Deliervy of appropriate assessment items

There were a number of challenges in delivering this subject in PBL mode as half of the students were in off campus or distance mode. More and more universities in Australia are offering their courses and programs in distance modes to attract working and mature aged students. Delivering subjects in PBL modes has proven to be extremely difficult. Nonetheless, the teams were carefully chosen to ensure each group has at least one distance or off campus students.

In addition to their prior knowledge, additional lectures were also delivered relevant to the topic. In some cases, practicing engineers were invited to deliver the lectures and the students found it very useful. This has also provided an opportunity for the staff and the students to develop more engagement with the industry. It was a single large project in which students have to look at various aspect of modern microgrid. The project was divided to look into the following subcategories with specific task:

Week 1: Introduction to Microgrid

Activity: Understanding Microgrid: find relevant literature on Microgrid Week 2: Electricity Uses and Demand Assessment

Activity: Make demand assessment by identifying your assigned campus energy requirements Week 3: Electricity Uses and Demand Assessment

Activity: Develop a Single line diagram model of your campus Week 4: Energy Sources for a Microgrid System

Activity: Identifying various energy sources for your campus Week 5: Mapping and System Layout

Activity: Develop conceptual model Week 6: Mapping and System Layout Activity: Develop Model

Week 7: Control Elements of a Microgrid

Activity: Identify control system requirements for an efficient Microgrid Week 8: Control Elements of a Microgrid

Activity: Design control system for Microgrid Week 9: Safety and protection

Activity: Identify relevant safety standard and procedures Week 10: Demand Side Management

Activity: Develop methodology for demand management Week 11: Portfolio Preparation

Activity: Prepare your portfolio Week 12: Student Presentations

Activity: Submit and present your portfolio

With this clear guideline, students were able to execute the task successfully. Modern technologies such as skype were used to communicate with the distance students. Assessments were carried out based on a final portfolio report. Each individual student was asked to present about their finding. One to one interview was also carried to ensure each student within the team contributed as per their claim. This has proven to be very effective. In some cases, students could not even answer some of the basic questions though they claim to do their respective sections in the report.

4. Conclusion

The assessment in this particular subject was designed to ensure the subject learning outcomes are met. Engaging industry engineers in the development of the assessment was proven to be very useful as they could contributed in the development of the projects along with its respective assessment items. Though there were some challenges with the distant students, the overall delivery of the subject was very satisfactory. Being capstone subject, students were able to demonstrate all the knowledge and skills acquired in their earlier studies.

References

D. G. Moursund (2002). Project-based learning in an information technology environment. Eugene, OR: ISTE, 2002.

G. Xiao-Lian Tai and M. Chan Yuen (2007). Authentic assessment strategies in problem based learning. Proceedings of ASCILITE 2007, the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE), Singapore.

N. Hosseinzadeh, M. R. Hesamzadeh and S. Senini (2009). A Curriculum for Electrical Power Engineering based on Project Based Learning Philosophy. IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology, ICIT’09, Gippsland, Melbourne, Australia.

Tai, Gillian Xiao-Lian and Yuen, May Chan (2007). Authentic assessment strategies in problem based learning. Proceedings ASCILITE Singaore, Singapre 983-993.

White, H. (2001). Problem based learning' Speaking of Teaching. Stanford University Newsletter on Teaching 11 (1).

From Conventional to Non-conventional Laboratory: Electrical Engineering Students’ Perceptions

Nur Ayuni Shamsul Bahri

*, Naziha Ahmad Azli

, Narina Abu Samah

aNur Ayuni Shamsul Bahri, Centre of Engineering Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia

bNaziha Ahmad Azli,Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia

cNarina Abu Samah, Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia,Malaysia

Abstract

Since 2007, the curriculum of a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) program offered at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) has included a laboratory course which is designed to be problem or project based. This is in comparison to the previous conduct of the same laboratory that is procedural based. With the former, the active learning approach has provided the students with more opportunities to explore and solve a given problem or project in a team and devising their own experimental procedure instead of carrying out the tasks of a given experiment in a procedural manner as instructed in a laboratory handout. To date no proper study has been made in assessing the impact of this new laboratory approach on the students themselves. This paper presents the analysis made on the effect of the laboratory course on the students that is based on a sample of students' opinions and perceptions. The results of the analysis have indicated that the non-conventional laboratory course introduced in the Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) program is well accepted by the students and has brought positive effects not only on the students’ learning but also on developing various skills that are important for graduating engineers.

Keywords: Laboratory, problem-based, project-based

1. Introduction

Practical or technical skill is one of the crucial skills in engineering sectors. Engineering itself is a practical discipline that needs the “hand-on practice” as a key to understand and solve some unpredictable real world problems.

Thus, in ensuring that the graduating engineers possess this skill, laboratory courses have always been included in any engineering curriculum design whether as a stand-alone course or embedded in the relevant engineering courses.

Besides, ABET (2012) has clearly stated in its program outcomes 3(b) which is the need for engineering programs to demonstrate that their students attain to design and conduct experiments as well as to analyze and interpret data. This outcome justifies the need for multidisciplinary skills such as practical skill, team working and problem solving skill among engineering students upon graduation which can be successfully developed through laboratory practice. Thus the importance of a laboratory course and its advantages in enhancing the skills and knowledge of engineering students cannot be denied.

Through laboratory courses, students can transfer and practice the theoretical knowledge that they have learned in class into the laboratory work (Kamilah, 2012). Its help the students to have better understanding on the basic concept of certain engineering equipment function and this can successfully be developed after a series of experiments have been conducted which require the students to operate and analyze the derivable data.

At present, many studies have been done especially in designing suitable instructional approach that can be used in ensuring the effectiveness of laboratory courses conducted for engineering students to improve their learning. Johnstone et al. (1994) reported that previous traditional or conventional laboratory only requires little involvement of students’

knowledge. Students have been provided by the experiments procedure and can just follow and solve with less knowledge about it. This has led to many arguments on the effectiveness of the conventional laboratory practices in enhancing not only the students’skills, but also their learning.

In this 21^st century, the conventional laboratory practices have slightly changed to non-conventional laboratory design that is more focused on developing students’ learning, practical skill and students’ participation in a team using active learning approach in the form of for example case study, project or problem-based. This paper presents the results of a study conducted on the effect of a non-conventional laboratory course particularly the Problem/Project-based Laboratory course or known as PBLab which is one of the core courses in the curriculum of a Bachelor of Engineering

*NurAyuniShamsulBahri.

E-mail address: ayuniayu87@gmail.com

(Electrical) program offered at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) on the students by looking at their perception towards the course after having completed it.