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ABSTRACT

This paper initially looks at the reasons for thecurrent interest in ePortfolios across theeducational sector from the recording ofassignments to a more sophisticated use forcontinuing professional development. Thesecond part of the paper looks at the ePorfoliodeveloped and adopted by the University, in2005, working in partnership with a smallbusiness, and the various ways it can be usedto enhance personal and professionaldevelopment. It then highlights engineeringstaff views about the way in which theePortfolio can be incorporated into theengineering curriculum. They suggest thegreatest benefits are through the assessmentstrategy and that there is most benefit in usingthe ePortfolio on work based modules ormodules for professional development. Thepaper then presents the views of a surveyconducted with students and staff of theePortfolio for their studies. In the light of theresults, the final section presents theimplementation plans of the School ofEngineering to use the ePortfolio for theassessment aspects of a postgraduatepolymer-engineering programme.

BACKGROUND

It is widely acknowledged, that the primaryrole of HE is to train students by enhancingtheir knowledge, skills, attitudes and abilitiesand to empower them as lifelong critical andreflective learners. Combining this with therecognised fact that graduates need to marketthemselves, has led to the widespreadrecommendation of personal developmentplanning (PDP) by Dearing(1), Burgess(2) andQAA(3). The primary objective of a PDP is toimprove the capacity of individuals tounderstand how they learn, and to help themreview, plan and take responsibility for theirown learning.

Engineering students need to be able to reflecton their achievements and present thisevidence to an employer and, later in theircareers, to the professional institutions. Theyalso need to be aware that these skills arebeing developed through the curriculum inorder to apply them, Yorke(4). These personaland professional requirements need to use aportfolio. Traditionally that has been in paperform but the benefits of using ePortfolios arebeing widely discussed across the whole ofthe educational sector. The next section looksat some of the reasons for the current interestin ePortfolios and the advantages over theirpaper based forms.

THE USES AND BENEFITS OFEPORTFOLIOS

A portfolio of any form is simply an organisedcollection of work. Engineering students andprofessionals have built portfolios for decadesto present design work and reflect on theprocess during developments as well as whensubmitting to be considered for CharteredEngineer status. Three current trends thatmake e-portfolios particular attractive are that:

l Students’ work is now mostly inelectronic form,

l Most students have access to the Web. l Databases are available through Web

sites, allowing students to manage largevolumes of their work, Batson(5).

EPortfolios have been criticised for focusingon just one element of PDP, that is recordingand presenting achievements. Some aresimply a product rather than a supportstructure for engaging in the all importantprocesses outlined in the previous section.Used effectively, they do offer opportunities forcollaboration, regular feedback, reflection andultimately presentation to an employer orprofessional body. The greater convenience,

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EPORTFOLIO: A MEANS OF ENHANCING EMPLOYABILITY AND THEPROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF ENGINEERS

Alison Halstead1 and Shane Sutherland2

1University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom2Pebble Learning, United Kingdom

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in terms of portability of an electronic systemover paper bulk and the opportunity forincreased formative feedback from staff andpeers along with an ability to add live clips byvideo has seen a tremendous surge of interestin ePortfolios, especially amongst the HEcommunity.

Most ePortfolio systems have been developedin North America where the educational ethosis qualitatively different to the UK. American-based ePortfolio systems include those byChalk and Wire(6); Nuventive(7); ePortaro(8)and the open-source product OSPI(9).

Those developed in the UK tend to have beenproduced for specific groups of studentsundertaking well-defined programmes of studyparticularly in medicine-related areasePET(10). Recent developments have alsoseen the entry of learner management system(LMS) vendors e.g. Blackboard(11), into theePortfolio arena offering bolt-on systems.These seem to be finding favour with someinstitutions if only because they may ease theimplementation phase due to staff alreadybeing familiar with the common elements ofthe system.

A survey of these commercial systems and e-portfolio products concluded that there was nosuitable ‘off the shelf’ software package thatcould support personal development planningin the reflective and development way desiredby the University or employers. As a result inApril 2004 the University went into partnershipwith Pebble Learning to develop apedagogically informed product. PebblePAD(12) resulted, the opening screen of which isshown in figure 1.

The system developed at the University ofWolverhampton by Pebble Learning (2005),Pebble Pad, has been designed to be generic– an institutional necessity with 10 schools,200 subjects and a diverse student body of22,000. The system provides 6 structuredentry forms designed to accommodate therecording of a range of skills, experiences andreflections typical of most learningexperiences. Additionally students can store awide range of external file types in the system.Records and files within the ePortfolio can beeasily aggregated into complex WebFolios(personalised websites) and can be shared

with others using user-defined permissions tofacilitate the gathering of feedback orassessment.

Following a University wide implementationand evaluation, Halstead et al(13). PebblePADhas been adopted across the University bystaff and students. The next section looks atthe potential opportunities for the implem-entation of the ePortfolio within Engineeringprogrammes, before going on to examine theadvantages and disadvantages from the staffand student perspective. Finally the paperhighlights the plans of the Engineeringdepartment.

STAFF VIEWS ON IMPLEMENTATION

For the ePortfolio to be successfullyimplemented, engineering staff felt that therewere three potential areas within theengineering programmes that would lendthemselves to this type of developmentoffering real benefits to students. The areasidentified were:

l Modules that already had welldeveloped reflective practices

l Work based project modules and l Professional training modules.

All staff felt that it must be incorporated withinthe assessment criteria within the modules.Where it is to be used, both staff and studentsneed to be introduced to the ePortfolio at thestart and the benefits for the development oftheir professional practice clearly articulated.Staff were concerned that the ePortfolio mightbe difficult to use and that it might discouragerather than encourage students to focus ontheir professional development. The nextsection reviews the response of staff andstudents within the University to the use of theePortfolio.

STAFF AND STUDENT VIEWS

Staff and student views were obtained usingan on-line questionnaire, focus and individualinterviews.

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On-line questionnaire

The questionnaire published and developed inSurveyor(15), consisted of 66 questions thatexplored the students’ previous experience ofsuch products, the ease of use, their views ofthe functionality and the benefits. Fifty usersresponded. There was general agreement thatthe ePortfolio was advantageous in being;

l easy to navigate and input existingachievements and evidence

l useful for reflection; identifying strengthsand weaknesses; identifying transferableskills; target setting; and supportingprofessional and personal development

l helpful in presenting themselves toemployers

The students felt that they

l Needed more face-face support fromstaff to get the most out of it

l Needed examples of webfolio tooptimise their chances of gainingsuccessful employment.

Staff perspectives from focus groupdiscussions

All staff agreed that the interface was attractiveand inviting to use. They had similar experiencesto the students in that they found it easy to useand share information. They thought that thesample webfolio gave a good example of thefinal product. They liked the potential forencouraging students to organise reflectivepractice with the added potential forcollaborative sharing and learning. It was lessbulky than the current paper based versions andcould be easily tailored to professionaldevelopment making the process more relevant.

The main disadvantage from the staffperspective was the time to up-skill and, asstudents, they would have liked more one-to-one help.

Student perspectives from focus groupdiscussions

All students considered that the interface wasattractive, engaging, easy to navigate (even fortechnophobes), very professional and addictive.

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Figure 1: Options within the PebblePAD portfolio for users to create and savein their own personal and secure web space

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One student had used an ePortfolio withinBlackboard that had no interaction and hadsimply not been able to use it. Against thatexperience she reported that it was easy to use,very collaborative and had helped her tobecome a confident technology user.

The group sharing was seen as a majorsuccess, and an activity that could not beachieved with paper. This provided a strongbonding activity for the group, the initial tutor-led tutor support changed to student supportover the programme.

Over 50% of the students involved said thatthey would continue to use the ePortfolio forpersonal and professional developmentwithout a tutor whilst the remaining studentsfelt they would need the added motivation thata tutor provides.

In terms of additional support, the majority ofthe students confirmed in the on-line feedbackthat they could have been helped by

l More examples of WebFoliosl extra guidance from staff l general one to one technical support

PLANS FOR THE FUTUREIMPLEMENTATION OF EPORTFOLIO

The positive feedback from staff and studentsas well as the significant advantages of usingthe tool to prepare a professional portfolio, hasresulted in the School of Engineering decidingto utilise it within a postgraduate module inPolymer Engineering. The module deliveredby staff at Rapra Technology (A UK specialistin plastics and rubbers) in partnership withstaff at the University, is for mature students infull-time employment within the plastics andrubber industry. The course is delivered withresidential periods at RAPRA and the studentsparticipating in coursework back in theircompanies. It is the guidance, formativefeedback and assessment of this work thatgains the students the qualifications that isintended to complete through the eportfolio.

The pilot scheme will

l develop templates within the ePortfolioto enable the engineering students to

progress through the assignments withtimely feedback from staff.

l to provide the staff and students with thetechnical skills necessary to be able touse the ePortfolio and see the benefitsfor their CPD

l assess the benefits of using the tool toenhance the individuals professional andpersonal development within anassessment context.

l explore and evaluate the experience ofthe staff and students

l reflect on the appropriateness of the toolto provide innovative assessment in awork-based environment.

The outcomes of this implementation will bethe subject of a forthcoming publication(14).

DISCUSSION

This paper has introduced a new ePortfolio,PebblePAD, that has been developed with theend-user in mind and to assist students andprofessionals in presenting their qualities andachievements to an external audience bymeans of a webfolio. Staff and students viewsare clear that the product is easy to use andsupports collaboration with others and goodcommunication with the tutor. The survey ofstaff and student views has indicated that theuse needs to be embedded within thecurriculum and the staff see that it has to beembedded with the assessment strategy. If it isto be implemented successfully the benefits ofuse must be clear to both staff and studentsand there needs to be a high level of hands-onsupport at the beginning of the training.

To obtain the maximum benefit from suchsoftware, the engineering staff have selected apart-time postgraduate course run in a work-based setting. These participants will beengineers who are continuing their prof-essional development. The ePortfolio will beused to provide guidance on assignments andassessment criteria as well as examples ofwebfolio used in this way. The participants willbe able to obtain formative feedback throughthe ePortfolio by sharing their work withcolleagues and tutors. In addition the finalassessment of this work will be through thepresentation of a webfolio. The webfolio will beable to be interrogated at various levels to

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enable the tutor to examine the developmentprocess that the student engaged in whilstdeveloping the final webfolio.

CONCLUSION

This paper has captured some of the HEsector excitement around the introduction anduse of ePortfolios.

It has established that both and staff andstudents are clear about the benefits of thePebblePAD ePortfolio in terms of the ease of itsuse, its pedagogical strength of collaboration withcolleagues and ability to encourage reflection.

The advantages of such an ePortfolio is thatstudents are able to get rapid formativefeedback during the development stage of thework, from both tutors and colleagues.

The ePortfolio stores the assessment guidelineand offers a powerful presentation tool forpotential employers or professional bodies viathe webfolio.

Engineering staff involved with this work seeopportunities for the development ofprofessional portfolios and deployment andpostgraduate level.

REFERENCES

1. Dearing, R., 1997, Higher Education in theLearning Society. Report of the NationalCommittee of Inquiry into Higher Education,Norwich.

2. Burgess, R., 2004, Measuring andRecording Student achievement. Univer-sities UK/SCOP

3. QAA, 2001, Guidelines to HE progressfiles.

4. Yorke, M. and Knight, P., 2003 ‘TheUndergraduate Curriculum andEmployability’ LTSN Generic Centre

5. Batson, T., 2002, The Electronic Porfolio:What’s it all about? Campus Technology.http://www.campustechnology.co./article.asp?id=6984

6. Chalk and Wire (2005): http://www.chalkandwire.com/eportfolio/

7. Nuventive (2005): http://www.iwebfolio.com/login/index.jsp

8. Eportaro (2005), http://www.eportaro.com/

9. OSPI (2005), http://www.theospi.org/10. EPET (2005), http://www.eportfolios.ac.uk/11. Blackboard (2005), http://www.blackboard.

com/12. Pebble Learning (2005), http://www.pebble

learning.co.uk13. Halstead, A., Mcquirk, M., Peters, J. and

Watkins, D., ‘Implementation and Evaluationof an ePortfolio across a UK HigherEducation Institution’ ‘ePortfolio, 2005Cambridge. ISBN 2-9524576-1-1

14. Halstead, A., Kibble, K. and Robotham,A. J., ‘Assessment of a WorkbasedLearning PG Cert in Polymer Engineeringby EPortfolio.(in press)

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ABSTRACT

Professional Studies is a programme in theUniversity of Bristol Engineering ManagementGroup, which has been innovatively structuredaround the latest requirements of theEngineering Council for professional accred-itation.

This paper explains our experiences indesigning this important programme which isdelivered by a blend of external experiencedengineers and academic staff and is supportedby its own Handbook and Blackboard site. Theintegrative approach adopted for teaching,learning and assessment provides an excellentenvironment for our students to practice anddevelop a set of additional skills, which arewidely recognised as key to successfulemployment and career development. Forexample, the new design enabled setting teamtasks, which lead to expansion of the subjectthrough collaborative learning and research.Through this process, it is expected to build abank of new case studies for future courses ona rolling year on year basis and to allow the‘whole class team’ to contribute to thecontinuous improvement of this programme.

INTRODUCTION

Industry Needs

The trend of engineering companies towardmore project-oriented work and greatercomplexity and pace required for ever moreeffective innovation and competitive addedvalue, means there is an increasing need forprofessionals who blend sound technicalknowledge with strong management andbusiness capabilities. The Canadian Societyfor Engineering Management found that‘almost half of all engineers enter amanagement position within 10 years ofgraduation.

Half of all registered professional engineersprimarily utilise management skills rather thantechnical skills’.

Professional Studies Programme

Professional Studies (PS) is a cross-facultyprogramme that complements the technicaltools of engineering with the knowledge andskills of business and management. It bridgesthe gap between engineering and managementto enable graduates to work with and throughpeople to get things done with a highprofessional standard. This is a fundamentalelement of all undergraduate Engineeringprogrammes at the University of Bristol. It istaken by about eight hundred students eachyear. The PS course is designed to provide thegeneric professional knowledge and awarenessrequired to meet the accreditation criteria ofrelevant professional institutions. It is structuredaround the 5 principle Learning Outcomesspecified in the latest professional accreditationguidelines issued by the EngineeringCouncil(1) covering the following topic groups:

l Commercial and Economicl Management Techniquesl Sustainable Developmentl Legal Framework & Health and Safetyl Professional and Ethical Conduct

In addition to enabling professional accred-itation, the PS programme aims to stimulatethe acquisition of knowledge and skills intopics which are complementary to technicaldisciplines and recognised as professionalsuccess factors. It also aims to introducevisionary goals for the role and value ofengineering in society and to act as a forum formeeting with and hearing from experiencedacademics and visiting professionals.

Professional Studies is a set of two comple-mentary modules, PS-A and PS-B. PS-A

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PROFESSIONAL STUDIES FOR ENGINEERING STUDENTS:AN INNOVATIVE PROGRAMME

Mohammed Wanous1, Brian Procter1 and Mike Blamey2

1University of Bristol, United Kingdom2University of Exeter, United Kingdom

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mainly addresses learning outcomes relatedto the commercial, economic andmanagement context of engineering pro-cesses in addition to introducing the principlesof health and safety. This module is aimed atproviding an insight into the professionalengineer’s personal, organis-ational andhealth and safety roles and responsibilities.PS-B builds upon all the PS-A topics andaddresses the interrelationship betweenengineering processes and the wider contextwithin which they operate, includingsustainability, commercial drivers, legalframework, health, safety & environment andprofessional and ethical issues. Appendix 1shows the mapping of PS contents into the 5principle Learning Outcomes specified by theEngineering Council (UK). Each PS unit has adetailed Handbook and a Blackboard site. TheHandbook is used to communicate clearly thetheme, the contents and the learningobjectives of each lecture. It also explains theassessment process and provides copies ofstandard assessment criteria and submissionforms and instructions.

The following section outlines how the learningobjectives have been translated into thedesign of the PS Units.

IDENTIFICATION OF LEARNINGOBJECTIVES

Employability is a concept that is still gainingmore and more attention from governmentand higher education institutions. Often, it isthe ability to communicate and to managetime and work which mark out the graduatewho is preferred for employment. TheEngineering discipline is a foundation for arewarding career and adding value in manyjob roles and in many types of industry.However, success in employment and careerdevelopment depends as much on wellrecognised transferable skills as it does on thechosen Engineering discipline. The skills thatare on the top of the wish list of mostengineering employers, as found byWearne(2), Leiper and Khan(3), Race andBrown(4), include:

l Leadership and the management ofprojects

l Teamwork and working with others

l Managing resources and timel Written and oral communicationl Analytical thinking, problem solving and

decision makingl Commitment to life-long learning and

continuing professional developmentl Critical assessment and evaluation

Therefore, the design of the ProfessionalStudies programme has a prime mission tointroduce and develop these PLUS (and highlytransferable) attributes and knowledge. Itwould be pointless to attempt to learn theseskills as a set of formal procedures which canbe reproduced for examination, as successonly comes through interpersonal activelearning and practice. To this end, theprogramme’s structure, delivery andassessment methods are devised to be avehicle to develop and practice these skills,which form part of the principal overall learningobjectives of the PS units. The detailedlearning objectives of individual lectures areoutlined in the unit Handbook.

TEACHING AND LEARNING METHODS

Integrated Teaching, Learning andAssessment

Designing a course unit should be a well-planned process to carefully craft effectivelearning opportunities for students. Thetraditional approach of producing a list ofselected topics is no longer acceptable. Aninformed and well integrated unit design is akey success factor in today’s education.Innovative approaches in teaching, learningand assessment and the introduction of newtechnical resources has made it possible todeal with the complex issues and to developthe design, implementation and evaluation ofan improved PS programme.

For students to be at the heart of theeducational process, their needs andrequirements should receive more attention.‘Increasing student involvement in group work,project work, oral presentations and task andproblem-based learning all contribute toturning the essential focus onto the studentlearning process’, Taras(5). Large class size isincreasingly less accepted as an excuse fornot adopting such effective approaches.

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Research shows how selecting appropriateteaching strategies can overcome difficultiesderived from large classes, Gibbs andLucas(6).

Team Work

Team coursework has been introduced toenable team interactive and cooperativelearning. Without recognising and employingthe great potential of students in the learningprocess, it would be impossible to create anyviable dialogue and interaction in largeclasses. Introducing team work and peerassessment have helped to create a lively,diverse and opportunity-rich learningenvironment for students. Through groupcoursework, important skills can be developedand practiced such as communication,teamwork and leadership. It enables sharingknowledge and provides a medium fordiscussion which is otherwise very limited inthe lectures due to the large class size (395students this year). It has also had the benefitof reducing the marking load by half so that itis no longer required to mark 395 individualhand-written exam scripts.

Considering the large number of teams (over80 for each unit), it became essential todelegate some responsibilities to studentswhich was also intended to create a sense ofownership. Unfortunately, forming interdis-ciplinary teams was not possible due totimetabling restrictions. Teams are encour-aged to agree some ground rules to help themin completing the team coursework success-fully. Examples of team rules agreed bystudents from 2004-05 include:

l ‘Motivate each other to get things doneon time’,

l ‘Contribute our individual strengths inorder to meet deadlines and have asuccessful team’,

l ‘Only offer constructive criticism’, l ‘Rotate team leadership among the

group for each assignment’ l ‘Have fun’.

Teams also negotiate scores to reflectindividual contributions in the team assign-ment and these are submitted with eachassignment to set individual marks.

ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY

Topic Assessment

To meet the intended learning outcomes andreinforce the teaching and learning methodsadopted for the PS units, the assessmentprocess is divided into two parts; a ‘formative’developmental team coursework and a finalindividual exam. For example, the assessmentmethodology adopted for PS-A, which isillustrated in figure 1, is carried out throughgroup coursework (60%) and a one-hour finalexam designed for computer marking (40%).

The coursework element consists of a pre-unitassignment and a second main assignmentthat should be completed in parallel with theunit’s lectures.

The pre-unit assignment is organised in twomain sections. In the first section, teamsinvestigate and reflect upon the necessaryskills an engineer needs for a successful careerupon graduation and what can be done whilestudying at the university to acquire anddevelop these skills. This is to appreciate theimportance of developing generic transferableskills alongside sound technical competencies.

In the second section, each team is asked towrite a short imaginary story, a news article ora poem or produce a short film about thechallenges facing engineers in early years oftheir career. This is intended to promote deepreflection, which helps to develop a betterunderstanding of real working environments.Improving report-writing skills is also at theheart of this process in addition to encouragingcreativity. This exercise produced some

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Figure 1: PS-A assessment methodology

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entertaining and highly perceptivecontributions, which demonstrated the creativetalents and engagement of students in thesubject. Selected poems and stories will bepublished annually on the unit website tofurther promote sharing knowledge andencourage collective learning.

In the second assignment, teams are asked toprepare an audit of a successful engineeringcompany in relation to topics covered in thelectures. This is intended to achieve a numberof personal learning and PS course benefits:

l Active application of the PS topics.l Scope to research new material which

extends the subject.l The opportunity to create added value,

for example by revealing new examples,developing and proposing newphilosophies/ methodologies orrecommending new solutions.

l The completed reports are also intendedto provide new Case Study material forfuture PS and Engineering courses, thusenabling students to contribute realvalue to future students and teachers ona rolling year on year basis.

l It is expected that students will engagewith professional practice in a way whichwill positively contribute to success withjob interviews and career development.

l Students will also learn a lot about theirsubject company (its mission, structure,culture and policies, current businesschallenges, management practices,areas of professional excellence andopportunities for improvement). Thetopic works across an important axiswhich many companies have insufficienttime and resources to focus on, andtherefore has the potential to addgenuine value for the company.

By promoting deeper reflection of the teachingand further research of a real situation thisassignment provides an opportunity toimprove essential skills such as projectmanagement, problem solving, teamwork andtime management.

Assignments are submitted electronically andscanned using plagiarism software. For eachassignment, teams provide their ownassessment of individual contributions. This is

used to set individual marks within each team.Figure 2 illustrates the flow of the newlyintroduced assessment process based on thecoursework element of the PS-A unit.

Peer marking

Anonymous peer marking is used to addfurther learning elements, such asencouraging students’ autonomy, criticalevaluation and higher order thinking skills. Itaims to improve the quality of learning, toempower learners and the sharing ofknowledge between groups. Also by postingselected assignments on the unit’s Blackboardsite, a further objective of collaborativelearning for the whole class is achieved. Byassessing the work of others, students gaininsight into their own performance, Brown etal(7). Peer marking also promotes a degree ofuseful competition between students.

Comparing group peer marks with staff marks

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Figure 2: Flow of coursework assessment

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showed no considerable deviation as shown infigure 3. A simple statistical analysis (PEAR-SON) resulted in a Correlation Coefficient of72%, indicating a strong relationship betweenacademic staff and students’ marks.

It encourages students to take responsibilityfor their own learning and gives them a senseof ownership which helps to improvemotivation, Race(8) and Race and Brown(9).

As the unit coursework accounts for the softnature of the topics covered, the final exam(40% of unit mark) is based on Multiple-ChoiceQuestions designed for electronic marking bythe Optical Mark Reader. Where possible,multiple options with various degrees ofappropriate answer are provided for eachquestion and students are asked to choosethe best available answer.

CONCLUSIONS

As can be seen from the previous section, theassessment process is designed to be anintegral part of the learning process rather thana separate activity conducted a few monthsafter the completion of the unit with little addedvalue to students. Student feedback showedvery clearly that the new design has improvedtheir interest in the PS programme, which hasbeen traditionally considered as an ‘extra’element compared to other ‘essential’ technicalunits. Beside other changes, peer marking hasproved very useful in sharing knowledge andstimulating more interest in the PS programme.Students started to make comments such as ‘Iam in the process of applying for jobs, andProfessional Studies is the most useful subjectwe study to help provide intelligent answers to

questions they ask. The majority of people onour course will at some point have to managea project in their careers, so I feel that this is anessential part of our degree, in order to give usmarketable skills’. However, some students didnot like the standard marking scheme and,being engineers, have made suggestions onhow to make it more specific. Looking ahead,we are assessing the benefits of moreintegration between the PS programme andPersonal Development Planning (PDP). Inpreparation for this, the current PS-A class hasalready been asked to provide its views on thebenefits of PDP and how this might beimplemented as part of the course.

REFERENCES

1. Engineering Council (2004). UK Standardsfor Professional Engineering Competence,Part 2: UK-SPEC Output Standards forAccredited Engineering Programmes.

2. Wearne, S., (2004). Professional engineers’needs for managerial skills and expertise.Proceedings of the Institution of CivilEngineers, Civil Engineering, Vol. 157,pp.44-48.

3. Dearing, R., (1997). Higher Education inthe Learning Society. HMSO.

4. Crebert, G., Bates, M., Bell, B., Patrick, C.J. and Cragnolini, V., (2004). Ivory Tower toConcrete Jungle Revised. Journal ofEducation and Work, Vol. 17, No., pp47-71.

5. Engineering Subject Centre (2005).Student Employability Profile.

6. Taras, M., (2002). Using assessment forLearning and Learning for assessment.Assessment and Evaluation in HigherEducation. Vol. 27, No. 6, pp501-510.

7. Maclellen, E., (2001) Assessment forlearning: the different perceptions of tutorsand students. Assessment and Evaluationin Higher Education, Vol. 26, Part 4.

8. Edwards, S. L. and Bruce, C. S., (2004).The assignment that triggered change:assessment and the relational learningmodel for generic capabilities. Assessmentand Evaluation in Higher Education, Vol.29, No.2. pp141-157.

9. Leiper, Q. and Khan, T., (2000). Acompetency-based system for assessment,training and development of engineers.Proceedings of the Institution of CivilEngineers, Civil Engineering, Vol. 132,pp151-155.

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Figure 3: Comparison between peer marksand staff marks

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Appendix 1: PS curriculum mapping (2005–06)

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INTRODUCTION

Few would dispute that the profession ofengineering plays critical roles in buildingstable nations and the global knowledgeeconomy through design, implementation andmaintenance of physical and communicationsinfrastructure, and through the creation ofmanufactured products and services. Thepresent global demand for engineers and theneed for good engineering remains high inorder to provide systems through which moreof the world’s population will enjoy goodhealth and prosperity, as we tackle issuesarising from climate change, security andpotential pandemics. This positivist view issupported by recent statements on the criticalimportance of science and innovation bypolitical leaders from India and China, as wellas industrialised nations. For example, theAustralian Federal Minister of EducationBishop recently declared that ‘the prosperity ofAustralia depends on education, on scienceand innovation and on building andmaintaining a world class skills base’(1). Morespecifically, meeting 14 of the 79 key targetsSouth Australian government’s StrategicPlan(2) will require engineering effort. Thesetargets aim to secure long-term environmental,social and economic sustainability.Community and business leaders clearlyenvisage that engineers will design andimplement new technologies that willcontribute to environmentally sustainabledevelopment, and be creative in deliveringnew products, systems and services.

Despite the opportunities for engineers therehas been a steady decline in the numbers ofAustralian school leavers (and especiallywomen) opting for engineering study andsubsequent careers. There is thus widespreadconcern about current and future skillsshortages in many technical areas. TheAustralian government is undertaking an auditof skills formation in science, engineering andtechnology, DEST (3). One recent survey of

professional engineering shortages indicateda 21% vacancy rate(4), approximately vacant20,000 positions nationally.

Engineering faculties are expected to addresssuch shortages and increase enrolments intotheir programs. There are some criticalquestions to answer if we are to succeed,including: do our faculties provide goodcurricula for future needs and teach them well;do we successfully communicate the diversityof engineering to all prospective students? Thispaper first discusses the evolving diversity ofengineering. Data on the decline of sciencestudy at school and subsequent undergraduatechoices is provided as a prelude to discussinghow the University of South Australia (UniSA) isengaging intensively with school students andtheir teachers to improve communication of thenature and importance of engineering.Subsequent sections discuss improvements toengineering curriculum and teaching that arestrongly informed by student perceptions andother stakeholder data.

ENGINEERING DIVERSITY

Manifestly, professional engineering has greatdiversity in its branches and sub-branches.Engineers Australia, the professional accreditingbody, lists more than 110 different degreenames for accredited programs at Australianuniversities. In their practice, engineersundertake a very wide range of tasks, fromresearch and design to executive managementof engineering enterprises. These twodimensions of diversity are attractive features tomany engineering practitioners. But ourexperience is that their extent and complexityalso contributes to the problems of attractingcontemporary students simply because theytake time to explain.

New engineering branches and sub-branchesin areas such as software, bio-medical,environmental, mechatronics, photonics and

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Robin KingUniversity of South Australia, Australia

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nanotechnology have evolved from goodscience, innovation and application beingsystematised as distinct and functional bodiesof knowledge and practice. Most of the newareas are inter- or multi-disciplinary, requiringcurricula built on new combinations ofunderpinning science and mathematics.

The overwhelming success of engineering hasbeen to encapsulate relevant knowledge intoreliable and available tools, materials, sub-systems and processes so that mostengineering problems do not have to be‘solved from first principles’ or with totally rawmaterials. The quality control of modernmanufacturing systems ensures highly reliableand robust products. These outcomes ofmodern engineering contribute inter alia tochanges in professional engineering practice.Kline’s profound ideas on systems thinkingand multidisciplinarity(5) are becoming moreimportant in tackling multi-dimensionalcomplex problems.

Many engineers have enthusiastically adoptedprinciples of environmentally sustainabledevelopment into engineering practice andcurricula, many following the progressiveideas of Hawken, Lovins and Lovins(6). Youngengineering leaders are setting goodexamples to their peers. For example,Hargroves and Smith(7) have recentlyproduced a comprehensive collection ofpapers for engineers and others subtitled‘business opportunities, innovation andgovernance’ that is being used in severalengineering faculties, including that at UniSA.

Engineering is about solving new problems,and is therefore intrinsically creative. Cropleyand Cropley(8) have defined this as ‘functionalcreativity’ linked intrinsically to purpose andusing systems and divergent thinking.Furthermore, Florida(9) has identified the‘creative class’ as the key driver of moderneconomies, with ‘technology’ as developed bygraduate scientists, engineers and informationtechnologists as the key class members. (TheSouth Australian government has followedFlorida’s ideas in its Strategic Plan). Butengineering is not perceived by prospectivestudents to be as ‘creative’ as architecture,music performance or journalism, King(10).Stressing and developing creativity inengineering curricula may well contribute to

redressing student enrolment trends awayfrom engineering, since creativity is aprominent element of modern youth culture.

PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS ANDENROLMENT TRENDS

Most secondary school students have limitedknowledge about engineering and its practiceunless they have family knowledge or specificexposure. Many know that engineering studiesare known to be hard and longer than genericscience or business degrees. The also knowfrom stated pre-requisite study requirementsthat the closest school subject matches aremathematics, physics and chemistry. InAustralia, these subjects are increasingunpopular. Between 1992 and 2002, schoolphysics and chemistry enrolments bothdropped by approximately 24% while totalYear 12 subject enrolments rose byapproximately 20%, Dobson(11). Thesedownward trends are nationwide, and havecontinued since 2002. In South Australia theycontribute to approximately 15% fewer schoolleavers applying to university for science andengineering programs between 2002 and2006. The Australian school education sectoris engaged in many studies and initiatives toexamine and redress these trends.

The distribution of first-degree universityplaces between disciplines and programs inAustralia is driven mostly by student demandto local universities. Application data showclearly that mathematics, physical sciences,engineering and information technology arelosing ground to biological sciences,psychology, health sciences, education, arts(especially communications and media),architecture and creative arts. The shift showstwo trends: one to direct human services, theother to areas of expressive creativity. Suchapplication preference data is primaryevidence; but we lack detailed quantitativeanalysis of the reasons for the trends,especially from students who have not chosenengineering.

Teachers, parents and peers are known to bemajor influencers on prospective students’preferences. Contributing factors to thedecline of engineering preferences frequentlycited amongst the community include:

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l few secondary school teachers haveengineering qualifications or directcontact with engineers;

l science and mathematics are poorlytaught within schools, partly becausetheir teachers are not familiar withcontemporary applications of thesesubjects;

l the engineering and informationtechnology industries are cyclical andmay not provide reliable (local)employment;

l engineering and science are highlyspecialised and are continuallychanging, and it is safer to choos e aless dynamic area; much engineeringwork is undertaken in remote sites and insituations that are unsuitable for women.

The trend towards tertiary study that involvescreativity merits further comment in relation tothe previous section. We have an opportunityto demonstrate more effectively that creativityis intrinsic to engineering, but we must ensurethat our curricula develop relevant functionalcreativity skills that improve the effectivenessof the next generation of engineers.

Prospective students appear to be relativelyunresponsive to subsequent employmentmarkets. Annual graduate salary surveys showthat graduates from the popular creative artsand health sciences (apart from medicine anddentistry) areas do not enjoy high remuneration,while the very high graduate salaries inengineering (and particularly mining) have notreversed the downward enrolment trends.

The growth in participation and success ofwomen in engineering is seen by many to becritical to meeting skills shortages. This wasargued strongly in the last national Review ofEngineering Education(12). Table 1 shows thefemale participation and compares coursesuccess rates for women and men studying inthe three schools of engineering at UniSA,averaged over 2000 - 2004.

On average, women have higher coursesuccess rates than men, and therefore tend tohave faster program completion rates. Thefemale participation rates are typical for thedisciplines, nationally. While there are manyissues related to the participation and successof women in engineering, see Stonyer(13), atUniSA we:

l support women students with a networkof female staff, students and practicingengineering mentors;

l ensure that the curriculum is 'inclusive' ofwomen and indeed all groups, Mills andAyre(14);

l mentor and support women in theirtransition to industry employment;

l undertake research into women’scareers and impediments within theengineering workplace, Gill, et al.(15).

COMMUNICATING AND MARKETINGENGINEERING

To attract more students into engineering weneed to address all of the issues outlined in theprevious sections. As well as explaining thebranches of engineering we must comm-unicate: the wide range of career opportunities;that a good engineering program opens verywide career doors; and that women cansucceed at least as well as men, drawing ondata and other informed study as describedabove.

UniSA’s marketing brochures and recruitmentactivities (including school visits and opendays) are necessary, but far from sufficient forthe task. Therefore our engineering staff andstudents have developed, with others, severalactivities that essentially communicate therelevance of school mathematics and scienceand the opportunities offered by engineeringcareers. The engagement with schoolteachers in most of these activities is critical,since they have very significant influence on

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Table 1: Mean female participation and course success rates, 2000–2004

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students’ subject and career choices. Thethree most significant programs, listed below,have gained funding to operate them on areasonable scale:

l student peer mentoring – has beenoperating since 2002, and is a programin which senior university students aretrained (with course credit) to assistteachers in Years 10 – 12 school scienceand mathematics classes in 15 localschools. This process is positive for theuniversity students in developing theircommunication skills and confidence, isdirectly supportive to teachers and alsoputs them in touch with engineeringstudents and ideas, and is positive to theschool students who see science andmathematics being enthusiastically usedby members of their own generation.

l robotics peer mentoring – commencedoperation in 2003, as a program in whichuniversity students from the electricaland information engineering areasupport classroom teachers and theirstudents in building, programming anddeveloping applications around amicrocontroller card, including a roboticvehicle. This program has won nationalawards, and is being built into thescience and mathematics schoolcurriculum at Years 8 – 10. During 2006 itis expected that more than 1200 schoolstudents will be involved in this program.

l science@work – was introduced in 2004,through the South Australian InvestigatorScience and Technology Centre, ISTC(16),for secondary school students. UniSAsponsors and supports two half-day on-campus activities that cover clevertechnologies (such as bio- and nano-materials), and environmental consid-erations in designing new technology,such as demonstrating how the use ofrenewable energy and good design canreduce our ecological footprint.

Needless to say, we monitor and evaluate theoutcomes of these specific programs toimprove their effectiveness and impact, andare beginning to see positive contributions toengineering student recruitment.

In addition to these activities, we work withEngineers Australia, non-academic members

of the profession, alumni and ‘studentambassadors’ to provide contemporaryinformation about engineering andengineering careers. Engineers Australia hasgood print media exposure, and in recentyears there has been an increase in thenumber of prime time television programsrelated to engineering, science and invention.There are almost daily media messages aboutone or other aspect of skills shortages,inferences about the importance of wellengineered and sustainable infrastructure andof advanced manufacturing to the economythat may also be contributing to perceptualand real change.

ENGINEERING PROGRAMS ANDCURRICULUM ISSUES

If we are to be successful, it is also necessaryfor undergraduate engineering programsthemselves to be perceived by the studentsand graduates to be well conceived, taughtand assessed. There is considerable programdiversity across the 31 of the 38 publicAustralian universities that offer professionalengineering. The degree award programsthemselves are developed, approved,operated and evaluated by each university’sacademic processes. Engineers Australia, aWashington Accord signatory, provides theprofessional accreditation system for 4-yearBachelor of Engineering programs againstsets of graduate attributes and competencies.All Australian B.Eng. programs must have abalance of underpinning science andmathematics, discipline-oriented engineeringscience, engineering design and synthesis,introduction to engineering management, andexposure to engineering practice. Theaccreditation requirements are not over-prescriptive, and do not discourage diversityor curriculum innovation.

Accordingly, programs differ considerably, aseach engineering faculty gives expression toparticular emphases, approaches and specificemployers’ needs. Differences betweenprograms (within and between universities) andeducational approaches (between universities)are aspects of ‘product differentiation’ that haveto be communicated in the process ofmarketing to prospective students.

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UniSA runs a mid-sized engineering operationof about 1,500 students. Programs are offeredin three areas: civil engineering (School ofNatural and Built Environments), electrical,mechatronic, computer, electronics andtelecommunications engineering (School ofElectrical & Information Engineering), andmechanical and manufacturing engineering(School of Advanced Manufacturing andMechanical Engineering). These schools aremembers of the academic Division ofInformation Technology, Engineering and theEnvironment headed by the author. UniSA’sengineering emphasises industry practice,systems engineering and integration, andmultidisciplinarity, particularly related tosustainability. The programs are directedparticularly towards serving local andinternational manufacturing needs and thedefence and electronics systems sector thathas its national focus in the state. Most of theengineering programs are also offered in 5-year ‘double degree’ programs in which asecond 3-year degree (eg Bachelor ofManagement) is also awarded. These studypatterns include the core courses of bothdegrees, with less specialisation and fewerelectives than the single degrees.

The university’s educational approach is‘student-centred’, with strong emphasis ondeveloping students’ as autonomous andresourceful learners through open-endedproject work, and use of on-line resources, aswell as classroom activities. All programs aredesigned to produce graduates who candemonstrate seven generic ‘graduatequalities’: knowledge, communication skills,problem-solving, teamwork and independentwork, understanding of ethics, an internationalperspective, and capacity for life-long learning.The development of these qualities isembedded within the curriculum. Programdesign is also influenced by student, graduateand employer feedback. The latter continuallystress the importance of the generic skills, aswell as adequate technical knowledge.

The 1990’s was a period of growth in diversityof engineering programs, particularly as theinformation engineering area responded to adiversifying specialist employment market.Since 2001, there has been a downturn inemployment and student demand in this area,and some recovery of enrolments into civil and

mechanical/manufacturing engineering. Wenow sense that offering too many programoptions is not effective and have nowsimplified entry to each branch.

UniSA has not followed the several Australianengineering faculties that have instituted a‘common first year’ containing introductions toall available branches of engineering, as wellas generic mathematics and sciences. Webelieve the three branches of engineering weoffer are sufficiently different in terms both oftheir science and their domains of practice tojustify largely separate programs. We aim tosatisfy industry’s needs for graduates withhigh levels of expertise in a branch ofengineering together with generic skills. Wetake advantage of the setting of each branchwith its own customary family of non-engineering disciplines. For example,information engineers have greater affinities tocomputer and information sciences, andelectronic and photonic physics than otherengineering branches. Through extensiveproject work, our electrical and informationengineering area develops a strong functionalcreativity theme around the needs of thedefence systems industry.

The most recent structural improvement hasbeen to incorporate civil engineering into theacademic school that covers constructionmanagement and economics, environmentallaw, urban and regional planning, geology,geographical information systems andsurveying, ecology and natural resourcemanagement. Thus, we aim to producespecialist professionals in all of thesedisciplines who will have good understandingof how other disciplines relates to, andsometimes conflict with, their own. Civilengineers working in the transport or waterinfrastructure fields will frequently workalongside planners. Undertaking commoncourses and collaborative project work shouldimprove both groups’ effectiveness asprofessionals. Since 2004 we have beendeveloping cross-disciplinary activities toproduce the best possible professionals forthe environmentally sustainable infrastructuredevelopment.

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IMPROVEMENTS BASED ON GRADUATEAND STUDENT PERCEPTIONS

The engineering curriculum (as for mostscience-based professions) will always be fulland the student workload relatively heavy. Highworkloads do not necessarily lead to low ratesof graduate satisfaction with their programs, asshown by data collected in the annual nationalgraduate survey and a number of internaluniversity survey instruments. Summarising,engineering students and graduates report:

l reasonably high rates of overallsatisfaction. Typically 60–80% agree that‘they are satisfied with the wholeprogram, course or general experience’.

l high rates of agreement (65–90%) withpropositions that ‘programs and coursesare enabling the development of genericand workplace-oriented skills’.

l moderate rates of agreement (40–60%)with propositions concerning ‘consistencyof marking, assignment turn-round andquality of marker comments’.

l rather poor rates of agreement (<40%)with propositions that ‘teaching is ofgood quality’, although this rate isincreasing slowly year by year.

Such response patterns are similar acrossmost disciplines, and engineering tends to berated relatively higher than arts and socialscience areas on skills development. However,engineering does tend to be rated lower onGood Teaching than many other areas. This isaddressed in the next section.

The Dean (Teaching & Learning) in eachacademic division leads the processes ofcurriculum and teaching improvements. Theseare strongly informed by detailed analysis of theperceptions data at course and individualteacher levels. After continuous poor feedbackon Assessment practice, for example, theuniversity has instituted policy to reduceexcessive assessment load on students, andalso improve the quality of staff feedback tostudents, by requiring each course to have notmore than three items of summative assessment(one item could be a sequence of laboratoryassignments), plus an examination. Whileconsistent with encouraging self-critical study,this change may be hard for students who findmarked work as a strong incentive to study. The

policy is being implemented very effectively inthe project-based learning approaches that weadopting in the engineering programs.

IMPROVING ENGINEERING TEACHING

As reported above, students and graduates donot rate their programs highly for ‘goodteaching’. We take this very seriously as this isimplicitly part of the program’s marketingposition as well as relating directly to thequality of learning achieved. Teaching can beimproved by many measures, includingassessment, but here we focus on thepersonnel issues.

Academics are mostly highly accomplishedresearchers, and ideally, engineeringacademics have experience of practiceoutside the academy. Few have formal trainingin educational methodology and practicebefore being appointed to university teachingpositions. They learn to teach by doing,drawing on their own experiences, and mostaspire to gain good teaching ratings.

The University supports improvements in goodteaching practice through professional staffdevelopment activities run by the FlexibleLearning Centre. Each year, the Divisionidentifies activities aimed at making substantialimprovements. Examples include large-classteaching and development of structured on-line course materials. The Dean (Teaching &Learning) also runs a number of within-divisioneducational projects and teaching supportactivities.

All new academics are required to participatein a 2-day induction to Teaching at UniSA. Forseveral years academics have been supportedto take the Graduate Certificate in TertiaryEducation offered by external study at theQueensland University of Technology.Engineering academics have been the largestgroup of UniSA participants in that program,and all who have completed it have improvedtheir own teaching as a result. The universityhas now mandated all new teachingacademics to take a similar award programnow being developed internally. This willincorporate and build on the induction, andwill allow staff to take its course componentsduring their three year probationary period.

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A small number of engineering academics haveresearch degrees in areas of engineering andscience education. These staff and many othersare active innovators in engineering educationand report their work in the national andinternational conferences of engineeringeducation. There remains a challenge toengineering educators, however, to system-atically evaluate the contribution of manyinnovations to long-term learning outcomes (asthere are rarely control groups), and to set theirinnovations in the context of sound educationaland learning theories. The university hasinstituted a number of ways to acknowledgeexcellent and innovative teaching and teachers.Annual academic performance managementrequires staff to consider quantitative studentperception data to craft improvement plans,and academic promotion also requires peerreview of teaching.

Since teaching engineering is a demandingactivity, and successful academic life alsorequires excellent research performance, theuniversity has also introduced the roles ofAcademic Support Officer and ProgramSupport Officer. The former group will normallypossess a discipline qualification so that theycan assist academics in materials preparation;the latter group answer the myriad of largelyadministrative student queries that relate to theirprogram. These roles should free academicsfrom much of the low-level work associated withrunning programs and courses.

CONCLUSIONS

The engineering profession will prosper only ifit attracts excellent students to study wellconceived programs that are deliveredeffectively by excellent teaching staff. Thepaper has outlined improvement initiativesbeing undertaken at the University of SouthAustralia. The initiatives are informed by needsand information. The first group are intendedto improve school students’ understanding ofengineering and increase subsequentenrolments. The second group addressesgeneral improvements to the engineeringcurriculum that take into account studentperceptions. The third group relates toimproving the quality of teaching. The extent towhich these initiatives will succeed in reversingthe current trends of prospective students

away from engineering cannot yet beestimated. Nevertheless, educators andleaders in the engineering profession will needto continue to work together along these andsimilar lines, to ensure that national and globaldevelopment goals can continue to be metthrough engineering enterprise.

REFERENCES

1. Bishop, J., 2006, Address to FASTS,http://www.dest.gov.au/ministers/media/bishop/2006/02/b003280206.asp

2. SA Government, 2006, Strategic Plan,www.stateplan.sa.gov.au

3. DEST, 2006, Skills Audit, www.dest.gov.au/sectors/science_innovation/policy_ issues_reviews/key_issues/setsa/default.htm

4. Kaspura, A., 2006, Engineers Australia,78, 2, 36

5. Kline, S., 1995, Conceptual Foundationsof Multidisciplinary Thinking, Stanford Uni.Press, USA

6. Hawken, P., Lovins, A. and Lovins, L.,1999, Natural Capitalism, Earthscan, UK

7. Hargroves, K. and Smith, M. (eds.),2005, The Natural Advantage of Nations,Earthscan, UK

8. Cropley, D. and Cropley, A., 2005, inCreativity Across Domains, ed. Kaufman J.,and Baer, J., Lawrence Erlbaum, NewJersey, USA, 169-185

9. Florida, R., 2002, The Rise of the CreativeClass, Basic Books, NY, USA

10. King, R., 2002, Int. Conf. on Eng. Educ.,Manchester, UK, ICEE CD ROM

11. Dobson, I., 2003, Science at theCrossroads?, Monash University, Australia

12. Review of Engineering Education, 1996,Changing the Culture, IEAust, Canberra,Australia

13. Stonyer, H., 2001, Aust. Jnl. of Eng. Educ.,9, 147-161.

14. Mills, J. and Ayre, M., 2003, J. Prof. Issuesin Eng. Educ. and Pract. 129, 4, 203-210

15. Gill, J., Mills. J., Sharp, R. andFranzway, S., 2005, Global Colloq. onEng. Educ., Sydney, Australia, AAEE/ASEECD ROM

16. ISTC, 2006, Science @ Work, www.invest-igator.org.au

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ABSTRACT

Continuing education is set up by the universityto meet the needs of the workforce and lifelonglearning pursuits of an individual. Theprograms and courses offered facilitate theaspirations of part-time distance students whoare working towards a degree for the purposeof personal and professional growth. Thepurpose of this research paper is to study theviews of individual learning on academicperformance among part-time adult learnerswho are pursuing on-campus undergraduateengineering and computer courses. Theirperformance is based on the Cumulative PointAverage (CPA) obtained at the end of thesemester. Their overview of individual learningconcerns their attitude on motivation,understanding, soft skills, application,responsibility, thinking and experience ingeneral. Questionnaires were distributed to thepart-time students. One hundred and seventynine (179) responded, and their resultsanalysed for answering research questions: (a)what is the profile of the respondents base onage, marital status, the time they decide topursue continuing education, the distance andtransport for pursuing on-campus educationand personal responsibilities; (b) what is therelationship between profile, performance andtheir own learning overview. The researchfindings conclude there is a significantdifference between performance and factors oftheir own learning overview.

INTRODUCTION

Knowledge workers are currently the mostsought after human resource for the country.There is a continuous demand for freshgraduates of engineering and computing to fillthe manpower need of a developing country.Training knowledge workers is timeconsuming, and retaining them requires a lot ofeffort either for individuals, or with cooperation

of their employers. There is a need to find waysof increasing participation and attractingworkers. Continuing education is set up byUniversiti Teknologi Malaysia known asSPACE(13) to meet the needs of the workforceand lifelong learning pursuits of an individual.The programs and courses offered facilitate theaspirations of part-time distance students whoare working towards a degree for the purposeof personal and professional growth. Thepurpose of this survey is to study on the view ofadult learners’ own learning on the per-formance among part time undergraduates ofengineering and computing courses at theuniversity.

BACKGROUND

Today knowledge is increasingly becoming anintegral competency in the human resourcesof every developed and developing nation.The knowledge economy dictates currenthuman resources in such a way thatknowledge workers have catapulted to thefrontline of a nation’s competitive advantage.To address the current need of the country, theuniversity is undergoing dynamic changes inits courses such as engineering, informationtechnology and business by offeringcontinuing education on a part time basis tothe workforce in upgrading knowledge andskills for their own personal growth andenables employers to remain competitive.

The dynamic changes involve 35 choices ofprograms available at 15 centres throughoutthe country for adult learners. Features of thecontinuing education are the mode of deliveryis by face-to-face lecture, the courses arestructured providing generous flexibility, arecustomer friendly regardless of age, and theclasses are held on weekends only. Thecontinuing education programs have been inoperation since 1993 5,326 graduates havesuccessfully completed their studies since the

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WORKING EXPERIENCE, LEARNING OVERVIEW FACTORS ANDPERFORMANCE OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING MAJORS:A STUDY IN CONTINUING EDUCATION

N A H Abu HassanUniversity Teknologi, Malaysia

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program started(1). This number is alarmingbecause more should have graduated sincethe programs began twelve years ago.Feedback from lecturers teaching thesecontinuing education programs notice thatsome of the adult learners ‘drop out’ withoutever finishing their studies. There are somestudents who are not able to continue studyingdue to financial constraints, there are thosewho just lose interest in the pursuits of lifelonglearning, some due to personal problems maynot be able to complete higher education, andsome are ‘missing in action’. The mainpurpose of this survey is to find out some ofthe factors which may contribute or hindertheir lifelong learning pursuits.

This paper seeks to answer the followingquestions: (a) Who are the adult learners? (b)What are the reasons to continue educationwhile still working? Why do they choose tostudy on a part-time basis? (c) What is theiropinion regarding views of their own learning?(d) How is the strength of the relationshipbetween factors regarding the view of theirown learning and academic performance and(e) Is there any significant difference betweenthe factors and academic performance?

LITERATURE REVIEW

Candy(3) states that continuing educationincludes all those processes that contribute tothe advancement of an individual’s knowledge,skill, understanding, competence, and generalprofessional and personal development. Itbuilds a bridge between an individual’s privateand employment-related worlds. It alsoincludes attendance at ‘courses’ but it isrecognised that most professional learningtakes place outside formal education systems.He further explains the concept of lifelonglearning has had international currency since atleast 1972, with the appearance of the FinalReport of UNESCO’s International Commissionon the Development of Education. ‘Lifelonglearning takes, as one of its principal aims,equipping people with skills and competenciesrequired to continue their own ‘self education’beyond the end of formal schooling’ (p.15). Onits Memorandum on lifelong learning (LLL) theEuropean Commission advanced the followingdefinition of LLL: ‘All learning activityundertaken throughout life, with the aim of

improving knowledge, skills and competenceswithin a personal, civic, social and/oremployment-related perspective’. Candy(3)furtherreports, ‘What then are the dominantchanges that are impacting on our lives andbringing about a requirement for continuinglearning and adaptation?’ He pointed out, thefirst and most obvious is the ‘pervasive effectsof new technologies.’ He describes the secondas a major wellspring for new learning that is‘the phenomenon of globalisation.’ The third isthe ‘changing patterns of work’ whetherprecipitated by globalisation, technology orsimply by changes in organisational structures.These also provide a significant pressure fornew learning.

With the above dynamic changes in education,the university offers part-time study on a widerange of diploma and degree programs. Thisreflects the continuing importance to theUniversity of working within the city and regionto develop pathways and open up theuniversity’s resources to all who can benefitfrom them. The main objectives of setting upthe continuing education program at theuniversity(1) are: (a) to produce quality part-time learning and professional educationprograms (b) to extend educationopportunities to every level of the community(c) to instil the culture of lifelong learning (d) toconcentrate on customer wants and marketneeds (e) to increase market share incontinuing education and (f) to optimize theuse of resources and physical amenities.

Knowles(8) andragogy model description ofsix characteristics of adult learner is given asfollows:

i. Adults are autonomous and self-directed.They need to be free to direct themselvesand the lecturer must actively involve adultparticipants in the learning process.

ii. Adults have accumulated a foundation oflife experiences and knowledge that mayinclude work-related activities, familyresponsibilities, and previous education.They need to connect learning to thisknowledge base.

iii. Adults are goal-oriented. Upon enrolling ina course, they usually know what goalthey want to attain. They appreciate aneducational program that is organized andhas clearly defined elements.

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iv. Adults are relevancy-oriented. They mustsee a reason for learning something.Learning has to be applicable to their workor other responsibilities to be of value tothem.

v. Adults are practical, focusing on theaspects of a lesson most useful to them intheir work. They may not be interested inknowledge for its own sake.

vi. Adults need to be respected. Lecturers mustacknowledge the wealth of experiences thatadult participants bring to the classroom.The adults should be treated as equals inexperience and knowledge and allowed tovoice their opinions freely in class.

Brookefield(2) examine issues in under-standing adult learning in four major researchareas such as self-directed learning, criticalreflection, experiential learning and learning tolearn. On the aspect of self-directed learning,he noted, ‘More longitudinal and life historyresearch is needed to understand how periodsof self-directedness alternate with moretraditional forms of educational participation inadults’ autobiographies as learners. Recentwork on gender has criticised the ideal of theindependent, self-directed learner as reflectingpatriarchal values of division, separation andcompetition. The extent to which a dispositionto self-directedness is culturally learned, or istied to personality, is an open issue. We are stillstruggling to understand how various factors -the adult’s previous experiences, the nature ofthe learning task and domain involved, thepolitical ethos of the time - affect the decisionto learn in this manner. We also need to knowmore about how adults engaged in self-directed learning use social networks and peersupport groups for emotional sustenance andeducational guidance.’

For the second areas of major research,Brookfield(2) provides evidence for criticalreflection and further explains, ‘that adults arecapable of this kind of learning can be found indevelopmental psychology, where a host ofconstructs such as embedded logic, dialecticalthinking, working intelligence, reflectivejudgment, post-formal reasoning and epistemiccognition describe how adults come to thinkcontextually and critically’. Brookefield(2)describes the third as experiential learning. Henoted, ‘Our experience is culturally framed andshaped. How we experience events and the

readings we make of these are problematic;that is, they change according to the languageand categories of analysis we use, andaccording to the cultural, moral and ideologicalvantage points from which they are viewed.Second, the quantity or length of experience isnot necessarily connected to its richness orintensity. For example, in an adult educationalcareer spanning 30 years the same one year’sexperience can, in effect, be repeated thirtytimes. Indeed, one’s ‘experience’ over these 30years can be interpreted using uncriticallyassimilated cultural filters in such a way as toprove to oneself that students from certainethnic groups are lazy or that fear is always thebest stimulus to critical thinking.’ The fourth islearning to learn which Brookefield(2) describesas the ability of adults to possess a self-conscious awareness of how it is they come toknow what they know; an awareness of thereasoning, assumptions, evidence andjustifications that underlie our beliefs thatsomething is true – to become skilled atlearning in a range of different situations andthrough a range of different styles - has oftenbeen proposed as an overarching purpose forthose educators who work with adults.

The Centre for Learning and Teaching,University of Technology Sydney(14) provides auseful literature, ‘A guide to evaluating teachingand courses at UTS’(3). The guide consists of alist of several types of questionnaires for variouspurposes of evaluating teaching. Thisresearcher was attracted to the questionnaire‘Student view of own learning’ due to the factthat it is very closely related to the issuesaddress above. Fifty three items in thequestionnaire are analysed and adapted andbroken down to measure factors (the commonkeywords found in the questionnaire) such as(a) understanding (12 items) (b) skill (8 items)(c) application (9 items) (d) responsibility(7items) (e) thinking (6 items) (f) previousexperience (5 items) (g) motivation (6 items).Therefore in this survey the factors directlyrelated to the theoretical framework by Brooke-field(2) are explained. Understand, motivationand responsibility relate most to self-directedlearning; thinking relates to critical reflection;previous experience relates to experientiallearning; skill and application relate to learningto learn. Research on adult learning is vast.Besides the four major research areas asmentioned, others include adult learning in

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cross cultural settings as highlighted byRoy(12), Alsanat(1), Chang(5), Cassara(4),Ross-Gordon(11) and Pratt(10). Anotherpopular research areas is evaluation of adultlearning in various settings, among those are byElliot-Leck(7) and Yeh(15).

RESEARCH METHODOLGY

The respondents were students attendingcontinuing education programs on a part-timebasis. The students were mostly workingadults employed in the country but this surveyfocused only on those attending face-to-facelectures at the city campus. In this survey,questionnaires were distributed to 250students and 218 of them responded. UsingSPSS PC+, only selected cases fromengineering and computing courses wereanalysed for this purpose.

The questionnaire on ‘Student view of ownlearning’ by University of TechnologySydney(14) was used as an instrument tomeasure factors such as understanding, skill,application, responsibility, thinking, previousexperience and motivation. Students wererequired to respond once on a Likert Scalefrom 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree)to provide a quantitative representation. Otherinformation included in the questionnaire wastheir profile, academic and social relatedinformation. Another section of the question-naire comprised open ended questions whichrequired the respondents to indicate by writingtheir opinions regarding their views on currentproblems; the reason for them to continueeducation; and the person who motivatedthem for this lifelong learning pursuit. Thewritten comments were necessary to checkthe inner feeling of the respondents and at thesame time to check contributing or hinderingfactors which influence their participation ingetting a degree through continuingeducation. The questionnaire was distributedto the students during the first semester,session 2005/2006. The andragogy modeldescription of some of the charac-teristics ofadult learners by Knowles(8) is utilized toexplain the written comments.

RESEARCH FINDINGS

The profile of respondents based on sex, age,course and marital status is shown in table 1.The respondents consisted of 179 adultlearners, between 19-44 years old; male(62.57%) and 37.43% female. As for theirmarital status, 51.4% were married and 48.6%single. Regardless of their marital status,57.0% of the respondents had no children and43.0% had children. A majority (38%) were 25-29 years old.

Table 2 shows academic related informationon the aspects of courses pursued, cumulativepoint average (CPA) obtained during thesemester and the year.

The engineering and computing courses areBachelor in Geomatic Engineering (SGU)28.5%, Diploma in Civil Engineering (DDA)20.7%, Bachelor in Computer Science (SCK) is20.1% and (SSK) 7.8% respectively, Bachelor inMechanical Engineering (SMM) 7.8%, Diplomain Computer Science (DDC) 5.6% and (DCK)

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Table 1: Profile of respondents

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3.9%, Bachelor in Civil Engineering (SAW) 3.4%and Diploma in Electrical Engineering (DDE)2.2%. The cumulative point average indicates24.0% obtained a CPA of 2.6-3.09, followed by22.9% between 2.1-2.59, 21.8% obtained lowerthan 1.59, 18.4% between 3.1-3.59, 12.3%between 1.6-2.09, 0.6% between 3.6-4.00.

Table 3 indicates the achievement calculatedas the mean of Cumulative Point Average(CPA) base on a 4-point scale. It is interesting

to note that those respondents with a workingexperience of 21-25 years perform well(3.0813) followed by those working for 11-15years (2.8526).

The worst performance is shown by thoserespondents who have worked less than fiveyears with a mean CPA of 1.9591. The same istrue for those working for more than 30 yearswith a mean CPA of 2.0400, followed by thosewith a working experience of 6-10 years (mean2.0762). Figure 1 illustrates the researchfinding in a graphic form.

Further analysis to explain the results of table 3seek to focus on the factors of learning overviewin relationship to working experience. Table 4confirms factors such as achiev-ement/CPA(0.01), thinking (0.032) and motivation (0.020)are significant at the 0.05 level.

Table 5 indicates factors regarding skills(0.121), application (0.242) and responsibility(0.69) are not significant at the 0.05 level.

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Table 2: Academic related informationof respondents

Table 3: Achievement base onworking experience

Figure 1: Graph of working experienceand mean (CPA)

Table 4: Significant factors andworking experience

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DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

From the results above, engineering andcomputing continuing education studentsneed to work for at least five years to besuccessful in academic achievement. Lack ofworking experience certainly affects theirachievement (Cumulative Point Average),thinking and motivation to pursue furtherstudies on a part-time basis during weekends.This finding is supported by their commentsregarding difficulty in balancing career andstudying. They have difficulty in timemanagement as most of the students are stilllearning their roles and job functions as acareer person.

These findings support the research ofCosman-Ross(6) who concluded that adultstudents were motivated to learn mainly by selfimprovement and sense of achievement.Other is a research by Elliott-Leck(7) foundthat learning achievement correlates positivelywith step-by-step progression, frequent review,and appropriate pacing. His researchexamines the influence that application ofteaching and evaluation methods based onadult learning principles has on studentmotivation and achievement.

Discussion of written comments in relation toKnowles(8) andragogy model found that therole of work, study and family are verychallenging tasks. There is very little time forreview as their jobs are demanding. Theymention that time management is veryimportant in order to be successful inbalancing roles. The andragogy modelcharacteristics number (ii) is very difficult toachieve in reality.

Respondents state the reasons for them tocontinue education is lifelong learning,personal satisfaction and development,

achieving their dream, to get a better post orjob, and better pay. This explains the reasonfor Knowles (8) andragogy modelcharacteristics number (iii), which explains theself motivating factor.

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Table 5: Factors (not significant) vs. working experience

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