Engineering Education: Journal of the Higher Education Academy Engineering Subject Centre, Vol 4, No 2 (2009)

The work described in the paper is based on an engineering module that has run for six years (each academic year since 2004.) The module is run ‘on-line’ although the learners are campus-based students. This has provided an unusual opportunity to compare the same students’ experiences of on-campus and on-line courses. The course comprised a rich on-line environment including ‘e-lectures’, podcasts, video clips, website links, animations, background reading, formative quizzes, summative assignments and discussion boards. The ‘e-lectures’ comprise a PowerPoint-like screen, with a spoken audio track, and other facilities including a rolling transcript, video controls for stopping, pausing and rewinding, and a search facility. Each e-lecture is short, maximum ten minutes, and links to some of the learning materials, e.g. video clips and formative quizzes. The podcasts are mp3 audio files, each lasting approximately 10 minutes, produced weekly, and published through the Virtual Learning Environment.

This paper presents a pedagogical model that has been designed for developing a structure for combining these virtual learning elements, and considers some opportunities provided by such innovative approaches for the enhancement of engineering teaching at undergraduate level. It presents research findings on student learning outcomes and provides suggestions for adopting the design for learning model presented in the paper.