Dr Gillian Knight with contributions from Amy Patten
Aston University
November 2020
There is a chronic shortage of skilled engineers. To tackle this shortage, businesses need to recruit 186,000 skilled engineers every year until 2024 (Heubi, 2019). Yet, student continuation within Engineering and Technology (E&T) is one of the lowest in Higher Education (HE).
This suggests that our current curriculum and/or delivery and support is not always effective for attainment of this student body (Woodfield, 2014). Reasons for discontinuation within HE are diverse. In E&T based subjects, lower entry grades, studying within 30 miles of home address, male gender, lower socio-economic class and ethnicity are all risk factors for non-completion of studies (Woodfield, 2014). Furthermore, students studying technological subjects, such as Computer Science, sometimes have a broader range of pre-entry qualifications, as pre-requisite credentials are not mandatory for this type of course. This diversity of entry qualifications can influence students’ successful transition into Higher Education (Gordon, 2015).
Whilst some factors influencing non-completion are about academic attainment others are about social factors and student expectations. So, how can we ensure STEM education better supports our E&T students, whereby we recognise the diversity of cohorts and provide a successful transition into HE? This blog explores the role education technology can play in improving support through community-building, early interventions, and the use of learner analytics.
Building a sense of community amongst students is highly beneficial to student wellbeing and is an area of focus within E&T pedagogy (Hanesworth, 2015). At Aston University, within our E&T Foundation Year Programme we are using MS teams to provide a group communication forum, which is student-led but overseen by academic staff. Students interact well with the software, liking the ease of access to feedback on their project deliverables from the module, the ability to share documents and the ability to access the software via their phones. From a staff perspective, it allows for greater ease of tracking engagement with group assessment tasks and for gaining access to students when emails are sometimes unseen.
Student group work can enhance student community; however, it is often contentious due to perceived contributions to the end artefact and a fear of ‘carrying’ others. Our Foundation Year Programme has also been using TEAMMATE, which is a collaboration platform that enables the development of a virtual collaboration community. TEAMATE is used to enable students to provide peer- and self-assessment on group discussions within meetings, to communicate outside of meetings and to support each other and the overall project deliverables. The introduction of this initiative has demonstrated benefits beyond improving the effectiveness of group assessment individualisation, as it also significantly enhanced and supported student-tutor relationships.
In line with the sector, our E&T students now enter HE with a range of A-level, BTEC and other level 3 qualifications and/or work-based experience. To enable us to better understand our cohorts’ knowledge diversity we use diagnostic screening. This enables us to identify individual students who require specific additional academic support within our Work-Based Learning and Computer Science (CS) programmes – an area we see the greatest diversity in educational background. We have developed a mathematical diagnostic test that enables us to identify students ‘at risk’ of academic failure. Students with a low test score attend a series of weekly mathematical support sessions delivered by Aston University’s Learning Development Centres (LDC). To enhance student engagement, we designed a range of sessions providing tailored mathematical knowledge and support, delivered by trained student mentors. Student peer mentorship has been shown to be successful in providing students with a greater awareness of resources and opportunities as well as enhancing their sense of competence, whilst helping build student relationships (Estrada, 2014; Nortcliffe, Parveen. & Pink-Keech, 2019). The combined approach of early identification of a student’s mathematical ability and development of a weekly maths support session, delivered by student peers, is well received by our students. This initiative has also positively impacted student progression with over 80% of the cohort now passing the module, furthermore, students attending >5 of these LDC sessions are achieving on average a module grade of 60%.
Aston University is now using learner analytics to monitor student performance in assessments and to measure attendance and engagement with studies, with emails being sent to both students and staff when a student has not engaged with any study material. This is a new initiative, being trailed this year to determine if it enables the University to determine earlier indications of attrition.
When correctly embedded within both the Programme and the University support mechanisms, these types of data-mining tools can provide a wealth of information around student study practices. One benefit we have already seen within our College is an increased awareness of academic staff that on-campus university attendance is not always a reflection of increased student engagement as some students have engaged more virtually with their studies.
Our understanding of student study methods, combined with our new knowledge of online teaching, is now starting to inform both the future teaching design and also the assessment strategy, within our College. We are now exploring what content is best presented in a virtual context, and whether students prefer synchronous or asynchronous lecture delivery. We have also found that students find virtual presentations less daunting than presenting to the whole class. So, within our College, some areas are looking to make presentations online for level 4 with a gradual increase to presenting to a live, physical audience by level 6. Increasing the development of computer-mediated assessment to provide more instant feedback is also gaining traction within our College, with growing comfort using computer-marked assessment to provide regular formative and summative assessment. This quicker, at times instant, feedback enables students to gain a clearer understanding of their current knowledge and to work on any gaps within their understanding.
In the next phase of our developing use of Ed-Tech, we plan to extend beyond using technology to provide performance indicators, to develop activities that improve the measurement of the performance of skills, with less reward placed on rote-learning model answers. The development of more computer-mediated teaching and assessment is going to be challenging within certain subject disciplines, requiring advanced physics modelling and sophisticated signal processing to support and/or interpret students’ work. However, as a college of Engineering and Physical Sciences, we are well-placed to explore the next stage of Ed-Tech developments.
Gillian Knight, Associate Dean for Education in the College of Engineering & Physical Science at Aston University contributes expertise to the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Education (CILE). The joint virtual centre aims to develop new knowledge in innovative education, business-engaged educational design and innovative delivery modes in undergraduate provision within UK Higher Education. Through joint research, the sharing of best practice and the design of innovative education pathways, Aston and Cranfield Universities are supporting the proposed development of a new model STEM-focused university in Milton Keynes.
This blog has been produced for the Centre for Innovation and Learning in Education, a Catalyst OfS funded project.
Dunne, E., & Owen, D. (2013). Student Engagement Handbook: Practice in Higher Education. Emerald Publishing Ltd, UK.
Estrada, M., 2014. Ingredients for improving the culture of STEM degree attainment with co-curricular supports for underrepresented minority students. National Academies of Sciences White Paper. 1-28
Gordon, N. (2015). Issues in retention and attainment in Computer Science https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/issues-retention-and-attainment-computer-science
Hanesworth, P. (2015). Embedding equality and diversity in the curriculum: A model for learning and teaching practitioners. York: Higher Education Academy. 1-20
Heubi, B. (2019). Streamline STEM requirements to fill skills gap. Engineering & Technology. Retrieved from https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2019/07/streamline-stem-requirements-to-fill-skills-gap-report-suggests/
Nortcliffe, A.L., Parveen, S. and Pink-Keech, C., 2019. Statistically, Does peer assisted learning make a difference on a UK engineering degree programme? HETL Scotland 2017. Journal of applied research in higher education. 1-19
Woodfield, R. (2014). Undergraduate retention and attainment across the disciplines. Higher Education Academy, 27 1-77