Pinpointing Where to Start: A Reflective Analysis on the Introductory Evaluation Course

Th is reflective analysis details four approaches to an introductory course for evaluation learners within a methodologically focused graduate-level program on statistics, measurement, and research design. Evidence of student learning outcomes, or SLOs, was utilized within Gibbs’ reflective cycles to redesign the course using Fink’s integrated course design process. The purpose of each approach varied along a theory-practice continuum, including theory, theory-to-practice, practice, and evidence building. The purpose, SLOs, and learning experiences of each approach are accompanied by longitudinal reflections on evaluation learners, course purposes, and the creation of a multi-course learning progression. Th is exploration offers perspectives and lessons learned that may assist new and experienced instructors in determining how an introductory course may best fi t the learning needs of their students.

Using Integrated Course Design for Flipped Classroom to Promote Active Learning of Lean Six Sigma for Supply Chains

This paper showcases an educational experience for a course titled - “Lean Six Sigma for Supply Chains” taught at university level, where an integrated course design to engage students in a flipped classroom method is used. The course design incorporates a synergy between Fink’s integrated course design model, experiential learning activities and formative assessments. The primary aim is to engage students in active learning of the course content. Therefore, all learning activities are designed according to the course learning goals, curricular and assessment requirements, prior knowledge of the students, and learning modes that are available to the students. These aspects allow educators to determine what is to be discussed in the classroom and how to facilitate active learning in-class and out-of-class. The course also leverages on the online learning space to develop both asynchronous and synchronous learning activities in order to engage student in their learning. To achieve the course learning goals, students are stimulated to participate in these learning activities and self-directed learning, in order to gain discipline specific knowledge and skills. This paper provides practical advice for course designers and programme leaders on how they can adopt an integrated course design approach in designing instructional activities for a flipped classroom setting to enhance student engagement and learning.

Engineering Pedagogy as the Basis for Effective Teaching Competencies of Engineering Faculty

The article presents the philosophy and the basics of Engineering Pedagogy Science – the key to science-based, effective, interactive and motivating teaching engineering, shaping the ground of teaching competencies of engineering faculty, ensuring relevantly one of the prerequisites of the quality of engineering education in general. The foundational questions shaping the philosophy of Engineering Pedagogy Science, as an analytical ground for effective course design and further course development, based on informed decisions, are presented in this paper. The didactic pentagram and the basic didactical model of Engineering Pedagogy Science are discussed in this paper. Didactical pentagram of Engineering Pedagogy Science forms the ground of the essential pedagogical competencies of engineering faculty along with the speciality competencies, ensuring effective teaching engineering. The basic didactic model of Engineering Pedagogy Science follows the principles of an iterative process, being an effective tool for the design of a study program, curriculum, syllabus, course, or a lecture with the aim of effective teaching engineering. Integrated quadruple instructional model of Engineering Pedagogy Science as the foundation of integrated course design and one of the preconditions of effective teaching and learning is introduced as the basis of expected teaching competencies of engineering faculty. Pedagogical competences of the faculty are becoming more considerable in the quality assessment of higher education. The most effective ground of pedagogical continuing education of engineering faculty is Engineering Pedagogy Science, which offers suitable and relevant didactic models for insurance of effective teaching and learning and integrated course design based on informed decisions, learning analytics, reflection and metacognition.

Teaching Public Speaking Online–Not a Problem but an Opportunity!

This reflection essay focuses on the problems inherent in the design and development of an online public speaking course, which in part result from presuming the course must mirror its face-to-face counterpart. Based on our own experiences and background in designing an online public speaking course, we recommend that instructors and administrators of this course solve such problems by employing design strategies that effectively adapt the course content and pedagogy to a digital context. The essay begins with a description of an integrated course design model (Fink, 2005) that proved useful to us for accomplishing this task. Then we discuss how we used the four components of the initial design stage of this model to take advantage of opportunities for teaching public speaking online.

Graph-based approach to model the dependency information of graduate attributes for supporting the accreditation process

In the accreditation of an engineering program, the criterion of graduate attributes is particularly challenging due to its outcome-based nature, which involves diverse instructors to collect and analyze data on students’ skills and competencies in course activities. Also, the amount of data can be vast, causing the issues of relevance and consistency of the collected data. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to facilitate the relevant process by modeling the information dependency concerning the measurements of graduate attributes and the responsibilities of stakeholders. The modeling approach is based on the graph representation that focuses on the nodes and their relations. In the graph-based model, information contents are treated as nodes, which are classified into five types: graduate attribute (GA), attribute indicator (AI), program course (PC), learning outcome (LO), and grading component (GC). Then, the contextual interpretation of the GA assessments is specified by the relations that connect these content types. In this work, three types of content relations are defined: refine, measure and associate. Further, three types of stakeholders are identified (i.e., accreditor, administrator, and instructor), along with their relations to specify their responsibilities to the content types. To demonstrate the application of the proposed graph-based model, this paper overviews the use of the Integrated Course Design Tool (ICDT) and the course outline template in the accreditation process. Based on the graph-based model, suggestions are provided toward the development of quality function deployment and software tools.

Evaluating an Integrated Course Design Tool for Engineering Graduate Attributes Assessment

The research reported in this paper isconcerned with developing a software tool (the IntegratedCourse Design Tool) based on the principle ofconstructive alignment. This tool is intended to assistinstructors with course planning by linking togethercourse learning outcomes, teaching & learning activities,and assessments. The rationale is to report on studentachievement in the context of the Engineers CanadaAccreditation Board’s graduate attributes and use thisinformation for continual improvement. Our experiencewith the ICDT has shown it to be a simple, intuitive toolfor course-based graduate attributes assessment andcontinual improvement; however, further work is requiredto extend the tool for program-wide usage.