Abstract 1018

Paper Title:	PBL and Constructivism in Engineering Education
Author:	Josef Rojter, Vicftoria University, Josef.Rojter@vu.edu.au
Suggested track:	Pedagogies
Presentation type:	Full paper
Preferred Category:	Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Abstract:	ABSTRACT- The introduction, in 2006, of problem-based pedagogy into engineering curricula of courses in Schools of Architectural, Civil and Mechanical Engineering (ACME), and Electrical Engineering (EE) was to constitute a paradigm shift in engineering education at Victoria University (VU). It was hoped that the PBL educational methodology would not only redress deficiencies of professional engineering education in Australia, but would also attract higher calibre of students to engineering at VU and reduce current attrition rates. Given the short time since its introduction, it is difficult to gauge whether the implementation of the PBL teaching methodology had been successful. Anecdotal evidence, to this stage, suggests mixed educational outcomes. This paper reviews the theoretical frameworks of PBL approaches to professional education and, specifically, its educational relationship to engineering discourse. It challenges notions on whether PBL approach to engineering education actually produces desirable educational outcomes that meet the needs of the profession. It suggests that PBL educational approaches cannot be based on definitive educational theories and that there are many multi-variant models that satisfy to what is defined to be a PBL pedagogy. Implementation of PBL to engineering curriculum needs to be placed in a context and must be developed with careful considerations of social, economic and ethnic diversity of the student population and the university academic culture. It is argued that the VU PBL model in engineering education ought to evolve with gradual and well considered introduction. INDEX – Problem Based Learning, constructivism, engineering curriculum.

Abstract 1018

Paper Title:	WORK-IN-PROGRESS: A FIRST-YEAR GRADUATE B-LEARNING COURSE ON THE HISTORY OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Author:	Antonio Perez-Yuste, Technical University of Madrid, antonio.perez@upm.es
Suggested track:	First year courses and programs
Presentation type:	Work In Progress
Preferred Category:	Scholarly Teaching
Abstract:	It was three years ago that I started thinking about a first-year graduate course on the history of telecommunications, intended for students who had completed an undergraduate degree in engineering. At that time, I had just defended my Ph.D. thesis on the origins of telephony in Spain, when I realized the lack of recognition regarding this matter in the Spanish universities. So that was why I decided to create and propose a program of studies related to the history of telecommunications. My first goal was to make the subject easy to follow for the students, even for non-electrical engineers. As a second goal, I also found that the teaching methodology should be done by non-traditional methods such us blended learning. And my final goal was the students had a proactive attitude towards this study discipline, which I thought it could be achieved by applying an active learning point of view. The study program was designed to meet all these goals and it contains the next four parts: lecture sessions, patent discussion sessions, one book reading and one visit to a museum. These activities are all carried out in a first semester graduate course and they all can be done with the assistance of the well-known Moodle Learning Management System. The course consists of a number of study-units amounting to 3 ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) in total and it has been offered at the Technical University of Madrid during two academic years up to now. My WIP report will include a description of the course activities aforementioned and the way Moodle encourages the students to follow them. The current project status will be reported and the evaluation methodology applied besides the academic results obtained by the students will be presented.