Peer Assessment Learning Sessions (PALS): an innovative feedback technique for large engineering classes

This paper reports the development of innovative assessment sessions within two core technical courses in Civil Engineering at the University of Queensland. Peer Assessment Learning Sessions (PALS) facilitate a student's peer assessment of a colleague's problem-based learning assignment or tutorial within a ‘traditional’ whole-class setting, under guidance from the lecturer. The assessment is carried out against worked solutions, with a template marking scheme. Following the class, submissions are reviewed by the lecturer and marks moderated if required. In combination, the review and the PALS provide very clear indication where the class or individuals have misconceptions, and where knowledge is below required criteria. This enables the lecturer to provide an accurate synthesis of these points to the class. Students obtain summative feedback, individual formative feedback and whole-class formative feedback within a few days of submission. This significantly improves student's self-reflection and their review of class material. Feedback is very positive and demonstrated here through the presentation of anonymous survey results. PALS address the challenge of providing frequent, efficient and timely assessment for large classes of 100–200+students while simultaneously enabling and providing high quality formative feedback.     

An empirical exploration of metacognitive assessment activities in a third-year civil engineering hydraulics course

Threshold concepts are transformative, integrative, and provocative; understanding these difficult concepts allows students to be capable of solving advanced problems. This investigation and evaluation of a metacognitive curricular approach explore variation in students' and teachers' discernment of structural complexity of concepts and its potential for enhancing students' learning and conceptual understanding of threshold concepts. Three trials of a metacognitive assessment activity administered to two cohorts of a civil engineering course (n?=?276 and n?=?264) were investigated. Students were presented with several answers (varying in structural complexity) to a question about a threshold concept and asked to mark each response. Quantitative analyses compared students' and teachers' marking schemes within and across trials, and qualitative analyses explored students' written reflections following the activity. Students' justifications for their marking schemes, their reflections on the activity's usefulness, and the convergence of students' and teachers' marking schemes suggest that the activity supported deep forms of student learning.     

Identifying threshold concepts: case study of an open catchment hydraulics course

The Threshold Concept Framework is used to initiate a dialogue on an empirically supported pedagogy that focuses on students’ conceptual understanding required for solving application-based problems. The present paper uses a triangulation approach to identify the threshold concept in a third-year undergraduate civil engineering course on open channel hydraulics. Evidence from teachers, students, and assessment data point to ‘critical flow’ as the threshold concept – a concept that is transformative, integrative, and troublesome. Identifying the threshold concept by engaging various course stakeholders in a dialogue about conceptual understanding and capabilities makes learning visible for all participants in the process. Implementing this approach can result in an empirically driven rationale for adjusting pedagogies and assessments to foster enhanced student learning outcomes.     

Temporal factors influencing the acquisition and maintenance of an autoshaped keypeck

Food-deprived pigeons were given briei meals of grain following the presentation of a lignt on a response key. Pecking the key had no consequence Virtually all of the pigeons pecked the lignted key. The number of trials prior to the first peck varied inversely witn the value of the mean interval between light onsets. Trials to criterion was a negative power function of the value of the intertrial interval. The addition of a second stimulus, never followed by food, retarded the acquisition of the keypeck, particularly at short intertriai intervals. During steady state performance, the value of two measures of response strength, rate and probability of responding, increased as a function of the duration of the intertriai interval.

     

Undergraduate teaching of ideal and real fluid flows: the value of real-world experimental projects

This paper describes the pedagogical impact of real-world experimental projects undertaken as part of an advanced undergraduate fluid mechanics subject at an Australian university. The projects have been organized to complement traditional lectures and introduce students to the challenges of professional design, physical modelling, data collection and analysis. An overview of two projects is presented: wind tunnel testing of buildings and wave loading on piles. Both studies are undertaken as group work within the undergraduate subject. The pedagogy of the projects is discussed in terms of the classical educational psychology literature concerning project-based learning, collaborative and guided learning and reflection. In terms of learning outcomes, the primary aim is to enable students to deliver a professional report as the final product, where physical model data are compared to ideal-fluid flow calculations and real-fluid flow analyses. Thus the students are exposed to a professional design approach involving a high level of expertise in fluid mechanics, with sufficient academic guidance to achieve carefully defined learning goals, while retaining sufficient flexibility for students to construct their own learning goals. The overall pedagogy is a blend of problem-based and project-based learning, which reflects academic research and professional practice. The assessment is a mix of peer-assessed oral presentations and written reports that aims to maximize student reflection and development. Student feedback indicated a strong motivation for courses that include a well-designed project component.