing in the Greenfleet Class of the 2007 Panasonic World Solar Car Challenge; a category designed to demonstrate practical, alternative energy solutions. A week later, amidst an eclectic collection of weird and wonderful vehicles, the students were thrilled to finally cross the finish line. Their relief soon turned to elation when they learnt that the extremely low net-carbon emission of the Biobike brought them victory. They had won the Greenfleet Class. Most importantly, the students’ functioning as an effective engineering team had proven that they could actively engineer alternative transport energy solutions amidst the current global energy crisis. The Hybrid Electric Solar Vehicle is another example of such a project, which while not at such an advanced stage of development as the Biobike, also promotes a self-belief in sustainable engineering, while providing an exciting opportunity for undergraduate students to apply their theoretical engineering knowledge to a true-to-life engineering team orientated project. While both of these projects have an obvious alternative energy theme, they follow the lead of the internationally acclaimed Formula SAE project, in which university teams from all over the world design and build a small race car. The Formula SAE project continues to retain is popularity among participants and sponsoring employers, because students quickly learn how to apply their knowledge to a practical engineering problem and develop valuable vocational skills, so that they will quickly begin to operate effectively in their professional engineering environment. This paper will discuss the educational merits and outcomes of these projects from the perspective of a lecturer who has supervised students in them all.

REFERENCE: Kestell, C. D. 2008, Australasian Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 105-114.

Teaching smarter to improve the English communication proficiency of international engineering students – collaborations between content and language specialists at the University of Western Australia

KEYWORDS: International students; university; engineering; education; English; language assistance; communication; graduate attributes; streaming.

ABSTRACT: The current controversy surrounding recently released immigration statistics on international student graduates of Australian universities and the ongoing debate on literacy standards in our schools form the context for this paper. A variety of explanations have been offered on how it can be that a large portion of international students graduating from Australian universities are being granted permanent residency in Australia with lower International English Language Testing System scores than those required for university entry and professional employment. An equally wide variety of explanations has been offered on the purported slippage of English literacy standards in schools. While the focus of this paper is on academic English literacy skills, and while it certainly turns a spotlight on international students, it is not, however, the intention in this paper to enter fully into either the first controversy or the second debate. The purpose of this paper is rather to examine disparities that seem to exist between international and Australian student performance in the professional development component of their engineering programs at the University of Western Australia (UWA). These disparities are evident in data of students enrolled in Introduction to Professional Engineering (IPE), the foundation unit for the professional development of engineering students at UWA. In contrast to the technical component of the degree, this unit depends heavily on English communication skills. Collaboration between content and language experts in 2006 and 2007 seems to hold promise of achieving more equitable outcomes for international students. This collaboration has reversed the widening gap in the pass rates of international and Australian students in the unit. It is hoped that this will, in turn, lead to improved international student retention rates in the degree.

REFERENCE: Stappenbelt, B. & Barrett-Lennard, S. 2008, Australasian Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 115-124.