AaeE2010: Past, Present, Future.

Conference Aims

This conference is dedicated to enhancing the quality, relevance and performance of engineering education in all disciplines in Australasia. It will serve as a forum for the sharing of innovation and good practice and will provide delegates with the opportunity to critically and creatively engage with new ideas and research that might help them develop their own approach to learning, teaching, assessment and research in engineering education. Abstracts were invited from academics, support staff, undergraduate and postgraduate students, librarians, professional engineers, employers and anyone who has a vested interest in fostering excellence and innovation in engineering education.

Keynote Speakers

Edward F. Crawley

Edward F. Crawley is the Ford Professor of Engineering at MIT, and is a Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and of Engineering Systems. He received an S.B. and Sc.D. in Aerospace Engineering from MIT. He has served as the Department Head of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, the Executive Director of the Cambridge–MIT Institute, and currently serves as the Director of the Bernard M. Gordon–MIT Engineering Leadership Program. His research focuses on the domain of architecture, design and decision support in complex technical systems that involve economic and stakeholder issues. Dr Crawley is a Fellow of the AIAA and the Royal Aeronautical Society (UK), and is a member of three national academies of engineering: in Sweden, the UK and the US. He has served as chairman of the NASA Technology and Commercialization Advisory Committee, was a member of the 1993 Presidential Advisory Committee on the Space Station Redesign and the 2009 U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans (Augustine) Committee, and recently co-chaired the NRC committee reviewing the NASA Exploration Technology Development Program. He was a visiting lecturer at the Moscow Aviation Institute, is a Guest Professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, and was a finalist in the NASA Astronaut selection in 1980. In 2004 he received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award of the Boy Scouts of America. He has founded three entrepreneurial companies and currently sits on several corporate boards.

Dr Keith Willey — Collaborative Learning, Assessment and Feedback

Dr Keith Willey Ph.D. B.E. (Electrical, 1st Hons, Medal) is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Technology, Sydney. He commenced his academic career after 20 years in the Broadcasting and Communications industry and maintains a professional interest in telecommunications. In education, Keith's research interests include the learning and assessment associated with working in groups, the innovative use of self and peer assessment, collaborative peer learning, the nature of informal learning in professional practice, and the provision of learning-oriented assessment and feedback. Keith is a current ALTC Teaching Fellow, was previously awarded an Innovative Teaching and Educational Technology (ITET) Fellowship by UNSW in 2004, the UTS Teaching and Learning ‘Team Teaching’ Award in 2009, and an ALTC Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning in 2010. He is the Project Manager and lead developer of the self and peer assessment software tool SPARK PLUS, used by faculty at 18 national and international universities.

You may have heard the old saying “what gets assessed is what gets learned”. If assessment is our chief motivator in determining what and how students learn, it is a wasted opportunity if we only use it to indicate what students have learnt. Our assessment tasks should be specifically designed to motivate learning, not just assess that learning has occurred. Furthermore, it could be argued that assessment is our chief motivator for learning, hence we should provide opportunities for students to make mistakes, receive feedback, reflect and be tested again in various contexts. In addition, students need to be involved in the assessment process to develop critical evaluation skills and judgement. In this keynote we explore the design and benefits of successful collaborative peer learning activities.

Dr Pat Bazeley — Going Beyond Sprinkles and Chunks

Dr Pat Bazeley provides assistance and time out (and good food) to local and international researchers from a wide range of disciplines at her research retreat at Bowral, in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. She holds senior, part-time appointments in Research Centres at the University of New South Wales and at the Australian Catholic University, and has served as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Mixed Methods Research. Her particular expertise is in helping researchers make sense of both quantitative and qualitative data and in using computer software for management and analysis of data.

Educational research by professionals, usually with a development or evaluative practice orientation, deals with complex social situations that cannot be adequately understood using only statistical data and analyses. Qualitative data and interpretive analyses can be employed to reveal the thinking that underlies questionnaire responses and numeric scores; help researchers to comprehend learning and professional behaviours; and assist in understanding the social and organisational dynamics of practice settings. When qualitative data are employed, it is critically important to go beyond simple add-on reporting of ‘themes’ — instead, clarified concepts and deeper theoretical understanding can be developed by progressing through a ‘Describe, Compare, Relate’ process in the analysis of data.

David Boud

David Boud is Professor of Adult Education in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology, Sydney. He has been involved in research and teaching development in adult, higher and professional education for over 30 years and has contributed extensively to the literature in conjunction with colleagues from many disciplines, including various branches of engineering. He previously held the positions of Dean of the University Graduate School, Head of the School of Adult and Language Education, and Associate Dean (Research and Development). He is a 2007 Australian Learning and Teaching Council Senior Fellow, and in 2010 completed the project ‘Student assessment for learning in and after courses’ — see assessmentfutures.com.