The Effectiveness of Summative Assessment in Work-Based Learning Practice

Summative assessment aims at providing measurement of student's understanding. It is argued that summative assessment is used for reporting and reviewing, besides providing an overall judgment of achievement. While summative assessment is a well defined process for learning that takes place in the classroom environment, its application within the Work-based Learning (WBL) practice environment is still being structured. This paper discusses the effectiveness of summative assessment in WBL practice from a mixed-method research study involving both quantitative and qualitative analysis. A survey questionnaire was designed for exploring the perceptions of mentors and students about summative assessment in WBL practice. The questionnaire was administered to the University of Mauritius students and mentors who supervised students for their WBL practice at the respective placement settings. Some students were also interviewed to capture their views and experiences about the application of summative assessment in WBL practice. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with three experienced mentors who have assessed students on WBL practice. Findings reveal that most students had positive experiences about their summative assessments in WBL practice. They felt comfortable and confident to be assessed by their mentors in their placement settings and wished that the effort and time that they devoted to their learning be recognized and valued. Mentors also confirmed that summative assessment is a valid and reliable strategy in WBL practice, enabling them to better monitor and coach students to achieve the expected learning outcomes

A study of transferable skills for Work based Learning (WBL) Assessment

Transferable skills are learnt abilities which are mainly acquired when experiencing work. University students have the opportunities to develop the knowledge and aptitude at work when they undertake WBL placement during their studies. There is a range of transferable skills which students may acquire at their placement settings. Assessing the achievement of students on practice learning based on the transferable skills is regarded as being complex and tedious due to the variability of placement settings. No attempt has been made in investigating whether these skills are assessable at practice settings. This study seeks to define a set of generic transferable skills that can be assessed during WBL practice. Quantitative technique was used involving the design of two questionnaires. One was administered to University of Mauritius students who have undertaken WBL practice and the other was slightly modified, destined to mentors who have supervised and assessed students at placement settings. To obtain a good representation of the student’s population, the sample considered was stratified over four Faculties. As for the mentors, probability sampling was considered. Findings revealed that transferable skills may be subject to formal assessment at practice settings. Hypothesis tested indicate that there was no significant difference among male and female as regards to the application of transferable skills for formal assessment. A list of core transferable skills that are assessable at any practice settings has been defined after taking into account their degree of being generic, extent of acquisition at work settings and their consideration for formal assessment. Both students and mentors assert that these transferable skills are accessible at work settings and require commitment and energy to be acquired successfully

Exploring the factors that contribute towards better student-mentor relationship in work-based learning (WBL) practice

Mentors are called upon to counsel, guide, coach and advise mentees. Mentoring creates a relationship with the purpose of facilitating learners to achieve their learning goals. It allows individuals to look objectively at their performance and future development. Mentoring takes a formal setting in WBL practice which involves an experience for learning and a change in which mentor and mentee utilize a range of core components including honesty, trust and respectful listening to transfer knowledge and skills. Students on WBL practice view mentors as the right professionals with advanced work experience and knowledge from whom they may seek assistance for their professional and personal development. While many students undertaking WBL practice have experienced positive mentoring, there are some that complain about the lack of attention and care provided by their mentors. Most studies investigated the antecedents, outcomes, and benefits of programs with little attention given to identifying and illustrating what is required to ensure the quality of the mentoring process and the effectiveness of the mentoring relationship. This study sought to identify the factors that contribute towards positive mentoring for enhancing the student-mentor relationship. A survey questionnaire was designed for exploring the factors that lead to positive mentoring in WBL practice. The questionnaire was administered to students of the University of Mauritius who undertook WBL practice at the respective placement settings. Mentors providing the necessary coaching at these practice settings were also requested to complete a questionnaire. The findings reveal a list of the main factors which can lead to successful mentoring and enhance the student-mentor relationship. The element of ‘trust’ was found to be the most influential factor in the relationship, followed by ‘empathy’ and ‘openness’. These factors are seen to enhance interactive capability of mentees which contribute much towards improved acquisition of knowledge and skills in the practice

Analysis of stress effect on Lamb wave propagation in isotropic plates

This paper presents an analysis of the stress effect on Lamb wave propagation in isotropic plates based on the theory of nonlinear elasticity. In this study the plates are assumed to be initially isotropic hyperelastic and subjected to homogeneous stress. The theory of small deformations superimposed on large deformations is used to derive the acoustoelastic dispersion equations for both symmetric and anti-symmetric modes of Lamb waves. Different magnitudes of the inhomogeneous stress are considered in this study. The results of the theoretical predications show that the acoustoelastic effect of isotropy plates subjected to a realistic level of applied stresses is quite significant, especially for higher order Lamb wave modes near the cut-off frequencies.C. T. Ng, M. Mohabuth & A. Kotouso

Investigation of Lamb Wave Propagation in Pre-stressed Plates with Applications to Structural Health Monitoring

The evaluation of applied, residual and thermally-induced stresses, along with the non-destructive detection of damage, plays a critical role in the assessment of the integrity and residual life of engineering structures. There is currently a growing demand from many industries to develop and incorporate on-line stress monitoring capabilities into existing as well as future Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems. These capabilities would allow for a significant improvement to failure risk management and life forecasting, which currently largely rely on stress values obtained at the design or testing stage. It is also very attractive from cost considerations to share the same network of sensors for both damage detection and stress evaluation. Guided wave based techniques are among the most promising options to meet these demands and expectations. Although SHM systems utilising guided waves are already in operation in a number of applications, the design, integration and implementation of in situ stress monitoring techniques are still under development. The overall aim of this thesis is to develop a better understanding of the phenomena associated with the propagation of Lamb waves in pre-stressed plates. Such an understanding is of paramount importance in the development of in situ stress monitoring procedures based on Lamb waves and the operation of existing and future guided wave based SHM systems. The specific objectives of this thesis include the extension of the classical theory of acoustoelasticity to guided waves propagating in pre-stressed plates, the development of a new experimental procedure for the evaluation of third-order elastic constants and the analysis of the residual noise due to the effect of applied or thermally-induced stress after baseline signal subtraction. In particular, it was demonstrated that this residual noise is not negligible and has a similar impact on the operation of SHM systems as ambient temperature variations. The main body of this thesis is comprised of a combination of ‘published’ and ‘accepted for publication’ journal articles. These articles are united by the same framework, the theory of acoustoelasticity, which is applied to a range of problems, each representing a separate chapter of this thesis (Chapters 3 - 6). In addition, Chapter 1 provides brief introduction to the research area, along with a broad literature review which is not intended to duplicate the specific literature reviews incorporated as part of the journal articles. Chapter 2 presents the mathematical background, including the basic equations of nonlinear elasticity, relevant to the theoretical developments in Chapters 3 – 6. The thesis is concluded with Chapter 7 which summarises the main outcomes of the research undertaken and outlines the future work. The main outcomes of the thesis include the development of: (1) a new analytical model to study the propagation of Lamb waves in pre-stressed compressible plates, (2) a new approach to analyse the effect of a large pre-deformation on the propagation of Lamb waves in incompressible plates, (3) a new analytical model to estimate the effect of stress induced variations on damage detection with Lamb waves, and (4) a new method to evaluate third-order elastic constants utilising Rayleigh waves.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Mechanical Engineering, 201

A Study of the Identification of the Factors that Lead to Time Delays in Software Development

Completing software development projects on time has always been very challenging for software developers.  Despite proper planning and use of tools and techniques, project managers often complained that they miss their targets.  Rarely software development projects are delivered on time to the satisfaction of clients.  Time slips, deadline missed and schedule overruns resulting in serious delays for software delivery.  This study aims at identifying the factors which prevent software project to be completed on time.  It extracts where software developers experience most of the time delays and assess whether overrunning schedule is distinct to different size of organisation.  A survey questionnaire was designed for identifying the causes and frequency of occurrences of delays on software projects.  The questionnaire was administered to software developers at small, medium and large software development house.   Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with software developers who have experienced on managing software development projects.  Findings reveal that software delays are mostly due to managerial problems rather than technical complexities.  Coordination, communication, conflicting relationship, unrealistic planning, team complexity are among the factors found that contribute most to time delays.   Technical factors are found to be less prominent with the most frequent ones being in accommodating changes, determining requirements and in the testing phase. Besides, it has been observed that there is uniformity across organisations i.e. the small, medium and large development firms face the same issues as regards to the time delays affecting software project

An IoT-Based Model for Monitoring Plant Growth in Greenhouses

The unstable climatic conditions are promoting the adoption of smart agriculture. The introduction of IoT technology in the cultivation process allows for the monitoring and control of plant growth through automation. While the traditional greenhouse system is already an upgrade to the traditional cultivation system, it still has room for improvement with the integration of technology. The traditional greenhouse system requires close monitoring of growth rates through manual intervention and can be prone to various hazards. Incorrect interpretations of plant requirements can result in wrong interventions that may severely affect plant growth. It is imperative to have accurate data to maintain the health of plants throughout the cultivation process. IoT plays a predominant role in providing accurate data for constant monitoring of plant growth. The aim of this paper is to present a fully functional greenhouse automation model using microcontrollers, sensors, fans, pumps, and appropriate networking routing technology capable of providing instant data for proper monitoring of plant growth. The presented model includes safety features and can issue alerts in case security measures are breached. The system may even allow users to perform remote monitoring using a web application. Therefore, the proposed model will contribute to enhancing the horticultural industry by increasing output and reducing the need for human intervention

Experimental study on local plastic collapse in a plate weakened by two collinear cracks

2015 the 4th International Conference on Advances in Mechanics Engineering (ICAME 2015)Fracture and fatigue assessment of structures weakened by multiple site damage (MSD) currently represents a challenging problem. Here, we communicate the outcomes of an experimental study conducted on a plate weakened by two closely-spaced collinear cracks, which represents the simplest form of MSD. The experimental results are used to verify the predictions of a recently developed theoretical approach.Munawwar Mohabuth, Donghoon Chang and Aditya Khann

Large acoustoelastic effect for Lamb waves propagating in an incompressible elastic plate

Abstract not availableMunawwar Mohabuth, Andrei Kotousov, Ching-Tai N

Effect of uniaxial stress on the propagation of higher-order Lamb wave modes

Abstract not availableMunawwar Mohabuth, Andrei Kotousov, Ching-Tai N