Search

Most students acknowledge shared responsibility, with the university, for their employability development. Many academics use assessments as the main driver for motivating students to learn. At the intersection between employability, assessment and learning, the emergent research question is -- what are the mechanisms by which course-based employability is fostered? Prior research reveals that although academics identified course-based assessment as the key employability mechanism, neither students nor employers registered this conceptualisation, and thus purpose of assessment. The aim of this research was to stimulate and communicate the direct connection between assessment and employability to students and interpret their response. Over 100 first-year students, across a metropolitan and regional Australian university, participated. Students were directed to use a simple reflective tool, dubbed iASK by the researchers, that probed employability elements of identity, Attributes, Skills, and Knowledge. The research revealed the resulting student view that regular course-based assessment can develop their employability skills in communication and independence, but not in critical thinking and global citizenship.

Access to interactive, simulated work environments through virtual reality (VR) has potential in teaching safety in design (SiD) to engineering students with reduced risk, cost and inconvenience. However, there is limited understanding of what students learn from immersive VR interventions, or the outcomes from specific learning activities. This study investigated engineering students' SiD learning in engineering design units at an Australian university. Informed by blended cognitivist-constructivist and situative perspectives, the units embedded static visualisation, dynamic visualisation through VR simulation, and group discussion, within an authentic hazard identification and analysis process. Observational data and student performances were analysed. Students' hazard comprehension differed by type of hazard and by learning activity. Students demonstrated understanding of SiD processes, terminology, and relevance of these to engineering design. We conclude that VR simulation is an effective learning tool, however the combination of learning elements was important to achieve learning outcomes.

Industry engagement, commonly implemented as a 12 week industry placement during a vacation towards the end of the degree, has traditionally been a provider-mandated component of externally accredited professional engineering degrees in Australia. Such placements are intended to bridge knowledge and capability gaps between academic study and engineering employment and contextualise the final phase of academic study. Changes in the composition of Australia's engineering industries have made it progressively harder to source such placements. In-curriculum exposure to engineering practice has also been expected, but has been delivered with considerable variability. In 2014 the authors completed a national project, led by the Australian Council of Engineering Deans (ACED), with peak industry bodies and several partner universities, funded from the Commonwealth Department of Industry Workplace Innovation Program, to explore how improving industry engagement could contribute further to engineering graduates' learning outcomes and employability. The data collected from the engineering students and employers, reported in this paper, can now be regarded as baseline data on industry engagement, against which subsequent developments can be referenced. For the first time, students' ratings of the value of different methods for industry engagement are shown to be related to their 'authenticity'. Several industry-inspired in-curriculum interventions were also trialled at partner universities. Guidelines for good practice were developed from melding the experiential findings with theoretical perspectives. In the years since completing the project, the accreditation body, Engineers Australia, has updated and intensified its focus on engagement with practice (including changing its language from 'exposure' to 'engagement'), and many engineering faculties have significantly enhanced their models and requirements for work integrated learning and industry engagement. This paper outlines these changes and examples of new implementations, including virtual and electronically-mediated methods that also reflect ongoing changes in engineering industry practice.

Benefits of industry engagement in engineering education for various stakeholders are well known, but there can be significant obstacles to initiating engagement. Using social capital theory, this study investigated how stakeholders initiate industry engagement in engineering education, and the main barriers from the stakeholders' perspectives. Semi-structured interviews were held with 21 professionals involved in the engineering industry (including academics and industry personnel). Inductive analysis showed industry engagement was initiated by all stakeholders, although reasons differed. Relationships between individual academics and their industry contacts were often key. Relying on these relationships was problematic when individuals changed roles or organisations. Relationships were also maintained through ongoing agreements or facilitated through third-party organisations. Key barriers included lack of invitations to industry stakeholders from universities, and unclear benefits to industry stakeholders of long-term engagement. The success of third parties in facilitating engagement may provide a framework for facilitating successful ongoing engagement.

A barrier to using head mounted display (HMD) virtual reality (VR) in education is access to hardware for large classes. This paper compares students' learning when engaging with an HMD VR simulation as the operator and as the observer, to evaluate whether benefits of HMD VR can be achieved without requiring all students to operate the equipment. Postgraduate engineering students (N = 117) completed a safety hazard identification exercise in a workshop. The performance of students who operated and observed was compared. Results showed that students performed similarly in the exercise that followed the simulation whether they operated HMD VR (n = 33) or observed (n = 84). The finding suggests that educators may be able to use HMD VR simulations in classes with a large enrolment, by reducing the need for investment and management of a large number of sets of HMD VR equipment. Implications for practice or policy: (1) Engineering educators can use HMD VR simulations to teach students about safety in design; (2) Engineering students are able to identify safety hazards in a HMD VR simulation effectively whether they are operating the equipment or observing another student in their group operating the VR equipment; (3) One HMD VR set per student group is sufficient; and (4) HMD VR simulations can be used inclusively, even when some students are unable or unwilling to wear the headset.

Australian universities have a remit to produce work-ready graduates and engage students from equity groups. In engineering education, accredited Australian programs commonly respond to Engineers Australia's required engagement with professional practice by mandating completion of a specified number of hours in work-integrated learning (WIL) placements as a graduation requirement. Placements are frequently self-sourced, under/unpaid, full-time and available at set times. These conditions, largely beyond students' control, limit options for students supporting themselves through paid work and for students with family commitments. In an investigation framed by the theory of practice architectures, we addressed the question: What are the institutional preconditions shaping WIL placement practices that enable and constrain particular students' access to, experience in, and leverage of professional learning at work for their future careers? Our analysis of three individual student interviews identified key student practices--applying for, doing, and leveraging placements--that are enabled and constrained by material-economic arrangements in family, university and work life, cultural-discursive arrangements in career development activities and social-political arrangements in personal and engineering networks. Identifying this architecture of practices is an important step towards an equitable transformation of WIL engineering placements.

Engineering professionals are expected to conduct their work in an ethical manner. However, students may receive limited instruction on ethics and demonstrate resistance to learning about ethics in practice, contributing to graduates being ill-prepared to face ethical dilemmas in the workplace. This study investigated the nascent learning by engineering students (N = 183) about the relevance of ethics to engineering practice in a two-hour workshop that included recounts of experiences that were of immediate relevance to engineering interns and graduates, through use of videos and a serious game. Thematic analysis of qualitative responses highlighted that students gained understanding of how ethics influences engineering practice in general, and how ethical issues influence the work of engineering professionals. Exposing students to the presence of ethical issues in practice through immediately relevant examples early during their studies is likely to improve the way they approach ethics throughout their studies, and subsequently, the workplace.

Work Integrated Learning (WIL) is embraced in Australian higher education (HE) and is a feature of most Australian HE 'entry to profession' engineering education programs accredited by Engineers Australia. Accreditation guidelines articulate the need for curriculum-integrated engagement with professional practice (EPP) and encourage EPP in a separate workplace environment, e.g. WIL. This article reports on the analysis of semi-structured interviews with staff and student engineers from four Australian HE institutions with mandatory engineering WIL. Framed by a Bourdieusian theoretical perspective, the influence of capitals on student access to engineering WIL placements was investigated. The research found that students' capitals influenced access to engineering WIL placements. Policy and educational practice recommendations are made.

Societal perceptions of engineering as a discipline now depict engineering as a profession that enables social, economic, and environmental problems to be addressed on a global scale. This expanded view of engineering has had myriad impacts on priorities for engineering education and practice. One such impact has been to foreground discussions about the role that empathy may play in engineering practice. This manuscript discusses the evolution of the concept of empathy in the engineering field, and the relevance of empathy to various generic engineering attributes, including leadership, problem-solving, and design thinking. The manuscript then discusses the idea that motivation plays a central role in improving and increasing empathy in engineering work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women remain severely under-represented in engineering in Australia as in all Western countries. This limits the pool of talent, standpoints and approaches within the profession. Furthermore, this under-representation equates to restriction of the benefits of being an engineer mainly to men. Gendered workplace experiences have been found to contribute to women leaving the profession. In this study we explore "students'" experiences of gendered cultures in engineering workplaces, using interviews with a purposive sample of 13 students (4 male) recruited following a previous survey. Although the overall experience of workplace learning is positive for many students, male and female engineering students reported experiences consistent with masculine cultures. Educators and employers must proactively lead improvements to the culture in engineering workplaces, prepare students for gendered workplaces and support students to reflect during and after workplace experiences. The experiences presented here could be adapted to enhance inclusivity training.

A recent overview and brief history of intensive modes of learning and teaching in higher education is presented, with implications for the design, application, impact, governance, and regulation of intensive mode teaching and learning. Previously limited to particular levels of study, or locations in the academic year, intensive modes as new forms of system-wide curriculum and organisation challenge the isomorphism of traditional, symmetrised organisations, while also being able to expand or complement conventional higher education. However, in whole-of-institution intensive mode settings, the importance of systematic awareness and application in adopting and sustaining intensive modes is highlighted, including the need to consider various process variables and pedagogic factors that may impact student learning. Prior research into correlations between these process dimension variables and learning gains offers some insights into the high-impact educational practices that are most likely to improve the quality of student learning outcomes - whether in intensive mode or otherwise. Systemic change requires careful planning, faculty development, and evolving assessment methodologies to ensure the success of intensive mode teaching and learning. Further research in areas such as change management, economics, graduate capabilities, pedagogies, wellness, equity, lifelong learning, and institutional responses would build a more robust evidence base for intensive modes of learning and teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we worked with second-year engineering students at an Australian university to examine previously identified threshold concepts within the theoretical framework of Possible Selves. Using workshops as the context for intensive work with students, students were encouraged to consider their future lives and work, including their engineering fears, expectations, and aspirations. The findings revealed many students to have a poor understanding of the realities of engineering work. Moreover, perceived gaps between self-efficacy and the requirements of engineering work appeared to be motivating if students deemed it possible to reduce the gap, but demotivating if they identified a characteristic over which there was perceived to be no control. The study suggests that these engineering students needed more opportunities to explore both the roles of engineers and their own possible selves. Overall, the findings indicate that higher education students may need encouragement and support to explore potential future roles, and they strengthen calls for further research in this area.

Engineering educators should motivate and support students in developing not only technical competence but also professional competence including commitment to excellence. We developed an authentic assessment to improve students' understanding of the importance of "perfection" in engineering--whereby 50% good enough will not be acceptable in industry. Subsequently we aimed to motivate them to practise performing at their best when they practice engineering. Students in a third-year mechanical and mechatronic engineering unit completed a team design project designed with authentic assessment features to replicate industry expectations and a novel marking scheme to encourage the pursuit of excellence. We report mixed responses from students. Students' ratings of their levels of effort on this assessment indicate that many perceived a positive influence on their effort. However, students' comments included several that were consistent with students experiencing the assessment as alienating.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore: student perceptions of threshold concepts and capabilities in postgraduate business education, and the potential impacts of intensive modes of teaching on student understanding of threshold concepts and development of threshold capabilities. Design/Methodology/Approach: The student experience of learning was studied in two business units: strategic management, and accounting. The method involved two phases. In the first, students and unit coordinators identified and justified potential threshold concepts and capabilities. In the second, themes were rationalized. Findings: Significantly more so in intensive mode, the opportunity to ask questions was reported by student participants to support their development of the nominated threshold capabilities. This and other factors reported by students to support their learning in intensive mode are consistent with supporting students to traverse the liminal space within the limited time available in intensive mode. Research Limitations/ Implications: Respondents from future cohorts will address the small participant numbers. Studies in only two units are reported. Studies in other disciplines are presented elsewhere. Practical Implications: The findings will be important to educators using intensive mode teaching in business, and researchers working within the framework. Originality/Value: This is the first study to explore the potential impacts of intensive modes of teaching on student understanding of threshold concepts and development of threshold capabilities.