It all adds up

While engineering enrolments are recovering, concerns remain about the mathematical capabilities of some students, reports Jeremy Gilling.ermediate maths in South Australian schools within two years.” Another fundamental of engineering and science education is access to laboratories, often outside normal working hours. But the equipment is mostly specialised, complex and expensive. Flexible learning programs further complicate laboratory management. Despite this, some highly specialised laboratories and equipment are seriously underutilised. Simulation – the virtual laboratory – is increasingly being seen as the answer. But it raises issues about the fidelity of the simulation – how well it accords with the complexity of real systems – and about how students react to the experience. Nonetheless, the advantages are many. Student can access virtual labs at any time with guaranteed fair-share access through automatic queuing systems. They give universities the capacity to share laboratories across programs, institutions and countries. Finally, they actually reflect real life in some ways – for instance, engineering practice increasingly involves teleoperation of equipment such as operational checks on telephone systems by communications carriers. David Lowe, Steve Murray and Dikai Lai from UTS, and Euan Lindsay from Curtin, report in ‘Remotely accessible laboratories – enhancing student outcomes’ that earlier studies have shown statistically significant differences in learning outcomes depending on whether laboratory classes are delivered by traditional or remote methods. The authors identified several factors that can affect educational outcomes. These include the fact that remote laboratories require less time and attention from students to understand procedures and setting up and taking down equipment. This time can be dedicated to developing conceptual understanding and data gathering. They say quality of instruction is particularly vital in remote laboratories, especially as “social cues are not as prominent and there is not necessarily a high social relatedness between tutor and students”. Added to that, physical remoteness can be psychologically isolating, so virtual lab managers must create protocols for students to share findings and experiences. Go to www.altc.edu.au/carrick/go/home/pid/343 Leading the pack UNSW has emerged as the clear leader in learning and teaching in 2009 within the discipline group that includes engineering under the latest round of the Learning and Teaching Performance Fund. The fund rewards performance in two categories: excellence and improvement. The improvement category is new in 2009. Three universities – UNSW, UNE and UWA – were recognised in the top (A1) band for excellence in the science, computing, engineering, architecture and agriculture group, with a further eight universities in band A2 and 25 in band B. Just two universities – UNSW and UWS – were recognised in band A1 in this discipline group for improvement,with 22 in band A2 and 11 in band B. Across all four discipline groups, UNSW was comfortably the most generously funded university in 2009, with grants totalling $6.9 million ($5.2 million for excellence and $1.8 million for improvement). Two other universities – Monash with $5.9 million and Sydney with $5.7 million – topped the $5 million mark. Overall LTPF funding for 2009 was $73.3m, distributed between 32 universities. Go to www.dest.gov.au/sectors/higher_education/policy_issues_reviews/key_issues/learning_teaching/ltpf/2009ltpf.htm