A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

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Teaching in the disciplines
entrepreneurship and the need for internationalisation to enable graduates to work in
the global economy.
At the time of writing the European Union is moving towards the Europe-wide
adoption of a common educational framework in 2010, generally referred to as the
Bologna Process. The framework defines the first two degree stages as a first cycle
Bachelor degree 180 ECTS (three years) and a second cycle Masters at 90–120 ECTS. The
Bachelor degree in the UK meets the first cycle requirement and the UK one-year taught
postgraduate Master’s may meet the 90 ECTS requirement. At the time of writing there
is still some uncertainty about the impact of the Bologna Process on the four-year M.Eng.
degree which has 240 ECTS.
Engineering teaching in HE faces a number of challenges which include coping with
a wider skills mix among the student cohort on entry, particularly in mathematics, the
need to be able to articulate clearly the learning outcomes for modules and to devise
assessments that enable students to demonstrate the attainment of these outcomes. The
National Student Survey (Unistats, 2007) has shown that the greatest area of
dissatisfaction is in assessment and feedback, so establishing good practice in this area
in essential.
CURRICULUM DESIGN AND DELIVERY
The lecture
Traditionally, lectures have involved the one-way transmission of course content from
academics to students often in large lecture groups. Many academics still see the lecture
as an efficient way, in terms of time usage, to deliver large volumes of core knowledge.
If it is done well then it can be effective but the quality of the student learning is heavily
dependent on the quality of delivery; Chapter 5 elaborates on some of these themes in
more detail. Students can become passive recipients of information, leading to failure to
engage with the subject or gain much from the learning experience. In response to this,
and to make use of new technologies, the lecture format in engineering has seen some
changes in recent years as many lecturers have introduced more opportunities for student
interaction, participation and activities. For example, skeletal notes may be used to
improve attention by the students, which have key pieces of information missing, such
as parts of an equation, diagram or graph. Tests and quizzes can be effective in making
the lecture a more interactive process and provide feedback on the students’
understanding. Personal Response Systems and facilities offered through Virtual
Learning Environments (VLEs) can be used to give immediate feedback. Lectures should
motivate and challenge students and relevant photographs and video clips may be useful,
as demonstrated in Case study 1 from the University of Bath.