This is the first issue for 2018 of the Australasian Journal of Engineering Education (AJEE). This issue comprises four papers covering various aspects of engineering education relevant to the challenges of this century. The papers address a range of issues, including how to overcome the difficulties associated with programming in common first year engineering curriculum using flipped learning; describes how attendees at the AAEE Winter School applied a little-used data-gathering technique: observation in engineering education research; review of selected text analysis software packages for analysing students’ conceptual understanding in electrical circuit knowledge; and the growth of undergraduate degree programs incorporating humanitarian engineering curriculum in Australia highlighting student engagement in humanitarian engineering pathways at one Australian university. These papers each make a valuable contribution that addresses an important need inengineering education research.
Nikolic, Ros & Hastie’s paper ‘Teaching programming in common first year engineering: discipline insights applying a flipped learning problem-solving approach’ investigates if flipped learning and engineering focused problem solving could be used to overcome the difficulties associated with programming in a common first year engineering curriculum. Literature suggests that flipped learning and engineering problem solving can be combined to improve engagement, perceived relevance and achievement. In this study effective implementation of flipped learning and engineering problem solving would reflect student interest and achievement across all disciplines. Success was measured across four themes: (1) Appeal across disciplines; (2) Achievement; (3) Future learning impact; and (4) Enrolment in computer engineering. Findings although mainly positive require further refinement for civil and mining majors to appreciate the relevance of programming to their profession.
The purpose of the AAEE Winter School running since 2011 is to develop participants’ research skills and many academics and HDR students come to the School focused on learning data collection methods. Matemba, Parker & Jolly’s paper ‘Diversifying methods in educational research: what we learned at Winter School’ describes how the 2017 attendees at the AAEE Winter School explored a little-used method, observation, and how well it worked for the observers and how much it told them about the observed. They concluded that participants were acquiring not only a vocabulary about research but a grasp of some of the fundamental concepts that allowed them to judge other work in the field more critically and participants’ self-report in the exit survey appeared to confirm that. This paper argues for the use of observational techniques in order to triangulate data gathering methods and improve the quality of educational research. Participants also learned that the great benefit of observation comes from sustained reflection on the process and the data collected.
Cunningham-Nelson, Mukherjee, Goncher & Boles’ paper titled ‘Text analysis in education: a review of selected software packages with an application for analysing students’ conceptual understanding’ evaluates seven commonly used software packages which have been used for textual analysis. The authors propose that exploiting the capabilities of text analysis software can efficiently provide educators with the ability to analyse students’ answers and make better judgements on their performance. To increase the capability of educators to formatively and accurately assess students’ conceptual understanding, their study focuses on automating the collection and analysis of students’ written responses. The approach uses students’ textual responses and applies text analysis techniques to process information and measure students’ conceptual understanding from a concept inventory assessing electrical circuit knowledge. The analysis conducted in this review provides prospective userswith the ability to select the most appropriate package for their own application.
Smith, Mazzurco and Compston’s paper ‘Student Engagement with a Humanitarian Engineering Pathway’ identified a significant increase in the number of undergraduate degree programs incorporating humanitarian engineering experiences and curriculum in the past 20 years. Their paper also describes the humanitarian engineering pathway embedded across all four years of an undergraduate engineering degree at an Australian university. Student engagement and motivations were evaluated from quantitative enrolment data and anonymous surveys and compared to the student baseline. They found a higher percentage of students engaged in humanitarian engineering were female, domestic and involved in extra-curricular activities. Most students engaging with the pathway were motivated by opportunities to apply their engineering, some highlighting this was to have impact on societal issues. The authors found students engaging with HumEngEdu fit the contemporary T-shaped graduate, with their discipline depth supplemented by a wide range of co- and extra-curricular activities and a greater appreciation of professional practice.
The AJEE is now publishing two issues per year. The first issue will take contributions from all aspects of engineering education, both research and practice. The second issue will generally comprise the best papers from the annual AAEE conference held in December each year. This will capitalise on the online nature of the journal, allowing us to publish papers as soon as they have completed the rigorous review process, rather than delaying them for a synchronous release. We are now looking for contributions for the 2019 issues. The second issue this year showcases the best papers from the 2017 Research in Engineering Education Symposium (REES) conference held in Bogota in July. As part of the peer review process for the conference, the reviewers were asked to nominate any papers they consider candidates for the conference’s Best Paper Award. Publication requires the authors to extend their papers with substantial expansion and subject to the normal review process prior to publication in the journal.
This is my final year in the role as Editor in Chief for AJEE and I’d like to take the opportunity to introduce the new Editor, Dr Sally Male from the University of Western Australia who takes the reins in 2019. She will be ably supported by a new Editorial team including Deputy and Associate Editors. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank the AAEE Executive, Engineers Australia and Taylor and Francis for their support over many years and wish the new editorial team ongoing success in continuing the growth of AJEE as a quality engineering education journal.
The journal is run using the Engineers Australia Technical Journals Editorial Manager online paper submission and tracking system. Submissions can be made via the website at http://www.editorialmanager.com/eatj. We welcome manuscripts, volunteers to be reviewers, suggestions for special issues, and any and all suggestions on how to make our journal better serve the engineering education community are welcome. You can reach the editors via email at [email protected].