Search

When it comes to the assessment of design behaviors and outcomes, direct observations by external viewers and subjective reflections by the participants themselves can all yield important information. External viewers, for example, may code video evidence or apply design metrics to a designer's solutions, both of which can lead to interesting statistical analyses and detailed insights. In collecting and analyzing designers' personal reflections and perceptions, researchers often utilize Likert-type scales, multiple choice questions, or short open-ended prompts. While these modes of data collection are useful and valid, they also constrain participants' responses to fixed options in the case of Likert-type scales and multiple-choice questions, and to verbal expressions in the case of open-ended prompts. Few examples of other types of reflection activities (e.g., graphing, sketching) have been presented or studied in the engineering education literature. In this project, which is part of a larger investigation into high performance design teams, we explored the use of graphing and other visual techniques for recording designers' perceptions of their design processes and products. Our primary aim was to introduce greater richness into the evaluation of designers' behaviors and outcomes as we posed research questions about their relationship to cognitive variables. In this paper, we will discuss two of these reflection activities-- an emotional state plot and a graphical assessment of a design solution's feasibility, usefulness, and novelty--in the context of a team design challenge. While the designers under study worked as teams, each individual designer provided her/his perceptions of the team process and design solutions using these reflection activities. Our analysis of individual perceptions from seven design teams of 4-5 designers each will be reported here. This investigation also includes the cognitive style of each participant (as measured by Kirton's Adaption-Innovation inventory--KAI®) as a potential mediating variable on the individual perceptions of emotions and outcomes. This paper will provide details of the two reflection activities, our associated methods of analysis, key findings related to the designers' perceptions and cognitive styles, benefits and limitations of these two reflection activities, and implications for design educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on a framework for successful online course delivery, suitable for the senior secondary school environment, developed as a result of an experience-based study of eight institutions from Iceland and Finland. It outlines developed 'best practice' in a range of areas, including strategies for the creation and maintenance of online course material. It highlights the importance of nurturing effective virtual learning communities surrounding an online course. The paper also focuses on the challenges in establishing a sustainable program, as well as examining aspects of the program's success. The framework was developed as a means to guide a new distance e-learning program, commenced by Northern Beaches Christian School (NBCS), Sydney, Australia, through its research division, the Sydney Centre for Innovation in Learning (SCIL), in 2006. The initial implementation of the online course program at NBCS has produced some interesting and varied outcomes. A number of courses offered in online modes solely have produced higher than state average results in external examinations. Additionally, a number of students undertaking courses in distance e-learning mode, have quickly attained external examination results at the high of end of NSW achievement. Another observable and positive outcome of the e-learning program is connected to general teacher effectiveness. The process of developing courses suited to an online environment has facilitated broader teacher awareness of relevant and appropriate pedagogy in all course delivery, whether face to face or online. This would appear to be linked to a range of factors: Teachers adopting a more considered professional approach, drawing more overtly from their understanding of the most effective pedagogy as may be relevant to the delivery of the specific content of a course. Teachers better able to integrate new technologies into all of their course delivery, whether in face to face, blended or fully online modes. and in so doing raising the quality, variety and effectiveness of their instruction. Students with a predisposition to learning styles linked to engaging with technology, appreciating the widespread integration of online modes of learning into all courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]