A few of the members of the EERG recently attended the UK & IE Engineering Education Research Network’s 6th Annual Symposium. This research network is a rapidly expanding group of engineering educators who see the value of sharing not only best-practice, but also new and innovative approaches to engineering education.
The annual symposium is an opportunity to present results of research work, get feedback on works-in-progress, meet new collaborators as well as develop new skills in a number of short workshops. Keynotes talks this year included the engineering engagement and out-reach opportunities offered by the Mary Rose project. Also of particular relevance was a talk on the experiences of establishing an engineering education research group.
Paper presentations at the conference consisted covered a wide variety of topics, including the impact of attendance monitoring, automated analysis outreach activities, performing systematic research reviews and phenomenology. Unusual and interesting ideas presented included the use of industrial espionage in group work to provoke the discussion of ethics in engineering. There was also a fascinating talk from the Open University on remote/telematic access to electro-mechanical lab equipment by distance learners.
Papers from the workshop are soon to be published in the symposium proceedings