A presentation at the Quicker Steps to Employment project seminar held at Coventry University (UK) on 9th October 2012

1. Nuoret nopeammin työelämään -hanke
”A paradigm shift in pedagogy for enhancing graduate
employability”
Activity-Led Learning – an example
Ursula Rutherford
Research student
Faculty of Engineering and Computing,
Coventry University

2. Outline
• The Integrated project
• Real world context
• Group work
• Assessment
• Competences
• Module evaluation & development
• Research methods

3. The Integrated Project
Who: Dept. Civil Engineering, Architecture & Building
220 students (groups of 8)
8 staff
What: capstone (10 ECTS)
real-world, authentic
substantial project
Purpose: integrate disciplines
apply knowledge
develop professional skills
deep learning

4. Integrated Project – real world context
The brief
The site
The consultants
The tender bid

5. Integrated Project – presenting a design

6. Integrated Project – group work
• Group formation - selection
• International - virtual

7. Assessment
• Phase 1: prepare preliminary design proposals and a written
submission of the contractor’s proposal
• Phase2: develop the preferred preliminary design and confirm
the design proposal and submit parts of a full tender submission
• Groupwork v. Individual (50/50)
• Peer assessment
• Self assessment & Reflection

8. Competences – some examples

9. Self-efficacy & Reflection
• Questionnaire + Report
• How & when

10. Real world experience
• Group work
• Reliance on others  group relying on you
• Communication
• Unclear goals
• Multi-disciplinary
• Room to make mistakes
• all very important features for supporting employability

11. Module evaluation 2011-2012
Overall pass rate – 99.6%
Student satisfaction - Improvement in stats
• Staff teaching on this module are enthusiastic about what they
are teaching - 85% (+ 6%)
• Staff teaching on this module are good at explaining things
clearly - 83% (+9%)
• Feedback on any returned work has been useful to develop my
understanding of the module content- 70% (-5%)
• Overall the quality of this module is satisfactory – 81% (+1%)

12. Student satisfaction

13. Development of the module
Changes support competency development & broadening of the
spectrum of competences
2010: open-door policy
2011: consultants & surgeries
2012: forum for consultancy
2010: Assigned to groups
2011: Self-selected half
teams
2010: Domestic groups
2011: International teams  virtual meetings

14. Research methods
• Module satisfaction survey
• Observational ethnography
• Interviews
• Students
• Staff
• graduates
• Self-efficacy questionnaire (NEW)