Meeting the growing demand for engineers and their educators: the potential for open and distance learning

As with all teaching, open and distance approaches are successful only if based on good pedagogical design addressing the purpose, structure and pace of the material, hence engaging students and encouraging active learning. For distance learning such pedagogical design is often expensive, and can only be justified by comparatively large student numbers. Much open and distance teaching offers meagre student support. To be successful, course developers must integrate student support into the learning materials, including such elements as a modest number of face-to-face sessions or electronic communication at a distance. This presentation discusses these issues in the context of SET distance teaching and presents examples of good practice from the UKOU, including: • an introductory course in ICT that adopts an issues-based approach, in order to de-mystify the subject and make it more attractive to students • resource-based approaches in engineering education • team projects at a distance • an emphasis on ‘active learning’ An argument is also to be made for the importance of openness if we really wish to promote engineering. In this context ‘openness’ means making programmes available to all students (even those without formal school-leaving qualifications) that will ultimately enable them to qualify as a professional engineer or an educator of engineers. The traditional approach to engineering education has been hierarchical and linear: a good school leaving certificate in mathematics / science followed by an often very theoretical university education plus an application-oriented final project. If we are serious about attracting new engineers, this will no longer do. An open and distance approach to engineering formation, based on outcomes rather than input educational levels, and with an emphasis on lifelong learning and professional development, can make a major contribution to chang

Team project work for distance learners in engineering – challenges and benefits

Team Engineering (first presented in autumn 2006) was the first course (module) at the Open University (OU) to use wikis and video-conferencing in combination to support the work of project teams. Teams of five students, working remotely from one another, tackle an engineering project over 32 weeks. The teams schedule regular meetings throughout the project and these are conducted using FlashMeeting, a lightweight video-conferencing system being developed by the OU's Knowledge Media Institute, KMi (http://flashmeeting.open.ac.uk). Unlike other systems, FlashMeeting requires no software installation. In addition, it not only archives the meetings but also provides detailed analysis of the proceedings. The teams are encouraged to use the wiki facility in the OU's virtual learning environment (VLE) for their collaborative report-writing. The collective work of the team is assessed through these reports. The performance of the individual is assessed through their reflective account of the project. The archiving facility in FlashMeeting has been of huge help in developing this. For the next presentation of the course a learning journal is to be added to the existing means of support. Feedback from tutors and students alike has been extremely positive, whilst recognising the limitations of the technologies in their current implementations. This paper gives an account of the students' achievements and offers an assessment of the pedagogic potential of using these media together

An investigation into the adoption of CDIO in distance learning

The Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate Initiative (CDIO) uses integrated learning to develop deep learning of the disciplinary knowledge base whilst simultaneously developing personal, interpersonal, product, process and system building skills. This is achieved through active and experiential learning methods that expose students to experiences engineers will encounter in their profession. These are incorporated not only in the design-build-test experiences that form a crucial part of a CDIO programme but also in discipline focused studies. Active and experiential learning methods are, of course, more difficult to incorporate into distance education. This paper investigates these difficulties and the implications in providing a programme that best achieves the goals of the CDIO approach through contemporary distance education methods. First, the key issues of adopting the CDIO approach in conventional oncampus courses are considered with reference to the development of the CDIO engineering programmes at the University of Liverpool. The different models of distance based delivery of engineering programmes provided by the Open University in the UK, and Deakin University and the University of Southern Queensland in Australia are then presented and issues that may present obstacles to the future adoption of the CDIO approach in these programmes are discussed. The effectiveness and suitability of various solutions to foreseen difficulties in delivering CDIO programmes through distance education are then considered. These include the further development, increased use and interinstitutional sharing of technology based facilities such as Internet facilitated access to laboratory facilities and computer aided learning (CAL) laboratory simulations, on campus workshops, and the development of a virtual engineering enterprise

Team project work for distance learners in engineering � challenges and benefits

Team Engineering (first presented in autumn 2006) was the first course (module) at the Open University (OU) to use wikis and video-conferencing in combination to support the work of project teams. Teams of five students, working remotely from one another, tackle an engineering project over 32 weeks. The teams schedule regular meetings throughout the project and these are conducted using FlashMeeting, a lightweight video-conferencing system being developed by the OU�s Knowledge Media Institute, KMi (http://flashmeeting.open.ac.uk). Unlike other systems, FlashMeeting requires no software installation. In addition, it not only archives the meetings but also provides detailed analysis of the proceedings. The teams are encouraged to use the wiki facility in the OU�s virtual learning environment (VLE) for their collaborative report-writing. The collective work of the team is assessed through these reports. The performance of the individual is assessed through their reflective account of the project. The archiving facility in FlashMeeting has been of huge help in developing this. For the next presentation of the course a learning journal is to be added to the existing means of support. Feedback from tutors and students alike has been extremely positive, whilst recognising the limitations of the technologies in their current implementations. This paper gives an account of the students� achievements and offers an assessment of the pedagogic potential of using these media together

Evaluating the impact of the Learning Design and Course Creation (LDCC) workshop on the participants of the enhancement of Lifelong Learning in Belarus (BELL) project

Recently, national governments have introduced limitations on traditional approaches to curriculum delivery to cope with the impact of COVID-19. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have had to scramble to adjust their teaching and learning models in order to ‘pivot online’. As such, there is a pressing need for professional development of staff to deliver learning at a distance, based on robust distance and online education design frameworks. One such professional development offering is the LDCC Workshop from the Open University UK (UKOU) which, in September 2018, was attended by staff from six Belarusian HEIs involved in the ERASMUS+ funded Enhancement of Lifelong Learning in Belarus (BELL) Project. The Belarusian project partners were tasked with developing and delivering five distance and online courses for the first time in Belarus. The 18-month longitudinal study presented here evaluated the impact of the LDCC Workshop on the working practices of the participants and the design and realisation of their courses

How might the cultural learning preferences of the participants of the enhancement of lifelong learning in Belarus (BELL) project impact on their learning designs?

Like many other elements of education, the activity of creating learning is influenced to some degree by ways of thinking and behaving that are developed over time as part of an individual’s exposure to social groups, media, history and geographical location. In other words, their culture. For some researchers — given a large enough data set — it is even possible to define national cultural characteristics and examine their role in fields such as international commerce and relations. Learning design places particular importance on the identification of student and environmental characteristics but little has been done to explore the impact of the cultural preferences of the learning designer on the learning situation that they create. In September 2018, the Learning Design and Course Creation (LDCC) Workshop from the Open University UK (UKOU) was attended by staff from six Belarusian HEIs involved in the ERASMUS+ funded Enhancement of Lifelong Learning in Belarus (BELL) Project. The Belarusian project partners were tasked with developing and delivering five distance and online courses for the first time in Belarus. The Cultural Dimensions of Learning Framework (CDLF) was used to collect data on the cultural learning preferences of the BELL participants and the findings are presented here as a stimulus for discussion and potential comparison against the final course designs

An investigation into the adoption of CDIO in distance education

The Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate Initiative (CDIO) uses integrated learning to develop deep learning of the disciplinary knowledge base whilst simultaneously developing personal, interpersonal, product, process and system building skills. This is achieved through active and experiential learning methods that expose students to experiences engineers will encounter in their profession. These are incorporated not only in the design-build-test experiences that form a crucial part of a CDIO programme but also in disciplinefocused studies. Active and experiential learning methods are, of course, more difficult to incorporate into distance education. This paper investigates these difficulties and the implications in providing a programme that best achieves the goals of the CDIO approach through contemporary distance education methods.First, the key issues of adopting the CDIO approach in conventional oncampus courses are considered with reference to the development of the CDIO engineering programmes at the University of Liverpool. The different models of distance based delivery of engineering programmes provided by the Open University in the UK, and Deakin University and the University of Southern Queensland in Australia are then presented and issues that may present obstacles to the future adoption of the CDIO approach in these programmes are discussed.The effectiveness and suitability of various solutions to foreseen difficulties in delivering CDIO programmes through distance education are then considered. These include the further development, increased use and interinstitutional sharing of technology based facilities such as Internet facilitated access to laboratory facilities and computer aided learning (CAL) laboratory simulations, oncampus workshops, and the development of a virtual engineering enterprise.<br /

Quality standards in online distance education

Distance education has a long heritage shared by a number of globally important providers, such as The UK Open University and China Central Radio and Television University (now the Open University of China). Such institutions have long-established quality management systems appropriate to their historical needs. However, the recent rise in demand for distance learning coupled with the rapid development of web technologies has led to a dramatic increase in the number of providers in the field, many of whom do not have existing quality management systems. Post-hoc, such organizations are identifying a need for such systems, and groups are emerging with their own quality standards and processes that they claim will meet that need. This paper examines a range of these emerging standards and asks whether a consensus is developing around common standards and/or processes for the quality assurance and enhancement of online distance education

Evaluation of residential school activity ‘Product re-engineering for enhanced end-of-life performance

Starting from the year 2010, students of The Open University who enrol on the residential school module Engineering in Action have undertaken a team project focused on end-of-life product design. This highlights the engineer's role in promoting sustainable futures, which is now a feature of all engineering programmes. The team aspect of the project also provides an important opportunity for skills development for students who normally work alone and at a distance. A key aspect of the design of the activity is the use of genuine end-of-life domestic products to engage the students’ interest and motivate them to find out more about the product by linking their investigation to their everyday experience. Small project grant funding was obtained in 2010 from the UK Centre for Materials Education (UKCME) to study the effectiveness of the activity in terms of student and staff satisfaction and the quality of the student learning experience. The 2010 cohort of students (around 150 in number) were invited to complete evaluation questionnaires and to volunteer for a telephone interview. A total of 126 completed student questionnaires were received and five students were subsequently interviewed. Questionnaires were also distributed to 16 tutors and four were completed and returned. Further tutor feedback was obtained from direct discussions during the residential school. The outcome of the evaluation was overwhelmingly supportive of the design and delivery of the new team project. Suggestions for improvements were received but none requiring significant alteration of the project. Many of these were implemented for the 2011 presentation. The success of the project may be partly due to contextual factors, such as student demographics, the role of residential schools within the Open University programme and the timescale over which the project is delivered. This possibility remains to be tested by other educators