Newsletter of the
Australasian Association
for Engineering Education
April 2007
From the
Editor
This month we have a bumper Newsletter leading off with our new Executive plus the Conference updates … and a new Newsletter Editor for 2007! Then there is:
AAEE
2007 Executive
The photo
below is of the Executive Committee for 2007 at their first meeting of the year
in
The aim of
this Executive team is to make the Australasian Association of Engineering
Education a positive influence and support, based in the Scholarship of Teaching
and Learning, for all academics involved in tertiary engineering education.
Several
initiatives sponsored by the Executive are outlined in this newsletter, such as
the reinvigoration of the journal AJEE, and the development of a bibliographic
database for those wishing to increase their knowledge of theory and research
in Engineering Education.
From Left:
Penny Phillips ( Secretary), Gunilla Burrowes (AJEE Editor), David Dowling
(Past president), Roger Hadgraft ( Vice president, Web, chair 2007 conference),
Wageeh Boles (President), Liz Godfrey ( Awards, Newsletter, NZ rep), Euan
Lindsay ( Web, Peer support network), Yvonne Toft ( Awards, asst with AJEE), Frank Bullen (ACED rep),
Holger Maier ( Bibliography, assist with Awards)
Absent:
Allan Bradley ( Engineers Australia rep), Xu Huang ( Treasurer)
The current
executive thanks Prof David Radcliffe, who stepped down from the executive, for
his efforts as a previous President, and particularly for his role in organising
the combined AEE/ASEE 2005 Global Colloquium which raised the profile of Engineering
Education, as we do it “Down Under”, with our international
colleagues.
From
the President 
At the start of every academic year we settle into our usual hectic scheme of affairs. Countless e-mails, many voice mail messages, students at our office doors, phone calls, meetings, and the list goes on and on. Somewhere in this environment, as academics, we are expected to do our research, apply for, and succeed in obtaining, research grants, engage in university administration, make contacts and work with the profession, participate in marketing our programs, and also function as lecturers in them. There are steadily increasing demands on our intellect and time. Some demands can be classified as urgent, others as important. At the heart of how we respond to the demands on our time and intellect is our own definition of what is important; there is probably no universally accepted answer. The choice is ours.
All these demands within the academic endeavour at university can be considered to belong to one or more of three main arenas: research, teaching and service, which include academic and professional leadership. In making choices, there is almost always the suggestion of a tension between the domains of teaching and research. The Research Quality Framework, RQF, can be seen by some as another factor that may increase this tension. As engineering educators, we have the responsibility of addressing the learning needs of today’s engineering students, tomorrow’s builders of the future. We also need to continue to innovate and enhance our effectiveness in this area.
We have choices to make, but these must be informed choices. We therefore need to examine the role engineering education can and must play and how we can face the challenge of transforming scholarly teaching and the scholarship of teaching to become strong contributors within the RQF environment.
Wageeh Boles,
President AAEE
ACED – Carrick Institute Review of Engineering Education
The biggest news in
engineering education in 2007 is the Carrick supported review of engineering
education – an update of the 1996 review:
Ensuring the supply
and quality of engineering graduates with attributes for the new century
The AAEE President, Assoc Professor Wageeh Boles, is representing AAEE on the the project’s steering committee.
Aims
To ensure that the engineering education sector across
Goals
Over the last year ACED has identified many important issues
associated with engineering education in
a) The effectiveness of the 1996 national review of engineering education on ‘changing the culture’ of Australian engineering education, and the organisational structure and culture within engineering schools;
b) The impacts of the declining high school preparation in the enabling sciences and mathematics, and rapidly developing new technologies, on engineering course structure, standards and duration;
c) The impact of globalisation and recent overseas reviews on Australian engineering education, including the impact of Bologna protocols, on the export of engineering educational services and the international transportability of Australian qualifications;
d) The value of engineering education as an enabler to different career options;
e) The gender balance in engineering education and practice and how it might be improved;
f) Industry-university partnerships and how they are best developed to produce tangible benefits for all partners in engineering education;
g) Laboratory facilities in the schools of engineering: provision, updating and maintenance;
h) Development of an inquisitive and innovative culture in engineering graduates;
i) The place of a research-active environment, including engineering education research, in engineering education;
j) The effectiveness of instilling appreciation of social responsibility and sustainability as core graduate outcomes; and
k) The potential for significantly increased rationalisation of resources among engineering schools.
Clearly all of this list cannot be addressed satisfactorily in a one-year project with limited funding and sharp focusing will be needed.
Comments and submissions are welcome to Wageeh Boles.
AAEE Excellence in Engineering Education Annual awards
Considerable thought is going in to possible amendments to the Award categories for 2007. Feedback from members is welcome. Stay tuned for more information.
Please contact Liz Godfrey or Yvonne Toft
2006 winners
The winners of the 2006 Excellence in Engineering Education Awards were presented at the 2006 Annual Conference Dinner:
·
Excellence
in Engineering Education : Teaching and Learning
Assoc Prof Holger Maier,
·
Excellence
in Engineering Education: Curriculum Innovation
Dr Colin Kestell,
·
Highly
Commended for Excellence in Curriculum Innovation
Assoc Prof Peter O’Shea and Dr Bouchra Senadji,
·
Excellence
in Engineering Education: Inclusivity
Prof David Dowling,
Details including citations are available at http://www.AAEE.com.au/award/2006/
We congratulate these awardees for the very high standard of their applications and the work they are doing in Engineering Education.
These awards are sponsored by AAEE (with the support of the Australian
and NZ Councils of Deans) and Engineers
People
Congratulations
to our new executive member Professor Frank Bullen who has moved from the
Congratulations
also to the new Chair of the Australian Council of Engineering Deans, Professor
Elizabeth Taylor, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Sciences, Engineering
and Health at the Central
Queensland University.
Congratulations also to Roger Hadgraft who has moved to the
The Faculty
of Engineering at the University of Auckland farewelled Professor Peter
Brothers in March after nine years that saw many changes in the physical,
educational and research environment for the Faculty. Peter moves to his new
role as CEO at the Manukau Institute of Technology in
The new
Dean at the
Newsletter contributions
Share your good ideas, conference announcements, book titles, great websites, etc with other members.
Send them to Liz Godfrey for inclusion in the next Newsletter.
The 2007 AAEE Conference
After much negotiation, the 2007 conference
will be held at the
The conference will also be an opportunity to debate the
future of engineering education, with the
A call for papers will be released shortly, with papers likely due within three months, so get your thinking caps on! J
For more information, please contact Roger Hadgraft.
Future AAEE Conferences – 2008 and beyond
Expressions of interest are invited for hosting the 2008 (and beyond) conferences. A copy of the guidelines for prospective hosts may be obtained from Wageeh Boles at QUT, w.boles@qut.edu.au.
2006 Conference Highlights
Thanks to
the
Feedback
from participants indicated that many of the technical sessions stimulated and
challenged their current practice. They commented on the congenial atmosphere
and ample opportunities to network and discuss issues with colleagues.
At the
closing ceremony, the Programme Chair Dr Gerard Rowe of the
The common
themes across the Technical sessions were:
·
Curriculum-based
issues, with accreditation and industry collaboration being significant
drivers.
·
Delivery
style, including problem based learning and computer assisted delivery.
·
Assessment
·
Sustainability
·
Recruitment
·
Collaborative
education
In these
days of much more stringent research performance appraisal, it was recognised
that presenters needed to be able to document the review process for their
papers. The Conference CD provided
the full Technical papers , a separate file with the details of the
review process followed and the ISBN assigned to the Conference
Proceedings. Gerard also recognised
that the review process wouldn’t have worked without the on-line review software
developed by Josh Humphries & David Radcliffe which worked superbly. On
line submission software is now in process for the 2007 conference and we
applaud the provision of this software as an AAEE project.
Two Innovations at this Conference were awards
for Best Paper
(selected from those referred from reviewers) and Best Presentation (voted on by conference participants).
Winner of Best Paper was:
Sheryl Sorby of
Highly commended was Les Dawes and Gary Rasmussen with their paper “Activity and Engagement - Keys in connecting engineering with secondary school students"
Winner of the Best presentation was:
Colin Kestell who presented the paper co-authored by Colin and H. McBain “A student based learning approach to sustainable engineering and alternative fuel technology” (and this, presented after a self-confessed very late night out after the Dinner
Highly commended was Holger
Maier with his paper "Meeting the challenges of engineering education
via online roleplay simulations"
Upcoming Conferences
First Year in Higher Education, Brisbane
Past papers from this series of conferences are available at: http://www.fyhe.qut.edu.au/past_papers.html from 1998 onwards.
ASEE Annual Conference, Hawaii
Full access to past papers at
http://www.asee.org/about/events/conferences/annual/2006/index.cfm
ICEE 3 – 7 September 2006 in University
of Coimbra , Portugal
http://icee2007.dei.uc.pt/index2.htm
The 2007 Frontiers in
Education Conference (FIE 2007) – Oct 2007
continues a
long tradition of disseminating innovations that improve computer science,
engineering, and technology (CSET) education. FIE is a major annual
international conference devoted to improvements in CSET education. It is an
ideal forum for sharing your ideas, learning about new developments in CSET
education, and interacting with your colleagues.
10 – 13 October 2007 in
Further information at: http://fie.engrng.pitt.edu/fie2007/
EA accreditation workshop + AAEE workshop
On 27 March, AAEE provided a development workshop following
Engineers Australia’s accreditation workshop in
The two speakers were Holger Maier from the
If you would like more information, please contact the authors as above. If there is enough interest, the PowerPoint slides could be made available via the AAEE website.
AAEE
Journal (AJEE) Update
After
considerable thought and discussion seeking a way to ensure that the
Australasian Journal of Engineering Education continued as a vehicle for the
publication of peer reviewed papers the
Executive
committee of AAEE is pleased to announce the agreement that has recently been
signed with Engineers Media to support the administration of the AJEE
(Australasian Journal of Engineering Education).
Engineers
Media Journal Editor, Paul Woolnough (pwoolnough@aapt.net.au) currently administers other Engineers
Australia Transactions and AJEE will be added to this list. Paul will work with
the volunteer editors of AJEE who will continue to organise reviewers and make
final decisions on paper publications. Paul will also maintain and oversee the
online subscription and review process which will be available for submission
of AJEE papers in the next few weeks.
The online system to which our journal will
be added, Editorial Manager, can be
viewed at: http://www.editorialmanager.com/eatj/mainpage.html
The Journal
will remain an online publication until its next review in two years. Archived
publications will still be available through the AAEE web site :http://www.AAEE.com.au/journal/index.htm. By mid year the current
publication will be available through http://www.engineersmedia.com.au/transactions/pub_index.asp. As a
member of AAEE you will
have access to papers from this site and non members will now need to pay per
article as detailed on this site.
The first
publications on this new site will be the 'best papers' from the 2006
Conference which have been resubmitted for Journal publication.
Gunilla Burrowes, Co-Editor AJEE
The Bibliography of Engineering Education Project - Update
Last year we also alerted AAEE members to the new initiative from AAEE aiming to develop a working bibliography for educators extending their practice in engineering education through engagement with 'new-to-them' concepts and ideas. At this stage, the project aims to identify key, introductory material across a range of broad domains. Ideally, these references would provide educators with exposure to key aspects of pedagogy and/or their application within engineering education.
References have been provided to us across the following areas:
· The journey: from engineering expert to engineering education expert; scholarship in learning and teaching, education theory, reflective practice, writing 'teaching philosophy' portfolio materials
· Assessment: self, peer, group, attributes
· Learning: styles, adult learning theory
· Teaching Methodologies: PBL, groupwork, roleplay, 1st year, design, lecturing to large classes
· Diversity: gender, inclusivity, international/globalisation, culture
· Curriculum design: pbl, attributes, integrated curriculum, professional development/practice; flexible curriculum design
· Multidisciplinary: sustainability, workplace learning, ethics
A review by members of the Executive of the suggested references is almost complete and members will be able to access the Bibliography very shortly. Watch this space!
Any further contributions would be welcomed by Holger Maier who is collating the Bibliography.
New
Academics Toolbox is coming!
For the
past two years, AAEE has had a Peer Support Network for New Academics. This network has sought to support new
staff in Australian Universities through the provision of resources and
networking opportunities. Whilst
interacting with other new academics is important, contacts with established
academics - potential mentors and collaborators - are also essential. For this reason we will no longer be
separating our networking efforts - we will be encouraging all members to
interact, regardless of how long they have been academics.
From now,
our New Academic support will be focussed more towards the provision of
resources, through the development of our New Academics Toolbox - a range of
resources intended to get staff new to universities off to a flying start.
We would
welcome any and all ideas for tools to go into our toolbox, so if you are a new
academic, or you know one in your department, then get in touch with us and let
us know what resources you would like to see.
Ideas /
requests / feedback can be sent to the Toolbox Coordinator, Euan
Lindsay.
First Year EWB Design Challenge
Last year
we alerted our members to the EWB Design Challenge which was to be a national
design competition for first year university students. The competition aims to
develop students’ learning experiences and key attributes through team
based design on inspirational sustainable projects.
The 2007
Challenge requires students to design projects to assist the sustainable
development of Uluru Children’s Home which is located south of Chennai in
Over 20 universities are now involved in with the EWB Challenge in the first semester with more than 100 teams and 4000 students participating.
In addition to the 4000, several more universities will be using the EWB Challenge as a teaching resource in semester 2 for their first year engineering students. Participation has also widened beyond first year engineering with multi-disciplinary teams now being formed and final year students adopting the Challenge as a resource for detailed sustainable infrastructure design.
CDIO – Conceiving - Designing - Implementing - Operating
Formation of a CDIOÒ ANZAC
Regional Centre and Inaugural Workshop.
The
This framework, called CDIO (Conceiving - Designing - Implementing - Operating), provides undergraduate students with an education which stresses engineering fundamentals set in the context of real-world systems and products. The framework includes learning experiences that lead to the acquisition of personal, interpersonal, product and system building skills, integrated strongly with the learning of disciplinary specific material. It provides a holistic framework for a robust engineering education incorporating a complete set of desirable graduate attributes.
CDIO is universally adaptable by all disciplines in engineering as the framework for their curricular planning and outcome-based assessment, and was developed through an International Collaborative Initiative with input from academics, industry, professional engineers and students.
A consortium
of 23 Universities around the world, led by MIT in the
Further information about CDIO and the collaborating Universities, programmes and standards may be found at www.cdio.org
We are now
establishing an ANZAC Regional Centre for CDIO, jointly organised by the
Universities of Sydney and
Our first
event, planned for 17-18th July this year, will be a CDIO Workshop, to be run
at the
Further details of the workshop and regional meeting will be forwarded to those expressing an interest by completing and returning the information requested below, by mail or email, to either:
A/Prof. Dave Levy, Head of Electrical and Information Engineering,
or
A/Prof. Des Tedford, Mechanical
Engineering Dept.,
Name:
University:
Address:
Email address:
I am interested in attending the CDIO workshop (Yes/No)
I would like to be on your CDIO ANZAC Region email list (Yes/No)
I wish to join as a CDIO ANZAC regional centre collaborator (Yes/No)
Books
Discussion of the (Engineering) Method by Prof. Billy Koen
“The engineering method is the use of heuristics to cause the best change in a poorly understood situation within the available resources”.
If this is what engineering is, how do we teach this method to our students? What is the role of science and mathematics in this? What else do students need to know? It seems that they’ll need to know something about:
· What is best – for whom?
· How to make change happen.
· How to deal with situations with limited information.
· How to muster and use various kinds of resources – both human and material.
This is a different approach to curriculum design than to start with Calculus 1 and finish with Design 4.
Comments welcome to Roger Hadgraft.
See the book or some of the material on the web.
Websites
MERLOT
Not just a red wine, but also a Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching: http://www.merlot.org
Here you’ll find resources in every discipline. Check out the Engineering index at: http://www.merlot.org/merlot/materials.htm?category=2651 and click on your subject area on the left.
METTLEweb
METTLEweb Guide to Teaching & Learning with Technology
at The
Overview of services and resources related to the use of
technology in teaching at the
· http://mettleweb.unimelb.edu.au/
EdNA
Latest EdNA web-based resources for teaching and learning
EdNA (Higher education) Online: http://highered.edna.edu.au/
Hot Topics in Higher Education: http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/highered/hot_topics
Very useful pointers to resources on HE Learning, Teaching, Technology in education, Professional development and Research.
Recently added higher education resources: http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/highered/highered_resources
Assessing Learning by Students
See the ideas, strategies and resources at: http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/assessinglearning/index.html
International Journals in Engineering Education
· Chemical Engineering Education
· Journal of Engineering Education (ASEE)
· European Journal of Engineering Education (SEFI)
· International Journal of Engineering Education
Carrick Institute
See http://www.carrickinstitute.edu.au/carrick/go for more information. The Australian Awards for University Teaching are now available.
Other EE and HE organisations
See the AAEE Links page.
Seminars
Challenging how knowledge is created –
Education.au National Seminar, Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia)
The first education.au National Seminar for 2007 will feature Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia as the keynote speaker.
The seminar will be held in four locations:
Jimmy's seminar presentation will discuss critical issues such as:
· The culture of the online community and the implications for education
· The opportunities for collaborative learning in a globally connected world
· What it means to be discerning in the online world
· If content can be created and distributed cheaply, what is the future for entrepreneurs?
· Who has the knowledge in today's global community?
·
To access information about the seminar online go to http://www.educationau.edu.au/seminar/challenging; to register for the seminar go to https://secure.educationau.edu.au
The
Contact dbullen@educationau.edu.au if you have questions.
Professional
Development
Masters degree in Problem
Based Learning
Anette
Kolmos, Professor in Engineering Education and PBL and UNESCO Chair in Problem Based
Learning in Engineering Education
based at
· The MPBL is a full distance programme and using various technologies and resources to support the distance learning process. To get an idea of how the distance programme is organised, please visit the demo version of one of the courses here: http://www.mpbl.aau.dk/mpbl/demo/
· You can either choose the full master program http://www.mpbl.aau.dk or choose among several single subject courses: http://www.mpbl.aau.dk/singlesub/
· The next start of this part time and online MPBL programme is September 1, 2007 – and deadline for application is June 15, 2007.
·
There
is a special offer of the following single subject courses:
* PBL models in Engineering and Science (3 ECTS)
* Learning Theories (3 ECTS)
* Work Based Learning (3 ECTS)
* Facilitation (3 ECTS)
* Intercultural Learning (3 ECTS)
* Development of Process Competencies (3 ECTS)
* Scientific Methods in Engineering (3 ECTS)
* Engineering Competencies in a Global Society (3 ECTS)
Brochure
and application form: http://www.mpbl.aau.dk/pbl/2006%20brochure_mpbl.pdf
Further
information and printed brochures can be ordered by e-mail to: Secretary
Marianne Nyborg mariannen@plan.aau.dk
Newsletter of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education, http://www.AAEE.com.au/, April 07