Student perceptions of their autonomy at University

© 2017, The Author(s). Learner autonomy is a primary learning outcome of Higher Education in many countries. However, empirical evaluation of how student autonomy progresses during undergraduate degrees is limited. We surveyed a total of 636 students’ self-perceived autonomy during a period of two academic years using the Autonomous Learning Scale. Our analysis suggests that students do not perceive themselves as being any more autonomous as they progress through University. Given the relativity of self-perception metrics, we suggest that our results evince a “red queen” effect. In essence, as course expectations increase with each year, each student’s self-perceived autonomy relative to their ideal remains constant; we term this the “moving goalpost” hypothesis. This article corroborates pedagogical literature suggesting that providing students with opportunities to act autonomously and develop confidence is key to developing graduates who have the independence that they need in order to be successful in the workplace

High resolution powder blast micromachining

Powder blasting, or Abrasive Jet Machining (AJM), is a technique in which a particle jet is directed towards a target for mechanical material removal. It is a fast, cheap and accurate directional etch technique for brittle materials like glass, silicon and ceramics. By introducing electroplated copper as a new mask material, the feature size of this process was decreased. It was found that blasting with 9 µm particles (compared with 30 µm particles) result in a higher slope of the channel sidewall. The aspect ratio of powder blasted channels was increased by using the high resistance of the copper mask in combination with the use of 9 µm particles. Furthermore, our measurements show how the blast lag (small channels etch slower compared to wider channels) is decreased by using smaller particles

Blessings of Liberty: a television script in three acts

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit