This activity involves students pitching early concepts for self-determined innovation projects t... more This activity involves students pitching early concepts for self-determined innovation projects they wish to undertake to an audience of peers and experts attending a live event in a virtual space. The students practice articulating their ideas while eliciting feedback and constructive criticism to help them further develop and refine those ideas, in preparation for formal face-to-face presentations they have to deliver to faculty in much the same way startup entrepreneurs do when putting forward a business proposal to a group of potential investors. The approach is intended to provide students with guidance and support in defining a clear vision and scope for their projects at the initiation phase, while still affording them freedom and autonomy in deciding what they ultimately wish to pursue. The authors originally developed the activity for an engineering design course, in which they brought together students and industry guests in a cyber “trade fair” hosted on a video-augmented three-dimensional virtual world platform called iSee; however, the activity may be adapted for use in a range of other contexts and disciplines, and to incorporate various types of online events based on synchronous collaborative technologies of the educator’s and/or students’ choosing.
2021 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology & Education (TALE), Dec 5, 2021
Engineering accreditation bodies, and professionals alike agree that practical (psychomotor) skil... more Engineering accreditation bodies, and professionals alike agree that practical (psychomotor) skills are a key component of a holistic engineering education, alongside cognitive and affective development. Despite this, practical skills and the psychomotor domain are largely underexamined in tertiary engineering education, in favor of theoretical tasks. Laboratory exams, as they exist today, lack the scalability of written exams and standalone single-student exam boards require technical supervision beyond the understanding of an exam invigilator. Such logistical and technical bottlenecks could be overcome through a portable electronic device that contained autonomous assessment capability. This paper explores the prototyping of a self-contained assessment module, capable of accurately assessing a student's psychomotor capability within a university Digital Hardware course. The prototype is verified as an examination tool through rigorous testing and student surveys.
Abstract: In this case, a mixed-reality environment based on a hybrid of desktop videoconferencin... more Abstract: In this case, a mixed-reality environment based on a hybrid of desktop videoconferencing and 3D virtual world technology is used to bring together campus-based students in multiple countries studying an engineering design course with experts from industry. The relevant course requires student teams to work face-to-face and online on designing and prototyping marketable products of their choosing. To support students\u27 conceptual development of their projects, they are asked to \u27pitch\u27 initial proposals to their local and international peers and to the industry experts in the context of a trade fair held within the mixed-reality environment. This gives them opportunities to practise articulating and to solicit constructive feedback on their ideas in preparation for face-to-face presentations they must deliver to a panel of academics to obtain project approval. The activity also strives to hone students\u27 professional communication and networking skills, and to increase their awareness of cross-cultural design considerations. The initiative has been well received by participants as well as by teaching staff and the wider academic community. The approach has proven time- and cost-effective at overcoming barriers in allowing a mixture of distributed and co-located individuals, including busy industry professionals, to simultaneously partake in authentic learning experiences. Student self-report data indicate they emerge with clearer conceptualisations of their ideas and greater confidence in explaining them to others, and the face-to-face presentations have been evaluated by the academic panel at a higher standard than those in prior years. Key lessons learnt include the importance of appropriate training and support for both participants and facilitators, attention to detail in the environment design, and explicit scaffolding of participants\u27 collaborative processes. Future work will see the creation of additional learning designs for accommodating a variety of work-related/work-integrated learning scenarios, giving rise to reusable resources along with \u27good-practice\u27 recommendations for educators venturing into this area
9th Research in Engineering Education Symposium (REES 2021) and 32nd Australasian Association for Engineering Education Conference (REES AAEE 2021), 2022
Towards a new future in engineering education, new scenarios that european alliances of tech universities open up
Learning objectives are important as they provide direction to teaching staff towards what conten... more Learning objectives are important as they provide direction to teaching staff towards what content should be taught, what activities should be undertaken and what assessments are to be used to confirm understanding. Two decades ago, the evolution of new learning modes such as recorded, remote, and simulation/virtual started the research process to define and better understand learning objectives in the teaching laboratory. Much is still to be learnt about laboratory learning objectives including which are most important, and if what is deemed important is universal. For example, do academics in Europe and Australasia align in which objectives are most important and which are not? To answer this question, European and Australasian engineering academics were asked to rank laboratory objectives across the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domain using a predefined tool called Laboratory Learning Objectives Measurement. A total of 113 academics from Australasia and 25 from Europe re...
Knowledge is an intangible and vital resource that is an important source of competitive advantag... more Knowledge is an intangible and vital resource that is an important source of competitive advantage; however, the technologies that help create, store, and transfer knowledge are hindered by unrealistic expectations and ambiguity, and the measurement of knowledge‐sharing activities is both difficult and complex. Compounding this is the deficit of empirical studies on the factors that influence the knowledge‐sharing process. We endeavored to provide empirical evidence on these interactions using a survey developed from a prior extensive systematic literature review. The previously identified factors that were in the current study tested comprised (1) organizational culture, (2) formal processes, (3) top‐down support, (4) motivation, (5) clear strategy, and (6) quality of technology. In order, the most influential factors were organizational culture, top‐down support, motivation, and quality of technology. This study is a promising start to the exploration of the factors used in knowle...
2021 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology & Education (TALE), 2021
Communication and creativity are fundamental skills that graduate engineers need for the future w... more Communication and creativity are fundamental skills that graduate engineers need for the future work force. Many engineering communication assessments are targeted at formal presentations for professional audiences, and not the new generation of young, digital savvy, potential customers. Many creativity-based learning objectives are tied to problem solving and not explicitly taught. This study tries to address these two gaps by introducing a YouTube activity paired with formative self- and peer-assessment. This activity also provides students in a flexible first year engineering program awareness of digital technologies and learning resources. To determine the success of the activity three research questions are investigated: 1. Would students be against undertaking such a creativity-based, teach the content styled activity? 2. Would the YouTube activity encourage creativity? And 3. Would students use the student developed resources for exam preparation? The results from this pilot study suggest that this approach makes a positive contribution towards building students' creative digital communication skills.
Abstract: In this case, a mixed-reality environment based on a hybrid of desktop videoconferencin... more Abstract: In this case, a mixed-reality environment based on a hybrid of desktop videoconferencing and 3D virtual world technology is used to bring together campus-based students in multiple countries studying an engineering design course with experts from industry. The relevant course requires student teams to work face-to-face and online on designing and prototyping marketable products of their choosing. To support students\u27 conceptual development of their projects, they are asked to \u27pitch\u27 initial proposals to their local and international peers and to the industry experts in the context of a trade fair held within the mixed-reality environment. This gives them opportunities to practise articulating and to solicit constructive feedback on their ideas in preparation for face-to-face presentations they must deliver to a panel of academics to obtain project approval. The activity also strives to hone students\u27 professional communication and networking skills, and to increase their awareness of cross-cultural design considerations. The initiative has been well received by participants as well as by teaching staff and the wider academic community. The approach has proven time- and cost-effective at overcoming barriers in allowing a mixture of distributed and co-located individuals, including busy industry professionals, to simultaneously partake in authentic learning experiences. Student self-report data indicate they emerge with clearer conceptualisations of their ideas and greater confidence in explaining them to others, and the face-to-face presentations have been evaluated by the academic panel at a higher standard than those in prior years. Key lessons learnt include the importance of appropriate training and support for both participants and facilitators, attention to detail in the environment design, and explicit scaffolding of participants\u27 collaborative processes. Future work will see the creation of additional learning designs for accommodating a variety of work-related/work-integrated learning scenarios, giving rise to reusable resources along with \u27good-practice\u27 recommendations for educators venturing into this area
Student voice has played a big role in shaping the development and measure of success/failure of ... more Student voice has played a big role in shaping the development and measure of success/failure of virtual worlds in education. Data on past and ongoing educational uses and contexts of use of virtual worlds and associated student feedback was gathered via a survey of educational researchers specialising in virtual worlds. Introduced are a range of specific uses that provide the source of and context for student feedback. Ten major themes emerged from student voices that highlight strengths and weakness and point the way forward for both educators and the students themselves. Positive feedback highlighted experiences of both pedagogical design and the ability of the technology to support it. Negative feedback revolved around technical problems, seen as hampering the effectiveness of student learning experiences. Student voice regarding virtual worlds is both positive and rewarding, and commending of staff who have dedicated their time and effort to transform the learning experience.
2018 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE), 2018
Universities around the world require project-based subjects and effective team allocation. Team ... more Universities around the world require project-based subjects and effective team allocation. Team allocation is a very time-consuming task in complex project-based coursework subjects. This gives rise to the need of automated team allocation software, which can help the subject coordinator quickly allocate students into optimal or sub-optimal teams based on a set of predetermined criteria. This paper details our team allocation software, which was developed in Java in 2012 for the project-based engineering projects and was actually implemented in two annual project-based subjects in the University of Wollongong in the years 2013 through 2017. The actual use of our developed team allocation software shows that this software is able to find, in a very short time, the solutions highly compliant to the team allocation criteria selected using a simple algorithm. Our developed software reduces significantly the time required to form student teams, compared to manual allocations.
This activity involves students pitching early concepts for self-determined innovation projects t... more This activity involves students pitching early concepts for self-determined innovation projects they wish to undertake to an audience of peers and experts attending a live event in a virtual space. The students practice articulating their ideas while eliciting feedback and constructive criticism to help them further develop and refine those ideas, in preparation for formal face-to-face presentations they have to deliver to faculty in much the same way startup entrepreneurs do when putting forward a business proposal to a group of potential investors. The approach is intended to provide students with guidance and support in defining a clear vision and scope for their projects at the initiation phase, while still affording them freedom and autonomy in deciding what they ultimately wish to pursue. The authors originally developed the activity for an engineering design course, in which they brought together students and industry guests in a cyber “trade fair” hosted on a video-augmented three-dimensional virtual world platform called iSee; however, the activity may be adapted for use in a range of other contexts and disciplines, and to incorporate various types of online events based on synchronous collaborative technologies of the educator’s and/or students’ choosing.
2021 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology & Education (TALE), Dec 5, 2021
Engineering accreditation bodies, and professionals alike agree that practical (psychomotor) skil... more Engineering accreditation bodies, and professionals alike agree that practical (psychomotor) skills are a key component of a holistic engineering education, alongside cognitive and affective development. Despite this, practical skills and the psychomotor domain are largely underexamined in tertiary engineering education, in favor of theoretical tasks. Laboratory exams, as they exist today, lack the scalability of written exams and standalone single-student exam boards require technical supervision beyond the understanding of an exam invigilator. Such logistical and technical bottlenecks could be overcome through a portable electronic device that contained autonomous assessment capability. This paper explores the prototyping of a self-contained assessment module, capable of accurately assessing a student's psychomotor capability within a university Digital Hardware course. The prototype is verified as an examination tool through rigorous testing and student surveys.
Abstract: In this case, a mixed-reality environment based on a hybrid of desktop videoconferencin... more Abstract: In this case, a mixed-reality environment based on a hybrid of desktop videoconferencing and 3D virtual world technology is used to bring together campus-based students in multiple countries studying an engineering design course with experts from industry. The relevant course requires student teams to work face-to-face and online on designing and prototyping marketable products of their choosing. To support students\u27 conceptual development of their projects, they are asked to \u27pitch\u27 initial proposals to their local and international peers and to the industry experts in the context of a trade fair held within the mixed-reality environment. This gives them opportunities to practise articulating and to solicit constructive feedback on their ideas in preparation for face-to-face presentations they must deliver to a panel of academics to obtain project approval. The activity also strives to hone students\u27 professional communication and networking skills, and to increase their awareness of cross-cultural design considerations. The initiative has been well received by participants as well as by teaching staff and the wider academic community. The approach has proven time- and cost-effective at overcoming barriers in allowing a mixture of distributed and co-located individuals, including busy industry professionals, to simultaneously partake in authentic learning experiences. Student self-report data indicate they emerge with clearer conceptualisations of their ideas and greater confidence in explaining them to others, and the face-to-face presentations have been evaluated by the academic panel at a higher standard than those in prior years. Key lessons learnt include the importance of appropriate training and support for both participants and facilitators, attention to detail in the environment design, and explicit scaffolding of participants\u27 collaborative processes. Future work will see the creation of additional learning designs for accommodating a variety of work-related/work-integrated learning scenarios, giving rise to reusable resources along with \u27good-practice\u27 recommendations for educators venturing into this area
9th Research in Engineering Education Symposium (REES 2021) and 32nd Australasian Association for Engineering Education Conference (REES AAEE 2021), 2022
Towards a new future in engineering education, new scenarios that european alliances of tech universities open up
Learning objectives are important as they provide direction to teaching staff towards what conten... more Learning objectives are important as they provide direction to teaching staff towards what content should be taught, what activities should be undertaken and what assessments are to be used to confirm understanding. Two decades ago, the evolution of new learning modes such as recorded, remote, and simulation/virtual started the research process to define and better understand learning objectives in the teaching laboratory. Much is still to be learnt about laboratory learning objectives including which are most important, and if what is deemed important is universal. For example, do academics in Europe and Australasia align in which objectives are most important and which are not? To answer this question, European and Australasian engineering academics were asked to rank laboratory objectives across the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domain using a predefined tool called Laboratory Learning Objectives Measurement. A total of 113 academics from Australasia and 25 from Europe re...
Knowledge is an intangible and vital resource that is an important source of competitive advantag... more Knowledge is an intangible and vital resource that is an important source of competitive advantage; however, the technologies that help create, store, and transfer knowledge are hindered by unrealistic expectations and ambiguity, and the measurement of knowledge‐sharing activities is both difficult and complex. Compounding this is the deficit of empirical studies on the factors that influence the knowledge‐sharing process. We endeavored to provide empirical evidence on these interactions using a survey developed from a prior extensive systematic literature review. The previously identified factors that were in the current study tested comprised (1) organizational culture, (2) formal processes, (3) top‐down support, (4) motivation, (5) clear strategy, and (6) quality of technology. In order, the most influential factors were organizational culture, top‐down support, motivation, and quality of technology. This study is a promising start to the exploration of the factors used in knowle...
2021 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology & Education (TALE), 2021
Communication and creativity are fundamental skills that graduate engineers need for the future w... more Communication and creativity are fundamental skills that graduate engineers need for the future work force. Many engineering communication assessments are targeted at formal presentations for professional audiences, and not the new generation of young, digital savvy, potential customers. Many creativity-based learning objectives are tied to problem solving and not explicitly taught. This study tries to address these two gaps by introducing a YouTube activity paired with formative self- and peer-assessment. This activity also provides students in a flexible first year engineering program awareness of digital technologies and learning resources. To determine the success of the activity three research questions are investigated: 1. Would students be against undertaking such a creativity-based, teach the content styled activity? 2. Would the YouTube activity encourage creativity? And 3. Would students use the student developed resources for exam preparation? The results from this pilot study suggest that this approach makes a positive contribution towards building students' creative digital communication skills.
Abstract: In this case, a mixed-reality environment based on a hybrid of desktop videoconferencin... more Abstract: In this case, a mixed-reality environment based on a hybrid of desktop videoconferencing and 3D virtual world technology is used to bring together campus-based students in multiple countries studying an engineering design course with experts from industry. The relevant course requires student teams to work face-to-face and online on designing and prototyping marketable products of their choosing. To support students\u27 conceptual development of their projects, they are asked to \u27pitch\u27 initial proposals to their local and international peers and to the industry experts in the context of a trade fair held within the mixed-reality environment. This gives them opportunities to practise articulating and to solicit constructive feedback on their ideas in preparation for face-to-face presentations they must deliver to a panel of academics to obtain project approval. The activity also strives to hone students\u27 professional communication and networking skills, and to increase their awareness of cross-cultural design considerations. The initiative has been well received by participants as well as by teaching staff and the wider academic community. The approach has proven time- and cost-effective at overcoming barriers in allowing a mixture of distributed and co-located individuals, including busy industry professionals, to simultaneously partake in authentic learning experiences. Student self-report data indicate they emerge with clearer conceptualisations of their ideas and greater confidence in explaining them to others, and the face-to-face presentations have been evaluated by the academic panel at a higher standard than those in prior years. Key lessons learnt include the importance of appropriate training and support for both participants and facilitators, attention to detail in the environment design, and explicit scaffolding of participants\u27 collaborative processes. Future work will see the creation of additional learning designs for accommodating a variety of work-related/work-integrated learning scenarios, giving rise to reusable resources along with \u27good-practice\u27 recommendations for educators venturing into this area
Student voice has played a big role in shaping the development and measure of success/failure of ... more Student voice has played a big role in shaping the development and measure of success/failure of virtual worlds in education. Data on past and ongoing educational uses and contexts of use of virtual worlds and associated student feedback was gathered via a survey of educational researchers specialising in virtual worlds. Introduced are a range of specific uses that provide the source of and context for student feedback. Ten major themes emerged from student voices that highlight strengths and weakness and point the way forward for both educators and the students themselves. Positive feedback highlighted experiences of both pedagogical design and the ability of the technology to support it. Negative feedback revolved around technical problems, seen as hampering the effectiveness of student learning experiences. Student voice regarding virtual worlds is both positive and rewarding, and commending of staff who have dedicated their time and effort to transform the learning experience.
2018 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE), 2018
Universities around the world require project-based subjects and effective team allocation. Team ... more Universities around the world require project-based subjects and effective team allocation. Team allocation is a very time-consuming task in complex project-based coursework subjects. This gives rise to the need of automated team allocation software, which can help the subject coordinator quickly allocate students into optimal or sub-optimal teams based on a set of predetermined criteria. This paper details our team allocation software, which was developed in Java in 2012 for the project-based engineering projects and was actually implemented in two annual project-based subjects in the University of Wollongong in the years 2013 through 2017. The actual use of our developed team allocation software shows that this software is able to find, in a very short time, the solutions highly compliant to the team allocation criteria selected using a simple algorithm. Our developed software reduces significantly the time required to form student teams, compared to manual allocations.
34th Australasian Association for Engineering Education Conference, 2023
Student evaluation data has been recognised for a very long time as being beneficial if used corr... more Student evaluation data has been recognised for a very long time as being beneficial if used correctly and very dangerous if applied without understanding. With males being the largest proportion of students in engineering classrooms in many countries, do the voices of female students get drowned out, leading to feedback cycles tailoring better learning experiences for males? PURPOSE OR GOAL This study explores the relationships between the way students evaluate laboratory experiments, facilities and demonstrators in relation to perceived learning. APPROACH OR METHODOLOGY/METHODS This is accomplished using the Laboratory Learning Objectives Measurement instrument considering laboratory learning across the cognitive, psychomotor and affective domains. A multilevel statistical analysis is conducted at an Australian university. ACTUAL OR ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES The study finds that the evaluation relationships for males and females differ, and the implications are discussed. Multi-domain learning in the laboratory is also perceived to occur by students across both genders.
Uploads
Papers by Sasha Nikolic