European engineering educators

 Although recognised as a priority for engineering education, implementation of Sustainable Development (SD) in curricula has been mixed and limited. 

This episode features Marie Paretti from Virginia Tech and Maya Menon from the EdTech startup NextWork. We talk about a paper published in the European Journal of Engineering Education entitled “Understanding instructor decision-making in engineering education for sustainable development: a comparison of institutions in Denmark and the United States” which Maya and Marie co-authored with Jennifer Case and Andrew Katz. The study compared the external, internal (institutional) and individual influences on instructors’ decision-making, in relation to the incorporation of SD into the courses they teach within institutions in two different national contexts.

This episode is the second in our series of episodes that take on a new format and are released at intervals along with our normal longer length shows.

For the full paper, follow this link: https://doi.org/10.1080/03043797.2025.2486189

Timestamps

0.00 Welcome and introduction

0.29 Introduction to the episode an publication

1.25 How the work came about and the research team

3.12 Summary of the work

4.02 The research gap

5.16 The research questions

7.27 Terminology; Sustainability, Sustainable Development and the UN SDGs

10.50 Theoretical underpinnings

13.58 Comparative Case Study Methodology

18.04 Data sources and analysis

21.12 The findings

29:49 Implications for engineering education practice

32.31 Implications for engineering education research

35.23 Goodbyes

Join us! Become a member of the European Society for Engineering

Education, SEFI, Europe's largest network of engineering

educators: www.sefi.be

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Engineering is a global profession, with various efforts focusing on the globalisation of engineering practice. However, there are many differences between engineering education systems in different contexts.

In this episode we discuss what we can learn by comparing engineering education across contexts with Professor Roger Gonzalez from The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), author of the monograph “Adapting Engineering Education to a Rapidly Changing World” which focuses on the differences between engineering education systems, particularly those associated with the UK and the USA.

Join Dr. Natalie Wint (University College London) and Prof. Neil Cooke (University of Birmingham) to learn about the ways in which students are contributing their their own engineering education, and what we can learn from them.

Timestamps

0.00 Welcome and introduction to episode

0.25 Podcast Intro

0.50 Experiences with students collaboration from Natalie and Neil

2.13 Introduction to Roger and his work

5.04 Introduction to UTEP

6.44 Why is this work needed and why now?

10.15 How was the work conducted?

12.44 Differences in terms of student admissions into engineering

15.58 Implications for widening access and participation

19.10 Why are there differences between contexts?

22.42 Differences in length and structure of programmes, teaching, learning and assessment and the role of student unions

29.42 Differences in content of the degree

33.01 Degree variants and the role of industry

36.12 The role of Quality Assurance (QA) and student feedback and the role of funding

45.24 Accreditation

48.35 What can we learn from the differences?

53.42 How do these learnings apply to other contexts and countries?

54.47 How will engineering education change in the future; AI.

1:02:35 Key Takeaways from Roger

1:05:02 Key takeaways from Natalie and Neil

Key Resources

You can access Roger’s monograph by following the link below

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-78908-3

Join us! Become a member of the European Society for Engineering

Education, SEFI, Europe's largest network of engineering

educators: www.sefi.be

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This is our first episode which takes the new format which we will be released at intervals along with our normal longer length shows. In these episodes we will be bringing you up to date with some of the latest work within engineering education by speaking with authors of recent publications.

For our first episode of this I am speaking with Madeline Polmear from Kings College London, who featured in our very first season of the podcast. 

And we are going to talk about a paper published in the Journal of Engineering Education entitled Exploring engagement narratives among self-identified Hispanic women's experiences in engineering counterspaces which Madeline co-authored with Elizabeth Volpe, Idalis Villanueva Alarcón and Denise Simmons.

For the full paper, follow this link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jee.20630

Timestamps

0.00 Welcome and introduction

0.27 Introduction to the episode an publication

1.22 The research team

3.08 Summary of the work

4.30 The research gap

5.58 The research questions

6.35 Theoretical underpinnings

10.15 Methodology; Data Collection and analysis

12.21 The findings

15.32 Implications for engineering education practice

17.12 Implications for engineering education research

19.10 Goodbyes

Join us! Become a member of the European Society for Engineering

Education, SEFI, Europe's largest network of engineering

educators: www.sefi.be

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We can't really talk about engineering education without talking about engineering students. But in this episode we talk to them! We attempt to bridge the gap between engineering educators and students by directly asking them what they think. In so doing, we welcome Katrijn Vandenborne (current President of BEST) and Nadica Koloska (co-ordinator for the Educational Involvement Department) from the Board of European Students of Technology (BEST).

Join Dr. Natalie Wint (University College London) and Prof. Neil Cooke (University of Birmingham) to learn about the ways in which students are contributing their their own engineering education, and what we can learn from them.

Timestamps

0.00 Welcome and introduction to episode

0.29 Podcast Intro

0.46 Experiences with students collaboration from Natalie and Neil

2.47 Introduction to Katrijn and Nadica

6.30 The history of BEST

8.04 The relationship with SEFI

10.48 Managing student turnover

12.11 Professional development courses

14.55 Career support

16.20 Symposium on Education

19.02 The Education Involvement Department

20.58 Stakeholders

28.35 Topics of interest within BEST: professional skills, the responsible engineer, assessment and AI

39.45 What should educators remove from engineering programmes?

43.00 Diversifying membership and the student voice

47.19 The benefits of being part of BEST

53.02 What's next?

56.33 How do students get involved in BEST?

59.06 Key Takeaways from Katrijn and Nadica

1.01.48 Key takeaways from Natalie and Neil

Key Resources

https://www.best.eu.org/index.jsp

Join us! Become a member of the European Society for Engineering

Education, SEFI, Europe's largest network of engineering

educators: www.sefi.be

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the highlights episode for season 6! We have reached the end of season 6 and 3+ years of podcasting.

Neil and Natalie would like to thank all listeners and guests for their continued support in making the podcast a valuable source of information regarding contemporary topics in engineering education.

Join Dr. Natalie Wint (University College London) and Professor Neil Cooke (University of Birmingham) for this episode in which they summarise the recent interviews.

00.00 - Introduction

00.38 - Welcome, podcast updates, the future of the podcast

03.50 - Robyn Mae Paul and Kari Zacharias on the Iron Ring

12.00 - Siara Isaac and Joelyn de Lima on the 3T Play Project for Transversal Skills

18.58 - Kurt Coppens on feedback literacy

24.36 - Mariana Velho on public engagement and outreach

29.29 - Call for guests, and ideas on topics and guests

Join us! Become a member of the European Society for Engineering Education, SEFI, Europe's largest network of engineering educators: www.sefi.be

music (c) Lizzie Cooke all rights reserved.

Written and produced by Neil Cooke and Natalie Wint.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Attracting students to study engineering, and helping society understand what engineers do, are ongoing challenges within engineering education.

In this episode we spoke to Mariana Velho, Communication, Education and Outreach Manager for CERN openlab. Mariana draws upon her background in psychology, education and outreach, to manage various communication projects and campaigns, and manage stakeholder relationships.

Join Dr. Natalie Wint (University College London) and Dr. Neil Cooke (University of Birmingham) to learn about the use of science communication and outreach in encouraging students to study engineering.

Timestamps

0.00 Welcome and introduction to episode

0.23 Podcast Intro

0.48 Experiences with science communication and outreach from Natalie and Neil

3.20 Introduction to Mariana

6.47 The importance of science communication

7.28 ATLAS Experiment and CERN

8.44 The role of psychology in science communication

11.46 CERN

14.44 CERN openlab

16.47 Mariana's role within CERN

19.28 Developing the scientists and engineers of tomorrow

21.22 The Summer Placement

27.36 Science communication skills

31.32 Educational resources

37.11 Microsoft Dreamspace and spatial skills

43.24 Engineering in the future

48.11 What's next?

51.54 Key Takeaways from Mariana

53.20 Key takeaways from Natalie and Neil

Key Resources

https://marianadantasvelho.com/

https://openlab.cern/about/collaborate-us 

https://atlas.cern/Resources/Colouring-Books 

https://dreamspace.microsoft.com/en-us/dreamspace/ireland

Join us! Become a member of the European Society for Engineering

Education, SEFI, Europe's largest network of engineering

educators: www.sefi.be

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Feedback is a somewhat perennial topic within higher education (HE), with increasing emphasis on students as independent learners who should engage as active participants to fulfil the role of a self-regulated learner.

In this episode we speak to Dr. Kurt Coppens who works within the ETHER (Engineering Technology Education Research) research group, at the Faculty of Engineering Technology, KU Leuven, Belgium and whose PhD focused on the feedback literacy of engineering students.

Join Dr. Natalie Wint (University College London) and Dr. Neil Cooke (University of Birmingham) to learn about the role of feedback literacy in engineering education!

Timestamps

0.00 Welcome and introduction to episode

0.16 Podcast Intro

0.42 Experiences with feedback literacy from Natalie and Neil

4.11 Introduction to Kurt

7.05 ETHER at KU Leuven

7.58 What do we mean by feedback literacy?

9.13 What is involved in feedback literacy?

11.41 What does good feedback literacy look like?

13.28 Research developments in areas of feedback literacy

17.52 The research gap

20.07 PhD aims

21.40 Study design

28.22 Findings of the first study (Feedback Oreintation Scale)

30.10 Findings from the reflective logs

33.22 Changes in feedback literacy during first year

39.28 Changes during a degree

41.04 Improving feedback literacy

43.10 Capacity building of educators

46.15 Generalisability of findings

47.27 The future of research in this area

49.10 Key Takeaways from Kurt

50.29 Key takeaways from Natalie and Neil

Further Reading

Kurt’s work

Kurt’s Thesis can be found by following the link below: https://kuleuven.limo.libis.be/discovery/search?query=any,contains,LIRIAS4154722&tab=LIRIAS&search_scope=lirias_profile&vid=32KUL_KUL:Lirias&offset=0

Coppens, K., Van den Broeck, L., Winstone, N., & Langie, G. (2023). Capturing student feedback literacy using reflective logs. European Journal of Engineering Education, 48(4), 653–666. https://doi.org/10.1080/03043797.2023.2185501

Coppens, K., Van den Broeck, L., Winstone, N., & Langie, G. (2024). A mixed method approach to exploring feedback literacy through student self-reflection. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 50(2), 173–186. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2024.2373792

Other Key Resources

https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1463354

https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2002.30.8.821.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310373145

https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2019.1667955

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-019-09905-5

https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2023.2263838

Join us! Become a member of the European Society for Engineering

Education, SEFI, Europe's largest network of engineering

educators: www.sefi.be

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There continues to be a growing focus on the need for engineering students to develop transversal skills. There are a number of barriers which can stifle efforts in teaching such skills and approaches increasingly focus on developing engineering educators’ ability to integrate a diverse set of skills with technical knowledge.

In this episode we speak to Siara Isaac and Joelyn de Lima, part of the 3T Play project (funded by the Lego Foundation) team from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), who focused on the use of tangible objects and playfulness to support the learning process and support skills development.

Join Dr. Natalie Wint (University College London) and Dr. Neil Cooke (University of Birmingham) to learn about the approaches to embedding trasversal skills within engineering education!

Timestamps

0.00 Welcome and introduction to episode

0.22 Podcast Intro

0.48 Experiences with transversal skills from Natalie and Neil

3.18 Introduction to Siara and Joelyn and the wider 3T Play project team

5.15 The start of the 3T Play project at EPFL

7.22 What are transversal skills?

9.31 The significance of transversal skills and why they should be explicitly taught

11:18 The views of instructors and barriers to teaching transversal skills

16:48 The Trident Model: Knowing, Experiencing and Learning from Experience

22:47 The role of tangible objects

24:40 Applying the model to a skill

29:42 Flexibility to change interventions to suit the audience

34:12 Conditions which help students to develop transversal skills through experiential learning

39:16 Process level feedback

41:56 Developing the handbook as a resource

47:35 What types and level of students are these activities approriate for?

50:50 The layout of the book and the chapters

56:50 The impact of the project

59:34 Key Takeaways from Siara and Joelyn

1:02:23 Key takeaways from Natalie and Neil

Further Reading

The link to the open access resource can be found here

https://www.epflpress.org/produit/1542/9782832322895/teaching-transversal-skills-for-engineering-students

Join us! Become a member of the European Society for Engineering

Education, SEFI, Europe's largest network of engineering

educators: www.sefi.be

music (c) Lizzie Cooke all rights reserved.

Written and produced by Neil Cooke and Natalie Wint.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the first episode of season 6 of the podcast!

The Archimedean Oath, first developed in 1990 and inspired by the Hippocratic Oath, was promoted as a reflection tool during SEFI 2024. Historically, the oath was read and signed at the end of master’s level study and allowed engineers to emphasise their commitment to their institution and global responsibility. Taking an oath was viewed as supporting graduates in making ethical decisions within professional practice. However, societal and environmental needs have since changed, this triggering moves to update both the form and scope of the oath. Similarly, in Canada, the Iron Ring or Ritual of the Calling of an Engineering is a ceremony which engineering graduates traditionally take part in.

In this episode we spoke to Robyn Mae Paul from the University of Calgary and Kari Zacharias from the University of Manitoba who are part of the group ‘Retool the Ring’, whose work focuses on advocating for changes to the ceremony.

Join Dr. Natalie Wint (University College London) and Dr. Neil Cooke (University of Birmingham) to learn about the iron ring!

Timestamps

0.00 Welcome and introduction to episode

0.58 Podcast Intro

1.20 Experiences with CBL from Natalie and Neil

3.17 Introduction to Robyn and Kari

9.13 Introduction to the Iron Ring

12.12 What is involved in the ceremony

17.45 The obligation

19.47 What are the benefits of the ritual?

22.53 The start of Retool the Ring

32.23 Retool the Ring Activities

40.42 The Iron Ring as establishing, challenging and maintaining boundaries

49.02 The use of exclusionary values and langaguge

56.47 Proposed changes

1:02:26 End of the Iron Ring?

1:05:47 Reactions to the work done by Retool the Ring

1:09: 50 What is next for Retool the Ring

1:13:42 Key takeaways from Natalie and Neil

Further Reading

The following links will take you to publications authored by members of the Retool the Ring group.

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/education/articles/10.3389/feduc.2023.1177035/full

https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/PCEEA/article/view/17100

Join us! Become a member of the European Society for Engineering

Education, SEFI, Europe's largest network of engineering

educators: www.sefi.be

music (c) Lizzie Cooke all rights reserved.

Written and produced by Neil Cooke and Natalie Wint.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We have reached the end of the fifth season!

Neil and Natalie would like to thank all listeners and guests for their continued support in making the podcast a valuable source of information regarding contemporary topics in engineering education.

Join Dr. Natalie Wint (University College London) and Dr. Neil Cooke (University of Birmingham) for this episode in which they summarise the recent interviews.

00.00 - Introduction

00.34 - Welcome and call for new guests

02.07 -Inês Direito and Jan Van Maele on diversity, equity and inclusion (Ep. 1)

08.10 Sasha Nikolic, Scott Daniel and Rezwanul Haque from the Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE) on AI (Ep. 2)

13.39 Ann-Kristin Winkens on systems resilience in the context of engineering education (Ep. 3)

18.04 Thies Johannsen on transdisciplinary education within engineering (Ep. 4)

26.05 Esther Matemba & Lelanie Smith on Engineering Education in the Afrrican context (Ep. 5)

31.29 Jorge Membrillo-Hernández on Challenge Based Learning (Ep. 6)

36.25 Upcoming plans

Join us! Become a member of the European Society for Engineering

Education, SEFI, Europe's largest network of engineering

educators: www.sefi.be

music (c) Lizzie Cooke all rights reserved.

Written and produced by Neil Cooke and Natalie Wint.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.