CSU Engineering is the new civil engineering school at Charles Sturt University in Australia. Established at an institution that has not previously offered Engineering, CSU Engineering has taken the opportunity to design and implement a radically different model for its degree, drawing upon the frontier trends and themes in engineering education…

Problem-based learning (PBL) has a history of producing strong educational results in engineering; however, global society is challenged by highly complex environmental, socio-political and technical problems summarised in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This obliges us to explore educational approaches that address complexity. Yet,…

Traditional teaching approaches are generally teacher-directed, where students are taught in a manner that is conducive to sitting and listening. It is often argued that these approaches may not provide students with valuable learning skills, and rather that non-traditional approaches to teaching and learning might better endow students with such…

This paper introduced how a mechanical engineering course was redesigned by applying experiential learning theory to improve student engagement and learning experience. Design of machine elements has been considered by students to be a difficult course. Traditional teaching methods tend not to be effective in engaging students. Experiential…

Context based learning (CBL) is a powerful tool that utilises areas of student interest framed in meaningful contexts to foster development of new skills and understanding. For middle school students, engineering activities that relate to real-world problems provide suitable CBL contexts for acquiring conceptual scientific and mathematical…

This paper reports outcomes of a study focused on discovering qualitatively different ways students experience problem-based learning in virtual space. A well-accepted and documented qualitative research method was adopted for this study. Five qualitatively different conceptions are described, each revealing characteristics of increasingly complex…

Project-based learning (PBL) is a well-known student-centred methodology for engineering design education. The methodology claims to offer a number of educational benefits. This paper evaluates the student perceptions of the initial and second offering of a first-year design unit at Griffith University in Australia. It builds on an earlier…

Recently, many educational institutions across the globe have implemented engineering leadership programmes either as a part of a formal engineering curriculum or where leadership development is embedded into separate in-house programmes. This shows the clear intent of these educational institutions to prepare their engineering students for…

Literature on engineering education stresses the need for graduates to have skills such as working globally in a multicultural environment; working in interdisciplinary teams; sharing of tasks on a global, around the clock basis; working with digital communication tools and in a virtual environment. In addition, accreditation criteria include…

In the past, engineering programmes were developed with separate technical learning outcomes supplemented by generic attributes. The latter were in most cases a standalone set of attributes developed by academic institutions or professional societies overseeing engineering accreditation processes. Although the technical learning outcomes were well…

The University of Sydney has offered an undergraduate course in particle technology using a contemporary problem based learning (PBL) methodology since 2005. Student learning is developed through the solution of complex, open-ended problems drawn from modern chemical engineering practice. Two examples are presented; i) zero emission electricity…

The University of Southern Queensland in Australia offers multiple entry pathways to a suite of integrated programs delivered to on-campus and distance-education students. The programs cover 2-5 years in nine majors. A specially designed strand of four integrated courses using problem-based learning (PBL) was incorporated into programs and…

This paper reports the development of innovative assessment sessions within two core technical courses in Civil Engineering at the University of Queensland. Peer Assessment Learning Sessions (PALS) facilitate a student's peer assessment of a colleague's problem-based learning assignment or tutorial within a "traditional" whole-class…

This work presents a unique education resource for both process engineering students and the industry workforce. The learning environment is based around spherical imagery of real operating plants coupled with interactive embedded activities and content. This Virtual Reality (VR) learning tool has been developed by applying aspects of relevant…

Engineering is the science, art, and business of designing and getting things done; engineers are required to make things happen through interpersonal relationships. At Monash University (Australia), a new course, Management for Engineers, was set up in 1990 to encourage a more holistic approach to the process of engineering. The course included…