Low cost development methods for postgraduate courses in

Low cost development methods for postgraduate courses in materials Bob Cottis University of Manchester, Manchester UK

Background • MSc Course in Corrosion Science and Engineering (now Corrosion Control Engineering) • Offered at UMIST since 1964 • Converted to Modular format in 1997 • Now available as full-time or part-time course in attendance at UMIST • Distance learning route being introduced

MSc Course Design • QAA Requirements: § § 180 credits (one full year) 1 credit = 10 hours of study (3 contact hours) 15 credits = 3 weeks of full-time study Majority at Masters level: • “Much of the study undertaken at Masters level will have been at, or informed by, the forefront of an academic or professional discipline. Students will have shown originality in the application of knowledge, and they will understand how the boundaries of knowledge are advanced through research. They will be able to deal with complex issues both systematically and creatively, and they will show originality in tackling and solving problems. They will have the qualities needed for employment in circumstances requiring sound judgement, personal responsibility and initiative, in complex and unpredictable professional environments. ”

Course Units All 15 credits (150 hours of study) 1 - Corrosion and Materials 2 - Principles of Corrosion 3 - Environments, Testing and Localised Corrosion 4 - Corrosion Control 5 - Corrosion Control in the Oil and Gas Industries 6 - Corrosion Mechanisms and Control in the Process and Power Industries + 90 credit research dissertation

Development Strategy • Options § High cost course materials, limited tutor support costs § Low cost course materials, higher tutor support costs • Best approach depends on course numbers • Corrosion course is expected to be relatively small, which favours second option

Costs • Highest quality computer assisted learning material takes 100 hours or more to produce one hour of material • MSc course 90 credits of taught course, plus 90 credits research dissertation • 90 credits taught involves 900 hours of study, or 300 hours of online material (i. e. 30000 hours of development – about 20 person years!) • Therefore we must use lower cost route

Who Should Tutor? • Factors § § Costs Knowledge Availability Preconceptions • Possible groups: § Academic staff § Consultants § Research students

Research Project • Trial delivery of online 10 credit introductory course to 24 students • 6 tutors, 4 students each § 2 Corrosion Academics § 2 Corrosion Consultants § 2 Research Students • Course is 10 weeks of study § 10 hours of study per week § Plus ‘break’ week after 5 weeks • Online test as final assessment

Academics • • Excellent subject knowledge Skilled as lecturers Can find it difficult to act as online tutor Think they know how to do it, therefore tend not to accept need for training! • Expensive (despite low academic salaries in the UK!) • Don’t have the spare time

Consultants • Good subject knowledge (may be limited in breadth or knowledge of fundamentals) • Can find it difficult to get out of ‘consultant mode’ • Availability can be a problem • Expensive (if we pay normal consultancy rates)

Research Students • • • Subject knowledge may be limited Little experience of teaching Amenable to training Relative low cost Usually enthusiastic Tutoring helps them to learn subject and provides valuable additional skills

Conclusions – Performance of tutors • Academic staff § Slow response § Problems with availability • Consultants § Slow response § Problems with availability § Tend to operate in consultant rather than tutor mode • Research Students § Rapid response § Some problems with limited knowledge § Very dependent on individuals

Time and cost • Students require approximately 1 hour of tutor time for each week of study (10 hours for 10 credit unit) • Estimated costs § Academic staff £ 450 § Consultants £ 1250 § Research students £ 140 • Hence research students used as tutors • Academic staff may tutor first running of unit to assess quality of teaching material

Course Materials • Lecture equivalent § Recorded lectures § Power. Point presentations • with video recording of lecture • with voice-over • with notes § HTML pages § PDF documents • Laboratory equivalent § Images/video of real experiments § Kitchen sink experiments • Tutorial equivalent § Online discussion § Quizzes

Course Materials - Lecture equivalent • Recorded lectures (video camera or webcam) § Fully automated system developed using open-source tools § Students find the result very boring to watch § Needs to be edited – very time consuming and expensive § Bandwidth problems for viewers when using streaming video (at the time of our experiment)

Course Materials - Lecture equivalent • Power. Point presentations with video recording of lecture § More easily segmented into useful sections than video alone (hence somewhat less boring) § Notionally a fully automated system can be achieved using MS tools (among others) § Difficult for inexperienced academic users (especially those who don’t normally use Power. Point) § Bandwidth problems when using streaming video

Course Materials - Lecture equivalent • Power. Point presentations with voiceover § Automated system similar to video recordings, but somewhat lower bandwidth requirement § Better results obtained using a written script (but more time-consuming) § Editing can be complex, depending on the method used • Power. Point presentations with notes § Notes similar to the script for the voice-over • Combination of voice-over and notes • § Provides good accessibility (e. g. for blind or deaf students)

Course Materials - Lecture equivalent • HTML pages derived from lecture notes § Simple development (hence low cost), especially where comprehensive lecture notes already available § Requires skilled staff § Easy to incorporate images, video, links to external web sites § Not inherently very interactive • PDF documents § Simplest possible development (notes may already exist) § Links to images and web sites can be incorporated, but require online viewing and are complex to incorporate for inexperienced academic staff § Not inherently very interactive

Course Materials – Laboratory equivalent • Images/video of real experiments § Can use expensive or hazardous equipment § Requires skilled staff for good results § Not usually very interactive, so learning will not be so deep as a real laboratory • Kitchen sink experiments § Need to be carefully designed so that students can perform them with minimal specialist equipment § Need detailed notes to allow for relative inaccessibility of tutor § Give closer contact with the experiment, and probably deeper learning

Tutorials • Online discussions § Synchronous (chat session) § Asynchronous (discussion forum) • Quizzes § ‘Instant’ feedback § Can tailor feedback to answers (e. g. identify and explain common errors or misconceptions)

Active Learning • Learning requires the ‘rehearsal’ of information in order to transfer it from short- to long-term memory • Online material needs ‘activities’ to achieve this rehearsal § § Quizzes Worked examples Case studies Group discussion • Aim for at least one activity each day

Research Dissertation • 90 credits, so should correspond to 900 hours of study (about 6 months fulltime) • Methods: § Full-time in Manchester § Full-time or part-time in another University § Full-time or part-time in place of work • Supervision § Manchester supervisor § Local supervisor • Communication § E-mail § Voice (Skype, telephone)

Assessment • For taught modules § Coursework – 25% § Written examination – 75% • For dissertation § Written dissertation marked by two examiners (supervisor + independent) • Students must pass both taught and dissertation >50% - pass >60% - merit >70% - distinction

Assessment - coursework • Typically two items of coursework per module § Report on ‘laboratory’ § Report on case study § Calculations • Submitted through Blackboard (moving to submission through Turnitin plagiarism checking software) • Preliminary assessment by tutor where appropriate (for formative feedback) • Final marking/moderation by academic staff

Assessment - Examinations • Distance learning students take same examinations as full-time students and at the same time (± 2 hours) • Examinations taken at approved examination centres (e. g. British Council, local universities) • Paper sent by fax or email shortly before scheduled time • Scripts returned by paper mail

Outcome • MSc course has been running for about 5 years • 2 students working on dissertation research project • Average performance of distance learning students is better than full-time students § More time for study and reflection? § More motivated?

Further Developments • Manchester Materials Masters (MMM) • Four MSc Courses: § § Advanced Engineering Materials Corrosion Control Engineering Polymer Materials Science and Technology Textile Technology • All consist of six 15 -credit modules (some with options) + 90 -credit research dissertation • Modules can be mixed for MSc in Materials • http: //www. manchester. ac. uk/mmm

Advanced Engineering Materials 1 - Introduction to Materials Science and Engineering 2 - Industrial Processing of Materials 3 - Advanced Composite Materials 4 a - Materials Performance Life Cycle Design 4 b - Advanced Analytical Techniques 5 - Engineering Design and Communication 6 a - High Performance Alloys 6 b - Functional and Engineering Ceramics

Polymer Materials Science and Technology 1 - Control and Design of Polymerisations 2 - Structure and Mechanical Properties of Polymers 3 - Polymer Characterisation 4 - Polymer Processing 5 - Engineering Design and Communications 6 a - Soft Matter and Nanotechnology 6 b - New Directions in Polymerisation

Textile Technology 1 - Textile Materials and Performance Evaluation 2 - Weaving and Weave CAD 3 - Knitting and Knit CAD 4 - Yarn and Nonwoven Technology 5 - Technical Textiles 6 - Colouration Technology