An appraisal of an online tutorial system for the teaching and learning of engineering physics in conjunction with contextual physics and mathematics, and relevant mathematics

ABSTRACT

The number of students entering engineering schools in Australian universities has increased tremendously over the last few years because of the Australian Federal Government's policy of increasing the participation rates of Higher School Certificate students and students from low social economic status backgrounds in the tertiary sector. They now come with a diverse background of skills, motivations and prior knowledge. It is imperative that new methods of teaching and learning be developed. This paper describes an online tutorial system used in conjunction with contextual physics and mathematics, and the revision of the relevant mathematical knowledge at the appropriate time before a new topic is introduced in the teaching and learning of engineering physics. Taken as a whole, this study shows that students not only improved their final examination results but there was also an increase in the retention rate of first-year engineering students which has financial implications for the university.

KEYWORDS:

• Active learning
• blended learning
• contextual physics and mathematics
• MasteringPhysics (MP)
• online learning
• relevant mathematics

Acknowledgements

The author thanks the anonymous referees for their useful and helpful comments. They are very much appreciated.

Disclosure statement

There is no benefit arising from this research.

Notes on contributor

Dr Ragbir Bhathal obtained his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Queensland on a Commonwealth Scholarship. He is a member of the engineering group within the School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics, University of Western Sydney, Australia and a Visiting Fellow at the Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. He is an award winning author and has published 15 books, 8 on astronomy. His latest book is Mount Stromlo Observatory: From Bush Observatory to the Nobel Prize with Professor Harvey Butcher and Dr Ralph Sutherland. He was awarded the 2014 Australian Award for University Teaching: Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning by the Office for Teaching & Learning, Australian Government. He was awarded the University of Western Sydney Distinguished Teaching Fellow for 2015–2016.