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41st SEFI Conference, 16-20 September 2013, Leuven, Belgium
The First Steps towards an Online Master in Aerospace Engineering
G.N. Saunders-Smits1
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Aerospace Engineering
Delft University of Technology
Delft, the Netherlands
E-mail: g.n.saunders@tudelft.nl
R. de Breuker
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Aerospace Engineering
Delft University of Technology
Delft, the Netherlands
E-mail: r.debreuker@tudelft.nl
L.F.M. Mebus
Educational Consultant e-learning
OC Focus
Delft University of Technology
Delft, the Netherlands
E-mail: l.f.m.mebus@tudelft.nl
J.M.A.M. Hol
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Aerospace Engineering
Delft University of Technology
Delft, the Netherlands
E-mail: j.m.a.m.hol@tudelft.nl
Conference Key Areas: curriculum development, lifelong learning, information
and communication technologies
Keywords: curriculum development, online education, lifelong learning, e-learning
INTRODUCTION
Online education is the trending topic in the world of teaching at the moment.
Education is experiencing a paradigm shift from classroom learning to an increasing
form of “guerrilla learning”, students actively seeking knowledge from whichever
1 Corresponding Author
G.N.Saunders-Smits
G.N.Saunders@tudelft.nl
41st SEFI Conference, 16-20 September 2013, Leuven, Belgium
source they can obtain their knowledge from in a form or shape that they prefer to
learn in [1]. The seemingly endless possibilities of the World Wide Web have played
an important role in enabling guerrilla learners to find the knowledge that they seek.
In order for institutes of Higher Education to maintain their position as providers of
excellent higher learning they must also make a transition from just providing to
“classroom learners” to anyplace, anytime, anywhere students.
As a result many developments have taken place over the last decade. Most
universities started by recording their lectures for their own students and then moved
on to offering free educational content using OpenCourseWare initiatives, offering
online lectures as podcasts and, according to the latest trend, to running Massive
Online Open Courses (MOOCs) allowing students to even get some sort of certificate
of completion. The logical next step that has already taken off big time in Computer
Sciences, Law and Humanities with the likes of Kaplan University and the University
of Phoenix is the offering of complete online degrees. So far in Engineering
Education this is still relatively unchartered territory. It is most likely that this stems
from the different type of knowledge as well as the practical skills required in
Engineering Education [2] which makes going online a steeper challenge.
Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) has so far followed the path described
above by recording its lectures, publishing them on ITunes and being a very active
member in the OpenCourseWare [3] consortium. It is about to embark onto the next
two steps: (i) Starting September 2013 TU Delft will offer three MOOCs and (ii) TU
Delft has started the development of online accredited MSc Programmes in Water
Management, Engineering and Policy Analysis and Aerospace Engineering, more
specifically in Aerospace Structures and Computational Mechanics. More information
on all of TU Delft’s online activities is available from www.tudelft.nl/en/study/online-
education.
This paper describes the experiences of the research group of Aerospace Structures
and Computational Mechanics (ASCM) in their first steps towards an online Master.
The next section gives a background behind the online MSc initiative at TU Delft
followed by a short description of the organisational set up. The second section tells
you what educational online formats have been selected in the design of the first
online courses and the third section shares the experiences of the pilots as run in the
academic year 2012/2013 as well as the outcome of student evaluations. Section 4
deals with the plans for 2013/2014, and the paper is concluded with lessons learned
and recommendations for others who want to develop similar initiatives to benefit
from.
1 THE ONLINE MSC INITIATIVE AT TUDELFT
1.1 Background
In the spring of 2012 TU Delft put out a tender for all its MSc programmes to develop
online MSc courses. Out of the many entries the three above-mentioned MSc
programmes were selected and each awarded €100 000 to turn some of their
existing MSc courses into online MSc courses. In return the courses that were run
online would also have to be made available in TUDelft’s OpenCourseWare initiative.
A prerequisite was that only use of the current educational ICT facilities should be
made. Next to that they were offered full support from all the administrative bodies
within the university from the didactical service unit, registration, legal services,
marketing department and of course ICT and the New Media Centre.
The research group ASCM of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering has a long
running tradition of educational innovation [4,5,6,7] and excellence. Over the past 4
41st SEFI Conference, 16-20 September 2013, Leuven, Belgium
years two of its lecturers have been awarded the coveted Aerospace Teacher of the
Year Award. Next to that among its staff it counts some of the world’s leading experts
in lightweight (composite) structures and design optimization, making them highly
sought after guest lecturers. As members within the group often receive requests
from industry and outside institutions for workshops and short courses the group felt
there was a definite interest and market for its accredited courses both in the
Netherlands as well as in Europe and beyond. With this in mind the group selected
courses they felt would meet the need of life-long learners who would like to stay up-
to-date in the fast changing field of aerospace structures due to the current
widespread mainstream implementation of composite structures in Aerospace such
as for instance in the Airbus A350 and the Boeing 787.
1.2 Organisational Challenges
When starting such a new initiative it became very clear from the start that it was
important to involve all the different parts of the university support system. For
instance although at a faculty level there were local registration systems for students
only registering for single courses now a university wide system had to be designed
and implemented which involved close cooperation from the educational
administrators office, the admissions office, legal services, finance and ICT. Another
challenge for instance, is the recognition of the certificates awarded. This also meant
external parties had to be involved such as the Department of Education, Culture and
Science, the Association of Universities in the Netherlands and the accreditation
organizations. To ensure all parties within the universities were sufficiently informed
and aware of expectations, a university wide workshop involving all directors of the
university’s service departments, deans, student representatives and involved project
leaders was held to increase awareness and cooperation.
1.3 Selected MSc courses and its target audience
As stated before the ASCM group identified a niche market in which they felt their
courses would be welcomed with open arms. The courses selected for online
development are primarily aimed at working industry professionals who function at a
BSc/BEng level and above, who are looking at updating their existing knowledge,
increasing their expertise or their education level. A second identified market consists
of MSc students from other universities across the globe that are interested in the
courses offered to serve as an external elective in their own MSc curriculum. Based
on the identified market the following six courses have been selected to be
developed as an online MSc course:
- Buckling of Structures: This mechanical failure mode is particularly critical in
thin-walled structures and is of high interest to many aerospace and other
lightweight structures designers
- Advanced Structural Analysis: This course educates the student in the world
of thin-walled structural analysis focusing on the calculation of deformations
and stresses. The course builds up a solid foundation in structural mechanics
by covering the basics of strain, stress and virtual work and applying them to
plate and beam problems.
- Introduction into Adaptive Aerospace Structures: This course introduces the
student to the application of adaptive structures in the aerospace world. This
type of structure is becoming more and more used in military and civil
aerospace applications and promises to enhance the efficiency of aerospace
structures.
- Structural and Non-linear structural modelling: both courses focus on
Structural Modelling covering first the basic theory of the Finite Element
41st SEFI Conference, 16-20 September 2013, Leuven, Belgium
Method (FEM), considering static and dynamic analyses, and secondly the
basics of non-linearities in the Finite Element Method (FEM), considering
static and stability (buckling) analyses.
- Advanced Design Optimization of Aerospace Structures: A course in which the
student will learn how to design and optimize a composite structure by
analysing the different failure modes that can occur.
2 DESIGN OF ONLINE MSC EDUCATION
2.1 General set up
The starting point for every course that was to be developed as an online course is
that in principle there is no difference between an online MSc student and a regular
MSc student. This means that in principle physical presence in class is not required
nor is it forbidden (e.g. online students are entitled to come and attend a lecture in
the classroom should they choose to and vice versa regular MSc students can
choose to not come to class and follow their class online) and all assessment can be
done by electronic means (e.g. some form of electronic submission and online
assessment either by electronic assessment or a webcam exam). This principle of
online assessment may not be tangible for all courses but is the starting point in the
design of the courses.
Each course is taught within the normal online learning environment that the TU Delft
uses: Blackboard. Every course has its own dedicated Blackboard environment
within which the students can navigate their way through a course. In order to
successfully follow the course a student must therefore have access to a computer
on which they can install software, and a communication device that has a webcam
and microphone and allows them to run instant messenger software such as
Blackboard IM or Skype so that they can take part in the interactive parts of the
classes. It is assumed that each student has a form of word processing software
available that allows for scientific reporting. All other software they may need to carry
out their numerical manipulations and simulations will be selected from the large
selection of available open source software so that the cost for the students remain
low.
Typically within Blackboard each course starts with an online video instruction
outlining the objectives of the course, the course organisation and how to navigate
the course. This is combined with a written course set up document outlining all the
course requirements. Then a set of recordings follows as described in the next
section. Also a section containing all assignments to the course is included. Finally, a
form of interaction, be it a discussion forum, recordings of Blackboard Collaborate
Q&A sessions etc. also forms part of the course.
The delivery of the lectures is done via some form of recording. This maybe a
recording using the ability of Blackboard Collaborate in which lecturers teach either
live or pre-recorded using a WACOM tablet or digital paper to derive the formulas
and draw the structures as they ‘organically’ built up their theory and derivations.
Another option is that lecturers are recorded in the professional TV studio at the
university. Both these types of video clips are typically much shorter than normal
lectures as research shown that short modules or clips keep students attention much
better [8].
A final option is the recording of a live lecture in a normal classroom setting but this is
really the worst of the options as the quality of this type of recording is often quite low
and almost useless if the lecturer is using the black or white board. Classroom
41st SEFI Conference, 16-20 September 2013, Leuven, Belgium
recordings are almost only suitable if only professional presentation software is used.
For this pilot use will be made of pre-recorded or live lecture clips with the classroom
recordings as a back up of issues arising beyond our control.
2.2 Assessment Design
The major stumbling block in the mind of many when it comes to online education is
assessment. Many hold it to be impossible to objectively assess students when they
are not physically present [9]. For the courses in this particular pilot the assessment
in the off-line versions of the courses typically consisted of individual assignments
followed by an oral discussion or examination after the assignments were handed in.
The emphasis lies on the assignments, since these show if the student has achieved
the learning objectives. The oral discussion or exam will take place using either
Skype or the built in meeting tool in Blackboard: Blackboard Instant Messenger.
Students will have to show prior to the examination that the room is empty and
sessions may be recorded for accreditation purposes. Having said that one must
realise that the answers to the questions asked at these type of oral discussions or
examinations rarely have closed answers and cannot be prompted by a third person
or written on cheat cards. The material assessed simply is not suitable for closed
questions. It goes without saying that for closed answer questions a totally different
type of online assessment should be designed.
Fig. 1: Snapshot of an online tutorial using Blackboard Collaborate
In some cases students only get assignments with no oral exam but in that case
each students get a different assignment to reduce the possibility of fraud. It is
important for the reader to realise that the assignments usually involve the numerical
analysis of a design. The solutions, which require a significant amount of work, are
extremely unlikely to be found on the web or able to be ‘outsourced’ to others. People
with the ability to complete these types of assignments are highly sought after
employees and can earn a very decent living without assisting students. The risks of
fraud are therefore minimal in these cases although active monitoring will continue
take place, as it must always be assumed that developments will overtake us
eventually requiring adjustment to the assessment.
3 EXPERIENCES AND OUTCOME
3.1 First trials
In the academic year 2012/2013 the first trials were carried out. These trials were
carried out using our regular students. Two courses were run online only (no normal
lectures were taught), one course was run in parallel (lecturer taught both in-class
and provided each lecture as a recording also) and two classes were run in a
41st SEFI Conference, 16-20 September 2013, Leuven, Belgium
blended form with all lectures and tutorials recorded and posted online but with a
face-to-face computer lab. Figure 1 shows a snapshot of an online tutorial. One
course was run using only classroom recordings. Typically some 30 - 70 MSc
students took part in each of the courses.
3.2 Early Lecturer Experiences
The predominant feeling here was that planning and preparation is everything. It is
important to have a good overview of the whole course before one starts and ideally
one wants to have the course and its recordings and assignments fully completed
before the start of the course. That way there is much more time to deal with
eventualities during the course. Second point is to stick to deadlines one sets
students when it comes to assignments. The risk with anytime, anyplace, anywhere
teaching is that students put off the handing in of assignments and postpone oral
exams. If one is not careful as a lecturer the assessment effort controls your diary. A
third point is structure. Before lecturers tended to structure everything in their lectures
but in an online environment students expect the structure to be explained through
the design of the electronic learning environment or a separate document or clip
outlining how the course is built up and what is expected. A fourth point is that the
lectures become shorter. As no interaction takes place the overall recorded lecture
time reduces to some 75% of a normal lecture.
A final observation is that if the lecturer is an ‘organic teacher’ who prefers to derive
the formulas step-by-step one must ensure to have the tools to do the job. One of the
downsides of the WACOM tablets used in this experiment is their lag time in the
response to the pen meaning that the voice over of the lecture is slightly out-of-sync
with the writing appearing on the screen. Alternatives here are using the smart paper
options available or record the lecture in a studio using the new digital smart board
screens. The cost of the screens has come down considerably and the performance
of the screens has improved significantly compared to a few years ago. They are
also now much more affordable for education purposes.
3.3 Student feedback
Student opinion of five of the courses run online was collected using questionnaires.
However the response to the questionnaires was often below n = 10 so the reporting
of the results is done anecdotally. An interview with students will be done later on to
receive more qualitative feedback and the reasoning behind some of the answers in
the questionnaires.
When looking at the outcomes of the questionnaires a clear learning curve can be
seen. The first course that was taught online ran behind in its release of assignments
and release of online lectures and this really frustrated students. In follow up courses
with the benefit of lessons learned it is noticeable that the frustrations disappear and
students are indicating they are happier with this way of following lectures. A second
real point to pick up on is the students desire for structure. Because there is not a
regular class to go to which provides them with some form of structure they rely
heavily on the online environment. This must contain a clear structure otherwise
students get frustrated and annoyed.
Feedback is an important issue for the students; feedback from the lecturer as well
as feedback from their peers. The questionnaires show that in three of the courses
almost all students discussed the web lectures with their peers. Almost all students
needed feedback about their assignments and discussed the assignments with their
peers.
41st SEFI Conference, 16-20 September 2013, Leuven, Belgium
The set-up of the courses did not include formal peer-feedback even though lecturers
recommend the students to collaborate. Every student has to submit his own and
unique assignments. The results indicate a clear wish to collaborate and discuss with
peers. The online environment should be able to support this by offering
communication tools and give an indication of ‘who is online with me’. Our online
environment supports both with Blackboard Instant Messengers. The courses could
adapt more to introducing students to each other next year since the online students
who are not in Delft do not know each other yet unlike the students who were
involved in the first trials.
Some of the advantages students list is the ability to go back over the lectures and
the ability to take notes. Disadvantages students list is not having feeling as much
part of the academic and social community of TU Delft and technical issues such as
the loading of lectures. The latter issue has partly been solved by now offering
downloadable mp4 files but the overall speed of running of the online learning
environment is something that needs work doing on.
Some students are clearly not happy with online lectures they prefer face-to-face. It
must be kept in mind that for our in-house students face-to-face is something some
students still value. Possible solutions to this were the offering of online Q&A
sessions. They were organised for some courses but not yet used by students. This
is probably because our regular students also have the ability to come and find us
face-to-face and prefer using that option. This is expected to change for completely
online students.
Most students would recommend the online courses to students who cannot come to
Delft, even if they were critical about the online course themselves. This can be seen
a promising sign for the online master.
4 LESSONS LEARNED AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Online learning is definitely where the future is heading. In a world where people
study in a format and a time that best suits them, online learning is a way of meeting
those needs. The pilot discussed in this paper has shown that going online despite
having its downsides in the enormous amount of investment of time and human
resource in the initial set up and the changes an organization must go through, is
definitely the way forward. In its worst case it offers opportunities for regular students
to revisit all of the learning materials including its lectures. It also allows students who
for some reason cannot be physically present at the university to continue studying
thus increasing study efficiency. At best the knowledge dissemination increases as
the subjects are opened up to people who previously did not have access to these
courses. Both students and staff who took part in the trial so far are enthusiastic
about its possibilities both now and in the future.
However, going online is not without its challenges. The authors would urge their
colleagues who consider going online to not go it alone. Work together in a team with
all relevant stakeholders and learn from each other. Also as with many things
preparation is everything. As one is dependent on technology one must allow time to
fix errors and deal with the unexpected. Draw up a clear framework in which
expectations the lecturer has are outlined and also what students may expect from
the lecturer. This avoids discussions and feelings of unease afterwards. This all
requires advanced planning. Finally, involve (previous) students with development of
the course. Their knowledge of online technology and its applications and their desire
for good education will assist anyone in making their course better.
41st SEFI Conference, 16-20 September 2013, Leuven, Belgium
5 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to acknowledge the support of Ir. Sofia Dopper as project
leader of the online Master initiative at Delft University of Technology as well as the
Executive Board of the University for their moral and financial support of this pilot.
The authors would also like to thank Jef Michielssen for his support in the course
evaluations and all their other colleagues at Delft University of Technology who are
working tirelessly to make this pilot a success!
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Manoliu (Ed.),
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Parijs: Euceet
[4]
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