Enhancing Structural Engineering Education Through Podcast Integration

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Sims, Rebekah and Al Hamd, Rwayda (2024) Enhancing Structural Engineering Education Through Podcast Integration. In: Active Learning Network Conference, 2024-06-18 - 2024-06-19.

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Abstract

Abertay University’s civil engineering programme draws a student body with a wide variety of pre-tertiary educational experiences, including mature students, veteran students, and students transitioning to university from further education. Thus, attention to instructional techniques that facilitate access to content through multiple modes of engagement are key to effective teaching in this context. This practice-focused case study is a collaboration between a civil engineering lecturer and an education studies lecturer from two different Scottish universities. The project explores how students’ engagement with engineering-themed podcasts enhances their experience of a third-year construction materials and highway design module. We focus on enhancing teaching practices by identifying the types of recorded materials that most effectively engage students and exploring innovative ways to incorporate them into teaching strategies. In our project, second-year engineering students were given short podcasts from Technically Speaking: A Science and Engineering Podcast on module topics and traditional lecture and tutorial materials. These podcasts were lively conversations between experts on topics such as fire engineering, concrete design, and skyscraper material design. We found that students thought the podcasts were more engaging than other materials. The podcasts provided links between module content and the wider engineering field. Students reported feeling that the podcasts made technical engineering content approachable and enhanced their curiosity about module concepts. While substantial educational research explored the pedagogical benefits of students creating podcasts, comparatively little research considers using external podcasts to enhance student engagement. This small-scale project highlights the potential of podcasts as one widening-access tool to enrich students’ engagement with discipline-specific content. When designing tertiary pedagogy and processes for students with a wide variety of pre-university educational paths, instructors should not overlook the potential of incorporating nontraditional media materials to offer varying means of rich engagement.

ORCID iDs

Sims, Rebekah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3151-7315 and Al Hamd, Rwayda;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)