Background School of Electrical Engineering Systems ME in Sustainable Electrical Energy Systems RESPONSE TO REPORT ON PROGRAMME VALIDATION 20 June 2008 The visit of the Validation Panel in relation to ME in Sustainable Electrical Energy Systems took place on 5/6 June 2008. The validation was held for four ME Programmes: ME in Sustainable Electrical Energy Systems, ME in Pharmaceutical Process Control and Automation, ME in Signal Processing Engineering and ME in Mechanical Engineering. The Panel recommended approval of the ME, PgDip and PgCert in Sustainable Electrical Engineering Systems, subject to two conditions and with several recommendations including strong recommendations and other observations. This document represents the response from the School of Electrical Engineering Systems to the Report of the Validation Panel. Conditions The 30 ECTS Research Project module should not run concurrently with the other modules. The Programme Committee has reviewed the arrangements for the Research Project and has decided that no summative assessment will occur before the end of second semester in the academic year. Full time students intending to complete the programme in one calendar year will be required to submit their project for assessment before mid- September (one year after commencing the programme). These students will be required to undergo an initial assessment before the first week in June at the end of the second semester. These students will continue to complete their project over the summer period for submission in mid-september. Students who elect to submit in mid-december will undergo the initial assessment in early September. The module descriptors should be revisited in order to ensure that they contain detailed information regarding the assessments. 1
The Programme Committee has developed a format for inclusion in the module descriptors of detailed information regarding assessments. This includes details of number of assignments, topics of assignments, arrangements for completion of assignments (i.e. single or group work) and deadlines. All modules have been updated to reflect this. Further details will be provided in the Student Handbook for each module. Strong Recommendations The Panel has concerns about the proposal to award students either a Master of Engineering or Master of Science, depending on whether students possess a level 8 qualification in engineering. While it understands that there may be implications when seeking professional accreditation for the programmes, the Panel does not believe that students following the same programme and undertaking the same assessments should be eligible for different awards. It recommends that the Institute clarify its position in this regard. The Panel does not recommend the approval of the award of MSc. The Programme Committee has decided to recommend that all students meeting the requirements of the programme will receive an ME award. The Panel strongly recommends that one single core module Entrepreneurship for Engineers should be included within all four streams currently presented where prescribed. The module Entrepreneurship for Engineers is included as one of the common core modules in the ME Sustainable foe Electrical Energy Systems. Recommendations The Programme Teams should ensure that online material, such as lecture notes, is available for all modules. The Panel would encourage the Programme Teams to explore the possibility of delivering some modules where appropriate through distance learning. 2
An interface to the DIT virtual learning environment (VLE), the Blackboard learning system, will be set up for each stream on the programme. This homepage will have links to the individual modules on the stream. The module lecturers will have ownership of these online modules which can be used to provide lecture notes, assignment descriptions, module timetables and to also manage assessment of and feedback to the students. The VLE allows the lecturer to provide a blend of online learning and face to face teaching and also to deliver a module totally online. Overall course management issues will also be handled through the VLE by a Programme Information module that will be owned by the chairman of the stream. This will be used to provide access to the student handbook, information related to the project module, programme timetable, give general announcements and notify students of important events. The School has recently provided blended learning as part of two modules on the DT021 programme in conjunction with a work placement module. Experienced gained from this initiative will be utilised to allow for the development distance and blended learning as part of the ME programme. The content relating to renewable energy should be increased, perhaps through the addition of modules currently available on the MSc Energy Management programme, in order to justify the proposed title. The Programme Committee has decided to modify the stream core modules. The Gas and Electricity Markets module has been replaced by a Renewable Energy Technologies module. The Gas and Electricity Markets module will now become a stream option module. The programme document has been amended to reflect this change. The Programme Teams should continue to make every effort to ensure that students receive timely feedback on the continuous assessments as a matter of course. Where an assessment contributes to the final module mark, the student should be made aware of their assessment marks as soon as possible and, in any event, in advance of the written examination. The Programme Committee agrees that timely feedback on continuous assessments is vital to the learning process. Research has shown that promptness in feedback should take precedence over detail, in other words, quick and dirty feedback is preferable to 3
highly detailed but too late feedback. Staff will be encouraged as much as possible to take this approach. Students will be provided with a statement of their continuous assessment mark prior to the exam period. Each Programme Team should review module descriptors to ensure consistency in the level of effort required across all modules. The Programme Committee, in co-operation with the module authors, has reviewed the module descriptors such that the descriptors are more consistent and a more uniform level of effort is established. However, the committee feels that the lack of consistency is more in the level of detail rather than effort. All modules require a nominal 100 hours of student effort and all staff are aware of this. The Faculty should strive to meet modern standards in relation to induction, registration, communication and information. Each student should be issued with a student handbook at the start of the year, to include timetables, nature and schedule of assessments and arrangements for research project supervision. The Programme Committee will ensure that a Student Handbook which is in accordance with the DIT Quality Assurance requirement is available to all students in both printed and on-line format. This Handbook will include the details described in the QA procedures together with other information as the programme develops. A webcourses.dit.ie page will be developed for the management of the programme which will allow for timely information provision. To allow for the immediate access by students to timetables, particularly at the start of semesters, DIT Web Timetables will be actively promoted. A link to this is available from the student portal and can also be made available from the VLE. The Programme Teams should give consideration to the inclusion of Project Management within the programmes. The Panel would suggest that the amalgamation of the Statistical Analysis for Engineers and the Research Methods module might allow room for the development and introduction of a Project Management module 4
There is an opportunity with the ME to consider a new module in Project Management. This would result in the merging of some of the other core modules. The Programme Committee will consider this proposal over the course of the next academic year. Any change will also be informed by the input of students on the programme. The Programme Teams should broaden the scope of the common core module Entrepreneurship for Engineers to cover corporate entrepreneurship. The Programme Committee has arranged with the module author to include corporate entrepreneurship into this module. The entry criteria should be revisited to ensure clarity in relation to standard, nonstandard and exceptional entry. In line with the discussion with the Validation Panel, the Committee has amended the programme document to ensure clarity in relation to standard and non-standard entry. Other Observations Schools should endeavour to ensure that there is student representation on its Programme Committees and that students are made aware of this formal channel of communication with the Programme Committee. In line with the practice with the other Programmes in the School, the involvement of student representatives on the Programme Committee will be promoted. The Panel would encourage and support the approval by the relevant Faculty Boards of all modules as CPD modules. 5
The Programme Committee will initiate a phased introduction of modules as CPD elements, both as a means to increase enrolment on modules and to promote the programme. Provision of modules as CPD elements will also meet an identified requirement in the Pharmaceutical sector. 6