Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011 - rees2009

Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) Página 672 de 957
Research Context
This research and development project was funded in 2009 by the Australian Learning
and Teaching Council, involving 5 institutions: CQUniversity (Australia), Aalborg
University (Denmark), Swinburne Institute of Technology (Australia), Victoria University
(Australia), and University of Melbourne (Australia). Each of these institutions offers
team-based engineering subjects. For CQUniversity, Aalborg University, and Victoria
University, these subjects are offered within a larger project-based learning approach, the
configuration of which varies across the universities. For Swinburne Institute of
Technology and University of Melbourne, team-based subjects are offered ad hoc and
according to the interests of individual academic staff. By combining these varying
contexts, the research team hoped to gain a more inclusive and nuanced perspective on
both the assessment context in team-based subjects and possible solutions that would
work across these contexts.
Methodologies and Methods
The initial overarching question driving this research project was deceptively simple:
What combination of teaching practices can effectively assess individual student learning
in team-based subjects? In order to investigate this question, the research team devised a
staged research anddevelopment design:
1. Conceptual model development. This stage involved data collection and analysis,
engagement with the literature, and reflective dialogue and writing by the
research to construct an initial conceptual model of effective assessment of
individual students who are learning in teams.
2. Development of the strategic assessment framework. Based on the conceptual
model, the research team has developed an assessment framework (teaching
practices and artefacts) that can support academic staff in assessing individual
students strategically within a single subject.
3. Implementation and evaluation of the assessment framework and
conceptual model. The final stages of the project, which are currently underway,
involves implementing the framework with academic staff participants at four
Australian universities and gathering data which can assist in the evaluation of the
framework and the underlying conceptual model.
Conceptual Model Development
This first stage was strongly founded in a constructivist epistemology (Savery and Duffy,
2001), with the understanding that the complexities underlying effective assessment of
individual student learning in team-based subjects could only be investigated and
understood through gathering multiple perspectives from individual teaching
practitioners as well as from students, administrators, and other stakeholders. To this end,
we interviewed academic staff and students at each of the five member institutions. These
interviews were transcribed and the research team conducted a preliminary thematic
analysis (Boyatzis, 1998) regarding the considerations, constraints, and opportunities that
Proceedings of Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011
Madrid, 4 th - 7 th October 2011