Communications breakthrough wins engineering lecturer top award

Unlikely though it may seem, second year lectures on communication theory in York University's Department of Electronics are proving a real crowd pleaser. That attendance levels are now significantly higher than on other courses is directly attributable to tutor Dr Dave Pearce's development and use of computer simulations to provide animated demonstrations of complex concepts and processes.

As well as greatly increasing student understanding and motivation, Dr Pearce's methods of imparting knowledge have won him top prize at this year's Higher Education Academy Engineering Subject Centre Teaching Awards. As overall winner - chosen from a group of five finalists - he received a cheque for £500 from event sponsor ECUK, which has been supporting the annual awards since their inception four years ago.

Dr Pearce's simulations are used in lectures, lab sessions and by students in their own time. They are capable of running with a host of parameters and displays and of showing many different aspects of the system they illustrate. Importantly, this complexity is introduced to students gradually, so options and aspects not yet covered in lectures remain hidden during demonstrations.

One of the main reasons Dr Pearce chose to employ computer simulations was that many engineers are visual learners, and even those who are not still find that such an approach helps them to understand the subject matter. An equally important factor was that engineering students tend to be more motivated by practical problems than abstract theoretical descriptions. The simulations aim to show how mathematical theory is used to solve such problems. Having seen the real performance of a system the students are then much more likely to be interested in the answers to the maths. Also, compared with real hardware demonstrations, computer simulations have obvious advantages in terms of flexibility, equipment requirements and set-up time.

Those on the receiving end of Dr Pearce's teaching methodology provided a ringing endorsement of his claims that it is achieving its aims. Of 31 students questioned after one particular lecture, all agreed - most of them strongly - that "the animations help me to visualise the processes in a communication system" and that this "helps me to understand it".

In an interview with a smaller group of students and in comments made on the questionnaire, the animated demonstrations were described as "brilliant", "really helpful" and "making it easier to concentrate". Students' engagement with the material has been further demonstrated by the numbers turning up for lectures and their level of attentiveness once there. During labs sessions, which afford a better opportunity to talk with students about the subjects being studied, the depth of understanding was higher than would otherwise have been expected.

Dr Pearce gave a presentation of his methods - and received his award - at last month's Engineering Education international conference. A report on his work - and that of the four other short-listed finalists - can be found at: http://www.engsc.ac.uk/an/teaching_awards/awards07_08.asp
Anyone wishing to apply for next year's teaching awards can discover more at:
http://www.engsc.ac.uk/an/TeachingAwards2009.asp
The deadline for applications is 1st September 2008.

Dr Dave Pearce of the University of York receives his Engineering Subject Centre Teaching Award from ECUK's Deborah Seddon. (Photo: Phil Wilson, Loughborough University)