An acknowledgement We would like to show our respects and Acknowledge the Bedegal people who are the Traditional Custodians of the Land, of Elders past and present on which this Alumni Network takes place.
The FULT Alumni Network aims to provide alumni with an opportunity to: • Participate in an active network, • Explore the latest issues is higher education learning and teaching; • Hear dynamic speakers on educational excellence; • Be updated on innovations and future directions; • Support alumni leadership potential as champions of learning and teaching.
Today’s Alumni Network features 1. A welcome by the PVCE 2. Keynote presentation by a FULT Alumna 3. Presentations by the 2018 recipients of the FULT Alumni Scholarship 4. Lunch 5. Focus group discussion around the impact of the FULT Program
Welcome to the FULT Alumni Network Professor Alex Steel Acting PVC(Education)
Keynote Applying learnings from FULT to the classroom Dr Inmaculada Tomeo-Reyes BE, MEng, PhD, MIEEE, FHEA Lecturer, School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications Laboratory and Casual Staff Coordinator This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC
Applying FULT learnings into my teaching practice FULT Alumni Network meeting Dr Inmaculada Tomeo-Reyes School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications
How did FULT help me?
Background ELEC1111 is an introduction to electrical engineering for both electrical and telecommunications engineering students and other engineering disciplines. It is a first year course • Pre-requisite for many courses both in electrical and other engineering schools • More than 1000 students annually (~450 students in T1 and ~650 students in T3) Before FULT… • Delivery – Lectures: 3 hrs/week (450-650 students per room) – Tutorials: 1 hr/week face-to-face (120 students per room) + weekly online tutorials – Labs: 2 hrs/week (60 students per room) • Assessment – Mid-term exam (individual) – Laboratory Assessment (pairs) and exam (individual) – Online quizzes (individual) – Final exam (individual)
Student learning - 3P model
About Me Background • Lecturer (Education focused), UNSW, Australia (2018 – ). • Associate Lecturer, QUT, Australia (2015 – 2018). • PhD in Electrical Engineering, QUT, Australia (2015). • R&D engineer, UC3M, Spain (2008 – 2011). • Bachelor (2006) and Master (2008) of Telecommunications Engineering, and Master in Multimedia and Communications (2010), UC3M, Spain. Main Research Interests • Signal and Image Processing. • Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning. • Engineering Education.
About You
Teaching for learning – Good teaching • Share their love of the subject. • Encourage communication between learners and teachers and learn from each other. • Encourage interaction and collaboration among learners. • Provide opportunities for active learning. • Allow for student independence. • Provide timely and appropriate feedback. • Emphasise time on task. • Motivate learning by communicating expectations and setting clear goals. • Respect and accommodate student diversity, talents, and ways of learning.
Engagement with academic staff “Students who find academic staff available and helpful are more engaged with their studies than those who do not. […] About 30 per cent of students do not seek advice from academic staff. Importantly, this group of students was most likely to report low achievement levels in the first semester of their studies. This could have implications for student retention.” (The First Year Experience in Australian Universities: Findings from Two Decades, 1994 – 2014; Baik, Naylor & Arkoudis)
Approachability • Encourage face-to-face consultation • Set up a course discussion board (e.g. Moodle forum) Suggest students to use it for questions about course requirements or – assignments, rather than sending emails. Encourage students to answer questions, but check regularly. – • Be consistent when answering questions in forums/emails Set expectations for response time. – Dedicate specific hours to responding to forums/email. – If possible, use appropriate tools to reduce time spent on emails and/or prevent – emails coming back and forth. • Create effective message content Encourage communication. – Acknowledge the student’s issues. – Respond in a professional tone. –
Approachability Make students feel that you care about them as learners and also as persons. • Frequently encourage your students to contact you if they have any doubt or problem Include “Course convenors” and “Course contacts” blocks in the – Moodle page Make it easy for them to contact you by providing different options – • Monitor student progress and follow up Address student’s issues with compassion and empathy –
Challenge/Opportunity According to the literature, learning is However, in ELEC1111 tutorials: a process that: • Is active • Focus was on the content, not the doing • Occurs in a complex social environment • Learning occurred in isolation • Is situated in an authentic context • There was a lack of authentic problems • Requires learners’ motivation and • Tutor was a formal authority, and while cognitive engagement most of the students learned the content, several had important gaps in their knowledge
Solution ELEC1111 tutorials were redesigned in such a way that: (a) Students had opportunities to direct the learning process and engage with it (b) Students had opportunities to collaboratively solve real wold problems which simulate what is asked of and done by professionals. (c) Tutors became facilitators rather than formal authorities Tutorials in T1 ’ 2019: • Face-to-face collaborative tutorials (2 hrs/week) These new tutorials offer students authentic learning experiences by using real world problems which have to be solved in groups. Students in each group should work together, supported by tutors, to come up with and verify solutions. • Online tutorials (released weekly, to complete at students’ own pace) • Tutorial problems for practice (released weekly, to complete at students’ own pace)
Student-centred and collaborative component • Creating appropriate environments where students can learn from their peers allows them to take an active role in their learning and has a positive impact. • Active and collaborative learning approaches are necessary to develop essential skills of engineers, who normally work in teams to tackle real world challenges. After: Before: • • 60 students in a collaborative 120 students in a lecture-like room learning space • Tutor solves the problems (no • Students solve the problem in interaction between students) groups with the support of the tutor
Authentic context • Authentic activities contribute to students' work-readiness capabilities and employability, so the new tutorials are based on real wold problems and simulate what is asked of and done by professionals. After: Before:
Authentic context • Open-ended problems also play an important role in offering students authentic learning experiences. Some (simplified) design problems were used in the new tutorials. After Before Bloom’s Taxonomy
Tutors as facilitators and peer mentors • The secret of great facilitation is to help creating a group process that flows and an environment in which it can flourish, so that groups reach a successful solution. • Peer mentors can be really useful in this scenario – Peer mentoring does not usually involve significant differences in age, experience or rank, which facilitates increased levels of mutual expertise, equality and empathy. Before: After: • • 1 tutor for 120 students 1 tutor and 1 mentor for 60 students • • Tutor solves the problems Students solve the problem in groups with the support of the tutor • Tutor is formal authority • Tutor and mentor are facilitators
Results • After around 3 weeks, students got used to the learning style and their teams and started enjoying the method over traditional tutorials. This resulted in an increased in-class engagement. – From ~25% attendance in Sem2’18 to ~50% in T1’2019 • Students performed better in contextualised questions in exams: – Increase of the average mark of contextualised questions on the same topic with similar difficulty: Capacitors (mid-term): from 6.7 /15 in Sem2’2018 to 9.1 /15 in T1’2019 ▪ OpAmps (final): from 11.1 /15 in Sem2’2018 to 13.4 /15 in T1’2019 ▪ ▪ Phasors (final): from 10.7 /15 in Sem2’2018 to 11.3 /15 in T1’2019
Recommend
More recommend
