Engineering tertiary courses that reflect professional activity mandate the successful application of theorems and concepts in order to solve technical problems. This graduate skill is typically assessed during student problem-solving activities. Furthermore, both collaborative learning and the interactive study method known as self-explanation have been identified, by researchers, as techniques that enhance student learning. In the reported longitudinal study, students shared their solutions to problem-solving exercises with a version of self-explanation in a collaborative environment. The research investigated the effects of the intervention on student outcomes as reflected in their assessment results. In 2013, the weekly tutorial content, for a first-year electronics course, was reworked with a focus on problem-solving activities. During these sessions the students were engaged by asking them to share electronically, or via a document camera, their prepared solutions to problems that should have been attempted prior to attending. The data collected included the scores these students obtained for each of the assessable components for the course in semester one 2013, 2014, 2016 and semester two in 2016. This data were analyzed by comparing results with those of the 2012 cohort. Week-by-week tutorial attendances showed similar trending in all semesters. The mean total mark, mean exam mark and the mean laboratory mark consistently maintained improvement over those of 2012; while the mean tutorial participation mark and the mean assignment mark were consistently worse (except for the 2014 cohort) than the corresponding ones for 2012.
Swinburne Research Bank http://researchbank.swinburne.edu.au Banky, G. P. (2011). An angel on my shoulder: mimicking face-to-face supervision of computerbased experiential learning over a local-area-network.
Researchers have identified active collaborative learning and membership in learning communities as factors that facilitate the engagement of learners. In the reported student engagement study, a commercially available software utility was used to establish such an environment in a computer laboratory. This chapter addresses the following issues: will collaborative learning result in more student engagement and what type of software will support such activity? The collected data includes anonymous survey responses, mean marks for assessable components, and tutorial attendance figures for 2011 (pre-intervention) and 2012 (post-intervention) and 2013 (modified content with post-intervention style delivery). Freeform responses in the anonymous student survey were positive towards the experience. In 2012 with respect to those of 2011, mean assignment and tutorial participation marks for the students improved, while those for other assessable components appeared to have worsened. Student engagement, as reflected in tutorial attendance and assignment marks, were better in 2012. In 2013, the study was repeated with the focus of the tutorials changed to group problem solving with the tutorial participation reflecting student contributions during such sessions. The mean marks for the exam, the laboratory participation and for the course improved over those for 2012 and 2011, respectively. The other means slightly improved over those for 2011 but were slightly worse for those for 2012.
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