Complete thesis - Murdoch University

Although the strategy discussed and ‘learnt’ was PBL, the experience discussed in the previouschapter has some impact on the type of PBL learning to be advocated. As has beennoted, a strict adherence to the PBL methodology was seen as restrictive in some aspects.Instead, a modified approach, focussed on the Studio Learning environment described in thischapter, was proposed for adoption.8.1.3 Orientation to Studio Learning – Design WeekIn order to effect the ‘cultural change’ towards learning required by this move, studentscoming into 3rd year of Engineering (and for 2005, 4th year students) were involved inan orientation programme. The objectives of this week-long activity are described moreextensively in Armarego and Fowler (2005), and in summary were to model Studio Learning;establish the roles and responsibilities of students and academics within this model, andprovide an introduction to the necessary support services made available with the learningenvironment. These objectives were achieved through a small-scale design task as a meansof identifying and exposing the Studio Learning approach and an introduction to generictools, techniques, methods and processes that might otherwise have to be duplicated in eachStudio, and provided an opportunity to pretest student perceptions of the model.Figure 8.2: ASI Results for students about to undertake the Design WeekStudents were required to complete a set of learning styles diagnostics. These act as benchmarks,and will be one of the bases for ongoing evaluation of the learning approach. AsFigure 8.2 indicates, the results of the ASI undertaken by (most) students on Day 1 of the336