Engineering Commons^™

Decoding Student Satisfaction: How To Manage And Improve The Laboratory Experience, Sasha Nikolic, Christian H. Ritz, Peter J. Vial, Montserrat Ros, David Stirling

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The laboratory plays an important role in teaching engineering skills. An Electrical Engineering department at an Australian University implemented a reform to monitor and improve student satisfaction with the teaching laboratories. A Laboratory Manager was employed to oversee the quality of 27 courses containing instructional laboratories. Student satisfaction surveys were carried out on all relevant laboratories every year, and the data were used for continuous improvement. This paper will investigate the reforms that were implemented and outline a number of the improvements made. It also examines the program's overall impact on: 1) overall satisfaction; 2) laboratory notes; 3) learning experiences; …