Reflections on developing and implementing an advanced engineering project management course

Background or Context The Advanced Engineering Project Management course was developed in 2014 by the University of Southern Queensland to assist qualified engineers to enhance their knowledge and skills in project management. It complements a number of other postgraduate engineering management courses offered by the University. This course was initially developed in 2014 for distance education by a team of three academics, each of whom has had considerable professional experience, and was delivered in that year to a small number of engineers with an interest in further developing their project management knowledge and skills. In 2015, it has been offered through both on-campus and distance education to a wider student group, including engineering technologists studying programs like the Master of Engineering Science to qualify as professional engineers, by both on-campus and distance education, with an enrolment of over 80 students. Its development and delivery, while successful, have provided a number of challenges and resulted in the learning of valuable lessons. Purpose or Goal The purpose of this study is to discuss the challenges met in developing and delivering this course, how they were overcome, and the lessons learnt from this process. While the course is delivered by traditional approaches like lectures and tutorials, it has been underpinned by student focused principles like reflective learning, deep learning and assessment that aims to resemble industry practice as authentically as possible and uses two assignments that build on each other. In these assignments, students are given a set of project management issues to apply to a project (or program of projects in the case of the second assignment) that they nominate in accordance with a set of parameters in the assignment question, and are then asked to analyse and address the issues and write a report to senior management on the resulting plan to achieve desired objectives. The assignments are designed to mirror practice as much as possible and provide a degree of student centred learning. This approach, and the way in which it aids student development, are discussed. Approach The study outlines development and delivery of the course, both initially to a small distance education cohort in 2014 and to a much larger student cohort in 2015, from the point of view of its role in student development. Insight is provided into the approach used by the development team to formulate, write, review and initially deliver quality course material to a small group of learners in a quite short time period. The delivery of the course in each of the two years of offer is compared and contrasted. A number of issues, such as ensuring that course material has been of an advanced nature and engaging, that there has been a focus on reflective learning practices and deep learning, and ensuring that assessment has been as authentic as possible, are discussed. The main issue in the initial 2014 delivery of the course, to a small group of engineers with some experience in project management, was ensuring the development of course material kept pace with its delivery. In the 2015 delivery, to a much larger cohort of both on-campus and distance education students, the main issue has been minimal knowledge by a number of students of basic project management, which it was previously assumed that all students in the course would possess. As a result, further changes to this course are planned for its 2016 delivery. Discussion Key outcomes of this study include: 1. A discussion about the course development process, the issues in this process and how it can be improved. 2. The extent to which the course has involved good educational principles like reflective practice, a focus on the student, authentic assessment and continual improvement. 3. The extent to which the course material and its assessment have been received by learners, and in particular learners with minimal knowledge of basic project management principles. 4. Modifications to the course topics and material as a result of learner feedback and experiences of the staff delivering it. Recommendations/Implications/Conclusions While the development and delivery of this course has been quite successful, its implementation has resulted in a number of learnings. The main learning from this study is the importance of developing sound course material and assessment that not only meets student needs at the time of development, but is flexible enough to adapt to changing student backgrounds and needs over time. Implications arising from the development and delivery of the course include the: 1. importance of clarity about course objectives and good constructive alignment in the course development process 2. desirability to have good knowledge of existing and potential future learner skills and their requirements in developing and delivering new courses 3. application of good teaching principles in developing and delivering courses in engineering management 4. need to have a strong focus on continual review to result in a quality product 5. desirability of building flexibility into courses to accommodate emerging issues and developing circumstances. It is concluded that the learnings from this study will aid the development of future postgraduate engineering management courses through better identifying and assessing the challenges and issues in their development, delivery and revision, from the point of view of good teaching practice

Comparing distance education and conventional education: Observations from a comparative study of post‐registration nurses

This retrospective study presents a comparison of assessment results achieved by distance‐learning students and classroom‐based students undertaking the same module in a degree course. The purpose of the comparison is to provide some objective measurement of the quality of distance education in relation to conventional classroom‐based education. The authors have selected three groups of students, who have all undertaken the same module in the B. Sc Health Studies degree programme offered by the University of Paisley. One group (in Paisley) undertook their studies by means of conventional classroom‐based education, the second (in Hong Kong) by supported distance learning with face‐to‐face contact in the form of tutorials, and the third (in a geographically dispersed group in the United Kingdom and other countries) by supported distance learning with no face‐to‐face contact. The results obtained by these three groups of students were analysed. Because of the differences in the size of the groups, the Kruskal‐ Wallis 1‐ Way Anova test was applied to validate the face value findings. The authors include findings from the literature comparing distance education with conventional education and from cross‐cultural studies to present their data in context. Analysis of the assessment results showed that students from all three groups were successful in their studies, but the students studying by distance learning obtained significantly higher end‐of‐module results than their classroom‐based colleagues. This latter finding reflects the conclusion that other investigators have reached In their discussion the authors identify educational, cultural and personal factors that may help to explain their findings. A limitation in the study is that it concerns only one module in the degree programme. The research now moves on to comparing students who have undertaken the whole degree programme by the means describe

Assessment of the Community Perceptions on Open Schooling System in Tanzania: Empirical Experience from Mbeya.

This study was intended to analyze the community perception on open schooling system was conducted in Mbeya city council, Mbeya region. The study involved four OSS centres, 4 heads of the OSS centres, 6 teachers, 61 students, 10 parents and 4 education officers. The study applied a qualitative approach with interviews and Focus Group discussion as methods for data collection methods. The study found that the main conception of the people on the meaning of OSS as the type of schools where majority of people who missed formal schooling opportunities. It was further revealed that the community experience that there are both good and bad things in OSS. The study also discovered that there are policy guidelines. The guidelines include standards in student registration, centres settings, environments, infrastructures, teaching and learning resources availability and quality, teacher qualification as well as general management of the schools. The future trends of the OSS are believed to continue expansion is enrolment, centres and technology in the OSS learning. Based on the perceptions revealed by the findings, the study recommends that, government should improve the policy guideline geared at overseeing the implementation of OSS programmes. Finally, the study recommends that the OSS administrators should mobilize resources from various stakeholders to cater to the constant changes in information and communications technology so as not to compromise on the quality of delivery of the OSS programme. Keywords: Open Schools, open and distance education, adult education, community perceptions, community experiences, policy guideline

Analysis of the Community Perceptions on Open Schooling System in Tanzania: The Case of Mbeya City Counci

This study was intended to analyze the community perception on open schooling system was conducted in Mbeya city council, Mbeya region. The study involved four OSS centres, 4 heads of the OSS centres, 6 teachers, 56 students, 10 parents and 4 education officers. The study applied a qualitative approach with interviews and Focus Group discussion as methods for data collection methods. The study found that the main conception of the people on the meaning of OSS as the type of schools where majority of people who missed formal schooling opportunities. It was further revealed that the community experience that there are both good and bad things in OSS. The study also discovered that there are policy guidelines. The guidelines include standards in student registration, centres settings, environments, infrastructures, teaching and learning resources availability and quality, teacher qualification as well as general management of the schools. The future trends of the OSS are believed to continue expansion is enrolment, centres and technology in the OSS learning. Based on the perceptions revealed by the findings, the study recommends that, government should improve the policy guideline geared at overseeing the implementation of OSS programmes. Finally, the study recommends that the OSS administrators should mobilize resources from various stakeholders to cater to the constant changes in information and communications technology so as not to compromise on the quality of delivery of the OSS programme. Keywords: Adult education, Community perceptions, Community experiences, Open Schools, Open and distance education, Policy guidelin

Maximising Social Interactions and Effectiveness within Distance Learning Courses: Cases from Construction

Advanced Internet technologies have revolutionised the delivery of distance learning education. As a result, the physical proximity between learners and the learning providers has become less important. However, whilst the pervasiveness of these technological developments has reached unprecedented levels, critics argue that the student learning experience is still not as effective as conventional face-to-face delivery. In this regard, surveys of distance learning courses reveal that there is often a lack of social interaction attributed to this method of delivery, which tends to leave learners feeling isolated due to a lack of engagement, direction, guidance and support by the tutor. This paper defines and conceptualises this phenomenon by investigating the extent to which distance-learning programmes provide the social interactions of an equivalent traditional classroom setting. In this respect, two distance learning case studies were investigated, covering the UK and Slovenian markets respectively. Research findings identified that delivery success is strongly dependent on the particular context to which the specific distance learning course is designed, structured and augmented. It is therefore recommended that designers of distance learning courses should balance the tensions and nuances associated with commercial viability and pedagogic effectiveness

An Evaluation of the Prison Radio Association’s Activity Final Report Year 1 The West Midlands Prison Radio Taster Project

The Prison Radio Association (PRA) was set up in 2005 and achieved charitable status in 2006. The PRA continues to contribute to the reduction of re-offending by capitalising on the opportunity prison provides to stop people offending for good. The Association is committed to the ways in which prison radio can provide a unique and innovative way to engage offenders (regardless of age, ethnic origin, gender or faith) in education; particularly those hard to reach offenders disenfranchised by the educational system. The PRA currently works with over 40 prisons across England and Wales. In 2007, the Prison Radio Association and partners1 developed a two week taster course in radio production for delivery in six prisons across the West Midlands, entitled: the West Midlands Prison Radio Taster Project2. The objectives of this project were firstly, overall project delivery, which consisted of the recruitment of a radio trainer, developing a radio training course which embeds basic skills and the delivery of the taster courses in six prisons. The wider objectives concerned raising awareness of the potential of radio training to embed basic skills and to examine sustainability within prison service education. The findings of the external evaluation conducted by the Hallam Centre for Community Justice are presented in this report

Delivering manufacturing technology and workshop appreciation to engineering undergraduates using the flipped classroom approach

Delivery of manufacturing technology and practical workshop-based work, on undergraduate engineering courses that engage the learners, is challenging. The paper presents an experimental method of workshop delivery using the flipped learning approach, a pedagogical model in which the typical lecture and homework elements of a course are reversed. Video lectures are viewed by students prior to class. In-class time can be devoted to exercises, projects, or discussions as in this case. Learners were asked to observe three audiovisual clips in preparation for class. The objective was to determine whether the flipped classroom approach can enhance the learning experience, through better engagement with the students, compared to conventional classroom-based learning. The level of student participation and level of success have been established by means of feedback questionnaires from more than 100 participants and peer observation. The results are encouraging and demonstrate that this approach is favoured by the students