Experiences from adopting a situational learning course structure

Abstract

The School of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Adelaide aims to ensure that its students not only achieve technical competence but also develop the interpersonal skills sought by industry. Situational learning (Davenport & Baron, 2007) is a new approach where students are placed in a situation comparable to that expected in industry, but with the support to develop the skills intended of the course. This paper presents the experiences of moving the Structural Analysis and Design course from interactive learning (Bammann et al, 2005) to a full situational learning approach. Feedback from a student survey is presented together with an assessment by the authors, who are the course supervisors and the course lecturer. Implementing situational learning was found to have a mixed outcome; while retaining the benefits of interactive learning, a range of issues were found still needing to be addressed.