Executive Summary – Interim Stage October 2007
“Assessment of Engineering Technology Professional Based
Learning Outcomes” K.L.McGraw COLMSCT Associate Fellow
Project Aims and Objectives for Phase 2
To concentrate mainly on T191 “Personal Career Development in Engineering” to
help engineering students engage with process of PDP and engineering ecommunity
To complete evaluation of qualitative data from AL and student surveys using
NVivo 7 software and model higher level issues/expectations
To test best practice activities identified during Phase 1 at Face to Face tutorials
and on-line TG Forums to help students achieve their learning outcomes:and
obtain feedback from AL’s and students
To conduct initial evaluation of the potential of new My Stuff e-Portfolio on OU
VLE for use by T191 Engineering students for their PDP professional
requirements
To monitor trials by HEA/CETL Engineering Subject Group of their new
“EasiMap” Engineering e-Portfolio for professional accreditation based on UKSPEC (2006) Engineering Benchmarking Competences
Outcomes from main activities to date
The main change to original Phase 1 Aims and Objectives is to concentrate
mainly on only one of the original three Engineering PDP courses –namely T191
“Personal Career Development in Engineering”. Initial analysis of the IET End of
Course Survey of students identified that most of the areas of concern were
associated with this Level 1 course. A large proportion of the cohorts of students
were new to the OU and Engineering PDP requirements.
Initial qualitative analysis of data from the AL’s and student’s surveys started to
identify reoccurring themes. One of the main concerns is that new OU
Engineering students found it difficult to engage with the PDP process of self
assessment and reflection of their strengths and weaknesses; Key Skills;
production of development action plans and the management of their own
learning and study time. The students were spending on average twice (8 hours
per week) the recommended study time (4 hours per week) for T191 (15
credits),especially on completing their 59 Activity Sheets. As a result some
students initially did not enjoy the course and were not self motivated to progress.
Those students who did engage with course gave positive reflection and said that
eventually they had engaged with the process and they found it was a worthwhile
experience.
Another main theme from the surveys was that some of the Engineering
Technology students had not started to link the course to the OU Engineering
Community and Engineering Institutions professional competence requirements
at an early enough stage at the beginning of the course.
The AL survey showed that students who gained early support by attendance at
the Face to Face tutorials were more likely to better achieve their learning
outcomes than those who were unable to attend. Some best practice at face to
face tutorials was identified by the AL’s on their feedback. Also the AL survey
showed that very few students attempted to engage with fellow students on their
Tutor Group (TG) Forums and as a consequence the forum was under utilized
(<20%).
Initial Outcomes / Findings / Reflections
The initial findings and modelling of the qualitative analysis from the two surveys
using NVivo 7 software is starting to identify some clear themes and actions that
could be explored on the next Phase 2 of the project.
Start to engage and support the students into the PDP Process of self evaluation
of their strengths and weaknesses ; Key Skills and management of their own
learning and study time, at an earlier opportunity ,using a variety of best practice
activities at face to face tutorials. Some of these activities to be tested and
evaluated by AL’s and author during Phase 2 of project.
Encourage students to use their on-line TG Forums to engage with their fellow
TG students to share their thoughts and ideas about the on-line Engineering ecommunity and Engineering Institutions Professional Practice requirements.
Initially they could share their current Engineering experiences and practice
within their own work organizations.
Finally the author to initially evaluate the possible use of the OU My Stuff and
EasiMap e-Portfolios for recording students PDP professional competences (UKSPEC 2006) for accreditation with the Engineering Institutions
K.L.McGraw
Centre for Open Learning of Mathematics, Science Computing and Technology
( COLMSCT) Associate Fellow /AL R05