Design of Final Year Capstone Project Course to Maximise Student Learning Experience and Outcomes

Abstract

BACKGROUND OR CONTEXT “Integrated Design Project” is a final year capstone course as part of the civil engineering program offered by the Griffith School of Engineering, which integrates and builds on several other courses covered in preceding years. The main focus of this course is to encourage students to reflect and apply the knowledge and concepts learned in their previous years to solve real world structural and civil engineering problems through a major design project. The course convenor represented by a Griffith University academic staff appoints and coordinates the industry engineers and works closely with them to create the best possible student learning environment to achieve the critical learning outcomes. By nature, this course is fundamentally challenging. A number of issues have become evident over the last few years of offering. The students are not exposed enough to real life design project through the first few years of their degree and may face difficulties in project when more than one solution is correct. Their performance and the learning experience in this course are also affected by their prior knowledge on the fundamental courses covered in the previous years. Even though the course is taught by very experienced practising engineers, their teaching approach is understandably not compatible with that of academic staff. The overall organisation of this course is also somewhat less effective due to the involvement of the external lecturers. Due to these reasons, the students were usually not appreciating the course and the way it was delivered. PURPOSE OR GOAL Recently, the course has been redesigned to improve its quality and delivery. It is expected that the students’ learning experience will improve with this redesign while achieving the critical learning outcomes. The purpose of this study is to collect evidence on the redesign of this course in improving students’ learning experience and overall performance in the course. APPROACH The strategies used to redesign this course are, 1) Identify and develop the best teaching team with industry engineers who can encourage students to take the deeper learning approach; 2) Convenor to help students with technical questions when the students are extrinsically motivated during submission weeks; 3) Intrinsically motivate students with challenging design projects; 4) Emphasize on application of knowledge rather than knowledge gathering and maintain the optimum level of work load; 5) Reduce the class size and encourage active learning; 6) Understand the students’ prior knowledge, eliminate the fear of failure and encourage them to learn (reflect) from mistakes; 7) Encourage collaboration and active learning through group work and 8) Maintain optimum level of stress with quality assessment techniques. DISCUSSION The outcome of the redesign has been evaluated using PMI survey in Week 5 and regular discussions with students during the semester. The results are promising which will be further validated by an extended survey, formal student evaluation and qualitative feedback at the end of semester. This paper will discuss the proposed redesign strategies based on education theories, principles and concepts available in the literature. It will also present the outcome, student feedback and the future recommendations to continuously improve the course for the next offering. RECOMMENDATIONS/IMPLICATIONS/CONCLUSION Integrated Design Project is a final year capstone course, which integrates and builds on several other courses covered in preceding years, as part of the civil engineering program offered by the Griffith School of Engineering. On average there are about 150 students enrolled in the course. The course is taught by industry engineers as primary lecturers, guest lecturers and tutors. By nature, this course is fundamentally challenging and the students were usually not appreciating the course and the way it was delivered. This led to poor student learning experience and hence low course evaluation scores in the past. Recently, the course has been redesigned to improve its quality and delivery. It is expected that the students’ learning experience will improve with this redesign while achieving the critical learning outcomes. The initial survey results are promising which will be further validated by an extended survey, formal student evaluation and qualitative feedback at the end of semester.