Experiences of Supplemental Instruction at Two Scandinavian Universities

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Are We Promoting a Surface Approach to Learning During the First Year of Engineering Educations?

The legislated goals for Master of Science in Engineering educations include goals like having the ability to critically, independently and creatively identify, formulate and handle complex problems as well as participate in research and development work and thus contribute to knowledge development. One might therefore argue that these educations are required to promote a deep approach to learning. This paper investigates to what degree new students at the Faculty of Engineering (LTH) at Lund University, Sweden, uses surface and deep learning approaches before being admitted and how these learning approaches changes during the first semester at our faculty. The questionnaire used- the Study Process Questionnaire designed by Biggs, was handed out to all new engineering students at LTH. The students were asked to answer the questions based on their experiences during their last year of studies before being admitted to LTH. After the first semester, the same group of students was asked to answer the same questionnaire based on their experiences during their first semester at LTH. Of the 1106 new students 989 answered the first questionnaire (89 %) and 675 the second (61 %). 599 students answered both questionnaires (54 %). It can be concluded that the average student does not have a pronounced surface approaches to learning before being admitted to LTH. The use of a deep approach to learning was slightly more pronounced. After one semester at LTH there is a statistically significant decrease in deep learning approaches for both genders and for nearly all programs

Improving student success in difficult engineering education courses through Supplemental Instruction (SI) – what is the impact of the degree of SI attendance?

The customary way to determine whether an adopted Supplemental Instruction (SI) program has been successful or not is by comparing course results for two groups, SI attendees and non-attendees. The division of SI attendees and non-attendees is generally done rather arbitrarily by prescribing a minimum number of SI sessions a student has to attend to be considered an SI attendee. Although the SI attendee vs. non-attendee concept is powerful in some respects, it tends to cloud the benefit of attending SI sessions. That a higher SI attendance leads to better course results is perhaps taken for granted, but in the few further studies that have been made, the picture of SI attendance rates vs. course results is not overly clear. The present study aims to contribute to how the degree of SI attendance affects course results in an engineering context at a Swedish University. In the study we divide the students into four categories, those with high, average, low, and no SI attendance. In terms of student success in a course, it is found that there is a clear relation between the number of SI sessions attended and course success. Students with high SI attendance do best followed by students with average, low, and no SI attendance, respectively

How have Supplemental Instruction-Peer Assisted Study Sessions (SI-PASS) programmes adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic? Case Studies from four Higher Education Institutes in Ireland, Norway, the UK and Sweden.

In this paper we look at the adaption of SI-PASS programmes during the COVID-19 pandemic drawing from four Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) as case studies: The National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway in Ireland, Nord University in Norway, Lund University in Sweden and the University of Manchester in the UK. The paper also focuses on the role of SI-PASS in student engagement in an extraordinary time. Attention is given to the numerous challenges that the SI-PASS teams have faced. For instance, how to engage students in an online environment or in a face-to-face setting with social distancing, training student leaders to hold online sessions, support of leaders, and enhancing the student participants’ learning experience. Attention is also given to the potential benefits of online SI-PASS and lessons learned that can be incorporated in post-pandemic SI-PASS programmes.publishedVersio

Some properties of currents and mixing in a shallow ice‐covered lake

A study on characteristics of currents and mixing in a shallow ice‐covered Russian lake is presented. The current velocity data are separated into four main components, mean velocity, uninodal longitudinal and transverse seiche currents, and “high”‐frequency velocity fluctuations, using digital filters. The analysis of components shows that mean currents are most pronounced in early winter and are of the order of 1–10 mm s−1. All three oscillatory components are, on average, of the same magnitude, 0.1–1 mm s−1, and about the same as mean currents in midwinter, and do not show any pronounced differences during winter. Mean currents increase during the convective period in late winter up to several millimeters per second. Apart from possible local hydrodynamic instability, induced by salt fluxes at the ice and bottom boundaries, and local turbulence near the boundaries in early winter, the vertical mixing in early winter and midwinter in the lake appears to be determined solely by molecular processes

Har gymnasiebetygen någon inverkan på studieresultaten vid LTH? En analys av studieresultaten under det första läsåret för den första årskullen i de nya 5-åriga civilingenjörsutbildningarna

Huvudsyftet med denna rapport är att söka samband mellan studieresultaten under det första läsåret vid de nya femåriga civilingenjörsprogrammen vid LTH och gymnasiebetygen – både det totala samt det i matematik. Sådana samband mellan gymnasiebetyg och resultat på första gemensamma matematiktentamen är tydliga – mer så för matematikbetygen från gymnasiet eftersom fler betyg i de lägre kategorierna är tillgängliga. Exempelvis är det bara 10 % av studenter med gymnasiebetyg i matematik under VG i snitt som klarar första tentamen. Detta kan jämföras med de som har VG och MVG i snitt från matematiken på gymnasiet där 30 % respektive 90 % klarar tentamen. De 5 % av studenterna som inte gått upp på tentamen är i huvudsak studenter med låga matematikbetyg från gymnasiet. M a o verkar det troligt att sjukdom bara förklarar en mindre del av frånvaron och att istället bristande självförtroende/förberedelser är en huvudorsak. Sambanden mellan betyg och studieprestationen under första läsåret (mätt i antalet tagna högskolepoäng) är också tydlig. Om vi jämför studenter från matematikbetygsgrupperna G-VG samt VG-MVG från gymnasiet m a p hur många som kommit upp i studiemedelsgränsen om 37,5 hp ser vi att i G-VG – gruppen är det 60 % som inte klarar 37,5 hp. I VG-MVG – gruppen är motsvarande siffra 24 %. Ett snabbt om än inte så realistiskt sätt att öka genomströmningen är m a o att försöka minimera antalet studenter i G-VG – gruppen. Sambandet mellan betyg och studentresultat kan också belysas utifrån medelpoängproduktionen under första året. Exempelvis är poängproduktionen ca 27 hp för studenter med G i snitt på matematikkurserna i gymnasiet, 42 hp för studenter med VG i snitt och slutligen 56 hp för studenter med MVG i snitt. Bland studenterna som inte fullföljde första året finns en klar överrepresentation av studenter med låga gymnasiebetyg, dvs att studenter med sämre förutsättningar har det svårare att acklimatisera sig till studierna vid LTH. Det finns också en tydlig relation mellan resultat på första tentamen i matematik och resultatet över det första läsåret. 94 % av studenterna som klarade första tentamen i endimensionell analys och som fullföljde hela första studieåret lyckades också klara CSN:s krav om minst 37,5 hp. Motsvarande för de som fick underkänt på första tentamen är att lite mer än hälften, 53,5 %, klarade studiemedelsgränsen

A Study on Learning Activities in Supplemental Instruction

The present study focuses on the learning activities that are used in practice in supplemental instruction (SI) in basic engineering courses and the extent to which they are meaning oriented. A survey method, based on action verbs, is used and complemented with a student experience questionnaire on SI. The verbs chosen by both the students attending SI and the SI leaders to identify learning activities, show a clear pattern. The explanations of the verbs by both groups in an SI context are consistent and give a good description of what actually occurs in an SI session. Thereafter the SOLO taxonomy is used to determine the learning levels of the chosen verbs and corresponding learning activities. The analysis indicates that learning activities in SI sessions in the present study are largely geared towards a deep approach. This result is supported by the results from the student experience questionnaire on SI

Peer Assisted Learning at Lund University: Evaluation results

A Peer Assisted Learning/Supplemental Instruction (SI) programme was introduced at Lund University in 1994 and has grown immensely since the start. Today we have more than 4000 students attending SI annually with ~230 SI-leaders working as facilitators during sessions. Evaluation data from the programme will be presented – both quantitative and qualitative. Qualitative data are primarily centered on attendance and the programme’s impact on retention and improving students study results. Qualitative data focus on questions like why students attend SI and what they gain both from a course and a general perspective. We will also look into potential benefits SI-leaders get and to what extent they may use these in working life after graduation

How to ensure quality in peer learning schemes (Workshop)

The workshop focuses on what data is needed to ensure the quality of your peer learning scheme and how to get it. You will work in groups with colleagues having similar peer learning schemes to your own (or a scheme you are planning for). The group work will center on questions like “Why evaluate your peer learning scheme?”, “Who might have interest in the evaluation data?”, and “What and how to evaluate?”

Spring Circulation Associated with the Thermal Bar in Large Temperate Lakes

The overall circulation pattern in spring is rather specific as density-induced currents may be of significance. The density-driven circulation perpendicular to the shore can be described as consisting of two circulation cells, with a zone of convergence, referred to as thermal bar, in between. The thermal bar, which coincides with the 4°C isotherm (the temperature of maximum density), inhibits horizontal water exchange, implying its practical importance. In this paper, a hydrodynamic numerical model is used to study the relative influence of wind- and density-driven currents in a large temperate lake during spring.The study shows that the general density-driven circulation is strongly dependent on the bottom topography, with a more pronounced circulation and considerable descending motions in the thermal bar zone in lakes with steep sloping bottoms. In shallow lakes, the wind-driven circulation dominates, and the effect of density-induced currents is marginal, except at locations with a drastic change in bottom depth