First pilot study of an Objective Structured Teaching Exercise (OSTE) at the School of Science & Technology

During the spring term, the first ever OSTE teaching exercise at the School of Science & Technology was successfully implemented in one module for second-year engineering students for their coursework assessment.

It was led by Professor Christoph Bruecker, BAE SYSTEMS / Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Nature, with Senior Technician at the School, Keith Pamment.

OSTE means “Objective Structured Teaching Exercise” and is adapted from medical teaching methodologies where students run through several stages and are assessed on their performance while observed by the examiners.

This type of exercise provides standardised, objective and immediate feedback to the teacher and the students on their performance. It is a novel way to enhance the learning experience, improve learning outcomes and improve the development of the faculty.

The most important element of the pilot OSTE exercise was that the students had the chance to train individually for the assessment beforehand, where they learned hands-on how to handle a ‘flow rig’ and the associated measurement equipment in a two-hour session.

During the exercise, each student had to assemble the individual elements to complete an air flow channel which consisted of several pipes and a suction pump. At a later stage of the exercise, the students needed to run and record measurements of the flow rate of air, and the pressure loss, across some components. The exercise overall took students about 15 – 20 minutes, and each student received immediate feedback without needing to write a report.

In expectation of the coursework assessment to follow, the preparation of the students and their learning outcomes appeared better than if just following a demonstration. The results of the pilot exercise were excellent, with students achieving an average mark of 80 per cent in the scoring list.

It is hoped this pilot study could serve as a starting point for improving assessments and learning outcomes more widely across the School.

I thought the practical nature of the lab was excellent, and arguably much more engaging than a lab report, for example”. If anything, I would say the biggest improvement would be if there were more practical elements ...

I enjoyed the coursework for my ET2080 fluid mechanics module. It was unlike our usual coursework where we would be taught the theory and attend a lab where everything was demonstrated to us and already setup. With this new version of coursework, I was directly able to setup the rig and this allowed me to have a more in depth hands on understanding of fluid behaviour. In summary, I enjoyed it, and it was more helpful than the usual lab.

Current activities also include assisting the training session with a Virtual Reality session, where the physical experiment is transferred 1:1 into the digital world, which allows the students to train the assessment steps with 3D objects in VR, where aspects of gamification are implemented. That makes the training experience even more memorable.