Transitions to First Year Engineering Diversity as an Asset

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Transitions to First Year Engineering Diversity
as an Asset

• Lyn Brodie Mark Porter
• Faculty of Engineering and Surveying
• University of Southern Queensland

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Changing Demographics
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USQ diverse student cohort, diverse outcomes

• 76 students study externally (off campus)
• 29 of the total student population are
  international students studying either offshore
  (22.5) or on campus (6.5)

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Engineering and Surveying at USQ
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Design Our Students Age.
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Graduate Attributes

• analytical and critical-thinking skills
• problem-solving skills
• independent learning skills
• communication skills
• information technology literacy
• an awareness of the need for individual
  responsibility and accountability
• an awareness that learning must be lifelong in an
  ever-changing society
• an understanding of the social, environmental and
  cultural context of their disciplines(s).
• ability to function effectively as an individual
  and in multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural
  teams, with the capacity to be a leader or
  manager as well as an effective team member

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Future requirements of engineers

• working globally in a multicultural environment
• working in interdisciplinary, multi-skill teams
• sharing of work tasks on a global and around the
  clock basis
• working with digital communication tools
• working in a virtual environment

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Other considerations

• developing an engineering mindset in our
  students
• the effective integration and communication
  between our distance education students
• interaction between programs and majors
• staff professional development in educational
  strategies and theories.

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Program restructure
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Design Teaching Philosophy

• Student centred learning
• Students working in teams, sharing leadership
  roles and prior knowledge
• Facilitating teams, not lecturers presenting
  facts
• Resources provided on web, in print, and through
  academics

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Resources

• A course web page
• Communication facilities through a commercial
  LMS. This provides
• email, discussion boards and chat facilities for
  each team
• facilities for electronic submission of final
  project reports, weekly team reports and
  individual portfolios.
• student feedback through electronic surveys.
• A course resource book
• Other people students are encouraged to seek
  resources from outside the course e.g. work
  colleagues, team members etc.

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ACHIEVEMENTS AND CHALLENGES

• PBL in a virtual environment
• Staff and student attitudes
• Staff training
• Student diversity
• Assessment strategies
• Learning technical knowledge - ?

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Results
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Increased appreciation of prior knowledge
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Increased my problem solving skills
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Improved transition to study
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Conclusions

• PBL can be effective in a virtual learning
  environment
• Staff training and student expectations still
  need attention
• Assessment strategies are being refined
• Meets accreditation requirements