Summary of EASEIT-ENG project

Summary of
Development of a practical Evaluation Methodology for the production of Engineering learning Technology Case Studies by the EASEIT-ENG project.

I found this paper with its reference to engineering and evaluation. EASEIT-ENG stands for Evaluative and Advisory Support to Encourage Innovative Teaching – Engineering. A group established in the UK whose aim is to assist engineering academics in selecting learning technology material, for use in their teaching, that was right for both them and their students. They have done this by getting a number of tertiary education providers to do evaluations of engineering computer based learning and teaching materials they are using or trailing. These evaluations are then put in a data bank and made available to academic tutors. The document summarizes each aspect of the project and provides references.

The project puts together a manual form which evaluations of can be carried out. The manual also includes
1. Client contact details
2. Fact sheets
3. Pre-evaluation questionnaire
4. Student question
5. Observation schedule
6. Guidance on focus groups
7. Tutor interview structures
8. Evaluation report template and feedback questionnaire
I.e. a lot of the same type of data collection that I (we) intend to do. The actual questionnaires are available online and will be a valuable resource as a template for my evaluation.

As a list of evaluated software it was only a little useful but the evaluation process that was described gave an idea of the detail required in doing an evaluation and that was very useful. It gave a summary of what the project revealed about engineering leaning technology materials which was very interesting and varied. One point that interested me was ‘that academics seemed convinced of the pedagogic benefits of using learning technology but were less convinced that the right material was available for them or that there would be any time saving associated with its use.”

Finally the reference section gave great reference to elearning materials for engineering.

Reference
EASEIT-ENG Project Phil Baker, Fiona Lamb, Steve Rothberg. (October 2005) Development of a practical Evaluation Methodology for the production of Engineering learning Technology Case Studies by the EASEIT-ENG project. The Higher Education Academy – Engineering Subject Centre.
URL http://www.easeit-eng.ac.uk/