Complete thesis - Murdoch University

eak between phases – however the focus of the class sessions was expected to change, alwayswith the ability to revisit any phase as required.In order to maintain some level of independence from the intervention, neither content norformal assessment tasks were changed for this offering of the unit. The content was web-basedand supported by a textbook. For both assignments, while the problem changed, what wasrequired to be undertaken was identical to assignments of the previous years. The exam alsomatched that of previous years, with questions in each section drawn from a database I hadcompiled over the years. It should also be noted that the exam needed to be submitted duringsemester – usually by the eighth or ninth week of classes. In this way, the items of formalassessment could not be said to specifically target the learning interventions implementedin this cycle – rather they addressed the overall objectives of the unit in an engineeringschool and university environment (therefore addressing components of graduate attributesat professional and university level).What actually happenedMost of the students who arrived at the first class session were aware that this unit was‘different’ in that it was not taught in the lecture/tutorial/lab style they had experienced intheir first year. The first session stressed this difference. As well as the overview of the unitmandated by university policy, students were introduced to the on-line environment (whichwas new to them), to the techniques required to undertake mind mapping (which none hadseen before), and given an overview of how each class would be conducted.Although I did not describe the model of teaching per se, my teaching philosophy was brieflytouched on – in effect to provide them with competencies to be able to be RequirementsEngineers, if they chose to, not just to know about Requirements Engineering. Studentreaction was fairly predictable – most had chosen to study SE for the thrill of implementingsoftware, not specifying it (abstract stuff; hard concepts to grasp) 3 . The rest of the sessionwas based around the context for RE. The session ended with ‘homework’ – specifically whereto find it. Each topic had reading, exercises and sometimes a diagnostic test to complete.All work tackled could be included in the portfolio, to be handed in at the end of semester.Phase I and II of the Apprenticeship model appeared to work to plan (refer back to Table 6.1)for the majority of the students – each new concept was described for the whole class, examplesworked through and students then tackled similar exercises, generally in pairs. Studentsappreciated the accessibility of their learning resources (notes are all on-line; accessibility ofinformation; useful material) and my main task was to solve individual problems (generally3 Student comments (in italics) drawn from Year surveys257