The Australasian
Association for
Engineering
Education
March
2008
(Issue 2008/1)
|
The Australasian
Association for |
March
2008
|
|
Contents |
From The Editor Welcome to the first 2008 newsletter of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE). I've been called a lot of things in the past (most of which are unprintable) but never a newsletter editor, so I sincerely hope I don't disappoint you too much with my first attempt here at digital journalism. I'll start with a story from one of my recent engineering graduates, who on her first day at work stood by the office shredding machine as the CEO hurriedly approached with an important looking document. "Can you quickly make this damn machine work?" he asked in a distraught manner. Eager to impress, she took the document, pushed the mains plug into the socket, switched it on, waited for the ready light to illuminate and promptly fed the paperwork through the spinning rollers. "Excellent, I'll have two copies please".
Anyway, I won't beat around the bush any more because typically the first newsletter of the year has a lot to cover and this issue is no exception. The executive committee have all helped me to recap on the past events of 2007 (most notably the conference and the awards) and have provided an indication of what is yet to come in 2008. This really does promise to be an exciting year. |
Download PDF version by right-hand clicking here and then 'save as'
2008 is a year of opportunities in engineering education. Within the
next month, we should see published the latest Review of Engineering
Education, completed by Em. Prof. Robin King, sponsored by ACED, ATSE and
EA and funded by Carrick. Some of its key recommendations in which AAEE
will play a part include:
After the accreditation workshop in Melbourne on 21 Feb, we discussed how, as an AAEE community, we might address some of these issues. Some of the ideas discussed were:
As part of this agenda, this year we are putting special emphasis on the Special Interest Groups as a way of building communities of practice to address some of these issues. We have established these groups on the EDNA site (http://www.edna.edu.au), which provides collaborative tools for the educational community.
To participate, simply click above and then register as a user. Once registered, click on Groups. You should see a set of categories of groups. Click on Higher Education and then scroll down to find Australasian Association for Engineering Education. You should then see our Edna home page. Scroll down that page to find the groups. Once you join, you’ll find AAEE under My Groups in the left panel.
Each special interest group has a Forum and a Wiki at the moment, with other tools to be added. Please contribute to the discussion (Forum) or help to build resources via the Wiki. If you have an idea for another group, please leave a message in the general forum. Some of the SIGs are:
During the year, you should see some workshops organised
by AAEE, so keep an eye on further announcements. If you have ideas for others,
please contact one of the Executive. If you’d like to be the campus contact for
AAEE, please let me know. Encourage your colleagues to join. It’s free and an
easy way to be kept abreast of engineering education issues. Finally, if you
want to join a collaborative research team around one of the above issues,
please let one of us know.
Roger Hadgraft, President (roger.hadgraft@unimelb.edu.au)
AAEE has an established global network of people who are deeply passionate about engineering education. For a full set of instructions on how to become a member of AAEE and join this expanding network,go to http://www.aaee.com.au/join / and download an application form.
In brief, members of Engineers Australia and students can join for free , others are asked to part with a very small fee that goes towards some of the administration costs.
Publish or perish! Did you know that we have our
own 'internationally peer reviewed' journal? The Australasian Journal of
Engineering Education (AJEE) aims to publish reviewed technical papers on all
aspects of engineering education. Papers that are submitted follow an autonomous
peer review process, with two independent reviewers as required by the DEST
review guidelines. The following paper categories are accepted for
review: The following submission
categories are also accepted on the editor's discretion: The expected length of
acceptable contributions will vary considerably, but 5000 to 6000 words or
equivalent for papers would be the norm. Technical notes should not exceed 1500
words. AJEE is currently published
as an online journal only with two issues per year (May and December). This
means that papers are uploaded and able to be accessed as soon as the review and
formatting processes are completed. We do, however, have a one off publication
of several papers in May each year of the best of the conference papers
presented at the Annual Australasian Association for Engineering Education
Conference, which is held in the December of the previous year. We are also
endeavouring to produce special themed sets of papers each year. The editors and editorial panel would be pleased to accept
suggestions for these themes. The Australasian Journal of Engineering Education (AJEE) is run using
the Engineers Australia Technical Journals Editorial Manager online paper
submission and tracking system. Submissions can be made via the website at
http://www.editorialmanager.com/eatj.
We welcome manuscripts, volunteers to be
reviewers, suggestions for
special issues, and any and all suggestions on how to make our journal better
serve the engineering education community are welcome. You can reach the editors
via email at
journal@aaee.com.au. To submit a paper, authors need to register themselves at
www.editorialmanager.com/eatj. The system
will then walk them through the necessary steps to complete their submission.
During this you will be asked if you are prepared to be a
reviewer.
There is also a step by step guide at: http://www.engineersmedia.com.au/journals/em_author_tutorial.pdf PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tick yes. The
journal can only function effectively if there is a healthy network of
reviewers.
Papers can be submitted in any electronic format, as Editorial
Manager automatically converts them into a PDF for easy viewing by editors and
reviewers.
The journal presents a means
of exchanging current work and ideas, predominately from Australasian
engineering education faculties and as a resource for Continuing Professional
Development for our community. The editor of the journal is
Dr Les Dawes, and assistant editors are Dr Euan Lindsay (MIEAust) and Dr Yvonne
Toft. The members of the editorial board are Dr Clive Ferguson, Prof Robin Ford,
A/Prof Roger Hadgraft, Prof Robin King, Dr Stuart Palmer and Prof John
Simmons. Papers from 2007 onwards are
available at the Engineers Media AJEE site. You will need to enter either your
Engineers Australia membership number or your AAEE membership number to gain
access. Papers published prior to 2007 can be accessed at Australasian
Association for Engineering Education site.
Research
paper a paper making an original contribution to engineering
education knowledge.
Special interest
paper/project report report on significant aspects of a
major or notable project.
Review paper for
specialists an overview of a relevant area intended for
specialists in the field covered.
Review paper for
non-specialists an overview of a relevant area suitable
for a reader with a relevant engineering education
background.
Tutorial
paper a paper which explains an important subject or clarifies the
approach to an area of design or investigation.
Technical
note a technical note or a letter to the editor, which is not
sufficiently developed or extensive in scope to constitute a full
paper.
The
Website
A new AAEE Executive committee was voted in during the 2007 conference. Members now include:
|
 |
The 2008 members of the executive committee had their first meeting in February at the Brisbane office of Engineers Australia. Pictured above (from left to right) are: Colin Kestell, Les Dawes, Alan Bradley, Lesley Jolly, Duncan Campbell, Roger Hadgraft, Prue Howard, Anne Gardner, Liz Godfrey, Yvonne Toft, Frank Bullen. Wageeh Boles and Euan Lindsay were unable to attend due to a clash of engagements.
At the meeting the committee discussed successes of 2007 and ensured that the plans for 2008 are well under way.
The 2007 conference at the
There was a busy program whwich started on the previous Friday, with the 21C Maths Symposium. On Sunday was the Learning Styles workshop run by Therese Larkin and Dan Budny. On Monday, the conference opened with a focus on engineering practice issues. Our keynote was Ian Cameron followed by Robin King and the Review. The day included an afternoon workshop where our invited senior industry colleagues worked with AAEE members on ways to address some of the outcomes from the Review. Tuesday was EWB day. Lizzie Webb provided the opening keynote followed by Larkin & Budny. David Radcliffe was the keynote after lunch. Anette Kolmos opened Wednesday, with a focus on PBL and sustainability, with a major workshop from the Natural Edge Team. The conference concluded with the usual votes of thanks and a wind-down at Rydge’s, which was a great way to farewell colleagues at the end of the event. On Thursday, there was a PBL workshop attended by 35.
Overall there were 77 papers presented and 6 workshops as well as special workshops from the Carrick Institute and Natural Edge. There were 7 keynote speakers. Papers were presented in a condensed style, with presentations limited to 8 minutes. This freed half the time for discussion, which seemed to be well received by most participants and chairs. All the papers are accessible at: http://www.csse.unimelb.edu.au/aaee2007/
It’s now time to be thinking about the paper you’ll write for this year’s conference. Details for that are elsewhere in this newsletter.
The winner of the award for Teaching Excellence went to Richard Buckland from the University of New South Wales and Peter Sutton of the University of Queensland was highly commended.
|
Richard Buckland receiving his award from Wageeh Boles |
Peter Sutton receiving his high commendation from Wageeh Boles |
The winner of the award for Programs that Enhance Student Learning went to Antonija Mitrovic from the University of Canterbury with citations awarded to John Hamer from the University of Auckland, Giles Thomas & Paul Furness from the Australian Maritime College, Syed Mahfuzul Aziz from the University of South Australia and Peter Ashman from the University of Adelaide.
|
Antonija Mitrovic receiving her award from Wageeh Boles |
John Hamer receiving his citation from Wageeh Boles |
|
Syed Mahfuzul Aziz receiving his citation from Wageeh Boles |
Colin Kestell on behalf of Peter Ashman, receiving Peter's citation from Wageeh Boles |
|
Kurt Paterson and PJ Radcliffe receiving their award for best paper from Iouri Belski from IEEE. |
The 2008 Conference
The Rydges Capricorn Resort, Queensland (December 7th to 10th)
Ten years on from the very successful AaeE conference at Gladstone, Central Queensland University is pleased to invite you back to sunny Queensland to join us from December 7th to 10th, at Rydges Capricorn Resort for the 2008 conference.
The theme of “To Industry and Beyond” asks you to think of how we need to educate engineers not only for industry, but to create holistic professional practitioners.
The conference will include refereed papers and allow you to participate in thought provoking workshops. Pre and post conference workshops will also be on offer.
Use the magnificent pools and facilities of the resort to aid your reflective processes when you are not attending the presentations or workshops. After the conference, stay a while and visit the Great Barrier Reef or the Beef Capital. The resort will be offering reasonable rates for conference participants. Accommodation includes single rooms through to family apartments.
Important dates
Further details of venue and conference will be available on the conference website which is coming soon.
Other Conferences of Interested
CDIO (Conceive, Design, Implement, Operate)
CDIO represents a life cycle concept familiar to many of us in
engineering, probably using different labelling. We practice it in our
engineering design, curriculum design and embed it within our curriculum. Led
from within MIT (MA) a number of years ago, a global CDIO community of practice
has grown. The CDIO community shares many resources, some of which are available
to non-members (it’s worth a look – see the link below). In July of 2007, a CDIO
workshop was hosted at the
At
the AAEE conference at Melbourne University in December 2007, a CDIO workshop
was facilitated (
You
can expect see a number of CDIO activities including a special session to be
proposed for the AAEE 2008 Conference and a web-based group area to promote
collaboration, the sharing of experiences and the sharing of resources. My
intention is to establish facilities such as wiki’s, blogs and resources sharing
within this group.
You
can subscribe to the AAEE CDIO/PBL Interest Group via the EDNA AAEE web-site
http://groups.edna.edu.au (look for the listing
under Higher Education). This web-based group will be a work-in-progress, so
stay tuned and please contribute as you see
opportunity.
ERM (Educational Research and Methods)
A workshop on educational research methods was held at the last AaeE conference and most people who attended indicated that they would like to see the association establish a special interest group for ERM. Members feel that the group will provide a venue to:
As a result of our activities we aim to produce better and more convincing research that will help raise the status of the field of engineering education compared to the more technical areas of engineering. We hope to run a full day workshop at the next conference and provide lots of opportunity for members to interact and develop their ideas.
Everyone is welcome to get
involved and you can find us on the new AaeE webpage. Go to http://www.groups.edna.edu.au/, use the search term ‘engineering’
Roger Hadgraft recommends The Practice of Problem-Based Learning by Amador, Miles and Peters. Roger believes that "This is a great introductory book for those wanting to jump into various forms of Problem Based Learning. It’s just 135 pages and an easy read, with lots of quotes, stories and examples".
Margaret Jollands of RMIT recently read Scientific Research in Education Ed. RJ Shavelson, L Towne, National Research Council 2002 Washington DC : National Academy Press. Here's what she thought: "I found it to be very well written and easy to read. It gives a comprehensive summary on recent education research in the US and gives a blueprint for scientific research that can equally well be applied to education. It was interesting to read that "the prevailing view is that findings from education research studies are of low quality and are endlessly contested..", which distils what I have heard at RMIT for many years. It discusses at length why it is more difficult to do high quality scientific research in education than in technical disciplines, and why it is harder to make accurate predictions. It discusses the limitations of non-randomised field trials, which is the most common methodology, and its selective bias. It's available from Amazon.com for a modest price.
Anne Gardner recommends: 'Handling Qualitative Data - A Practical Guide' by Lyn Richards. Anne says that "it has many very practical guides for generating, storing, analysing and using qualitative data. As engineers we tend to use quantitative data, but don't have so much experience with qualitative data. Knowing what to do with this type of material will be useful for people interested in pursuing educational type research."
Other recommended reads include:
The Australasian Association for Engineering Education: http://www.aaee.com.au/
The American Society for Engineering Education: http://www.asee.org/
The European Society for Engineering Education: http://www.sefi.be/
The Carrick Institute: http://www.carrickinstitute.edu.au/carrick/go
The Knack: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmYDgncMhXw
Many Universities require that their students complete a period of work experience as part of the program requirements. For your students to have a great and exciting opportunity to complete this overseas, please ask them to visit: http://www.swin.edu.au/iaeste or email australia@iaeste.org
The Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd will
convene an Australia 2020 Summit at Parliament House on 19th and 20th April to
help shape a long term strategy for the nation's future. The Summit will bring
together 1000 leading Australians to the national Parliament to debate and
develop long-term options for the nation across 10 critical areas. Submissions: Organisations, while being specifically
excluded from having representatives at the Summit , do have the opportunity to
put forward written submissions. Engineers Australia will be putting forward a
submission. The submission will be coordinated through the International and
National Policy Directorate. I am seeking input from all relevant groups about
issues that should be raised under the specified areas, where applicable.
Submissions are limited to 500 words per topic. The topic areas are listed
below. All input must be forwarded to me via email by COB 1st April 2008to
enable me to collate responses.
lhardwicke@engineersaustralia.org.au
Topic areas: Future directions for the Australian economy - including education,
skills, training, science and innovation as part of the nation's productivity
agenda Economic infrastructure, the digital economy and the future of our cities
Population, sustainability, climate change and water Future directions for rural
industries and rural communities A long-term national health strategy -
including the challenges of preventative health, workforce planning and the
ageing population Strengthening communities, supporting families and social
inclusion Options for the future of indigenous Australia Towards a creative
Australia: the future of the arts, film and design The future of Australian
governance: renewed democracy, a more open government (including the role of the
media), the structure of the Federation and the rights and responsibilities of
citizens Australia's future security and prosperity in a rapidly changing region
and world. Nominations to
attend the summit: Participation in the
Summit is limited to individuals. Representatives from organisations such as
Engineers Australia are specifically excluded. If members are interested in
participating in the Australia 2020 Summit as an individual delegate on 19-20
April 2008 in Canberra, they can complete the nomination form and return it to
the Summit organisers by no later than COB Monday 25 February 2008. The
nomination form can be downloaded from
http://www.australia2020.gov.au Individuals will not be
speaking on behalf of Engineers Australia, nor should there be an expectation
that Engineers will provide funds for travel to the Summit.
Future Newsletter Contributions
As this newsletter nears it's end, I'd like to point out that it would be great to hear from members regarding anything else that may be deemed news worthy for future issues. While I sit here relieved that I've finally put together my first edition, I also find myself panicking about the next one - I have absolutely nothing! How about including one or two member profiles so that we can all learn a little more about each other? Whatever you have, anything, anything at all, please send it to me at colin.kestell@adelaide.edu.au
Thankyou!
