Towards a sustainable support strategy for online students

Abstract

Helping first year students develop the sociological competencies required of 21st century engineers, such as professional reflection, effective teamwork and cross-cultural sensitivity, remains a challenge, particularly for external students. This paper reports on the experience of conducting an online engineering practice course, which focusses on these competencies, for external students and on the strategies adopted to support and encourage student participation. Some of the strategies and practices which were implemented were successful in the short term, but many will not be sustainable. However, it is hoped that the lessons learnt from this development will improve future offerings of the course and generally enhance the way we support online students.