Complete thesis - Murdoch University

Although issues raised by the Year surveys were actioned as required by the procedure setup within Engineering, after the end of semester all comments received were open-codedto produce a set of categories that might provide insight into participant perception of theenvironment in which they were learning. From these categories themes were extracted.Themes identified addressed:discipline content : comments regarded relevance (also linked to motivation), understanding,depthenvironment : including lecturer style and delivery, general class sessions formatmaterials : website, text, other sourcesworkload : assignment formats and load, unit workload throughout semester.In each case both positive and negative comments were made. The issue that appeared, atthis time, to be of primary importance revolved around student perception of the learningsituation. This encompasses the themes of discipline content and environment. The othertwo themes were considered of marginal interest in that they were ‘expected’ as a componentof any student feedback received, and were not delved into at this stage.Students come to the unit with strong preconceptions regarding the learning environmentand an awareness that ENG260 would be ‘different’. This is understandable since the focusof the previous year is to engender a scientific/engineering way of thinking, and for thosestudents articulating in, a prescriptive approach to learning. Marks for assessment components(especially the portfolio) also suggested many students were only interested in doingthe minimum required to learn the tools and techniques, and pass the unit. This confirmedthe importance of motivation as an element of a primary theme.The learning environment for ENG260 provided a contrast that some students found difficultto assimilate. Although due process and procedure has its place, the focus of the unit is ondivergent thinking and the development and evaluation of alternatives. Students come withsome competence in programming. In ENG260 they are asked to ignore the problem-solving(coding) of a situation presented, and to explore and then formulate the problem itself. Myexperience in teaching this unit has shown that students’ expectations are challenged:• they expect there to exist a definitive solution to the problems with which they arepresented (à la science/mathematics)• they expect to define the problems only in terms of the programming language withwhich they are familiar (currently Java)263