Elevating engineering education via improved pedagogically based course structures

Abstract

CONTEXT In late 2018, the authors commenced a project in their School to improve the quality of student experience and enhance staff teaching within the Moodle LMS. This was motivated by the authors' interest in better meeting organisational strategic goals, related learning and teaching plans, and creating an improved pedagogical platform for their School. At the time, the University had also gone through an academic restructure, meaning that significant re-branding and realignment of disciplines had taken place. This project was timely in addressing these multi-dimensional obligations. PURPOSE The overall purpose of this high-level project was to provide course consistency in core structures and improve the educational experience for all students in the school. This consistency was to come primarily through the restructuring and alignment of the user experience, presentation, and provision of resources available to students in each course of study. An additional purpose was to provide a reduction in staff workload through the economic restructuring of resources thereby reducing time in searching for information, and the provision of additional content provided in the template, meant that minimum standards for learning and teaching online were being met at a greater extent. It was anticipated that improved levels of student engagement would also result by virtue of the improved user experience and the ability to individualise the course for each student. APPROACH To commence the project, an internal review of all course Moodle (learning management system, or LMS) shells was conducted and benchmarked against set University standards, known colloquially as Blended, Online and Digital Learning and Teaching (BOLD L&T) practices document. Courses were analysed and thematically grouped to identify where the largest gains could be made in the rollout of this work and greatest benefits realised to student and staff experience. Course priorities were moderated against University requirements and a final template was designed based on a constructivist pedagogy. Early versions of the templates were road tested by academic staff to seek feedback and to implement further template refinements. Rollout of the template commenced in 2019 and continued through 2020. ACTUAL OUTCOMES Outcomes include a consistent format that is more easily navigated by staff and students, reducing the time spent searching for information. The format has also reduced the data load on the University and student bandwidth systems by reducing the size of the up and download of each course page. The project implementation had negligible impact on academic staff workloads and occurred with minimal disruption to academic staff time. Students and staff have demonstrated their engagement and indicated their enjoyment and preference for the new interface. SUMMARY This paper presents a new LMS course template to address several student, staff and strategic requirements. Its core elements and rationale are presented, together with some preliminary statistics on its implementation and use. Some early success stories are used to provide further context.