Implementing technological and pedagogical advances in very large group teaching

Abstract

The current paper describes some new technological and pedagogical advances that were implemented in the teaching of a course module EG 1104 Statics to about 1400 students. The module was taught at the National University of Singapore as a first year common course for all engineering students as well as some cross-faculty students in the first semester. Besides the push by the government to develop "thinking" students and the general consensus by employers on the weakness of analytical, evaluating and planning skills shown by fresh graduates, some changes were carried out in this module in order to make a shift in the teaching paradigm from that of transferring information to that of processing information. In addition to the documentation of the specific techniques and details with regards to these advances, this paper will further provide an analysis of the feedback by students and staff, which shows the various merits in employing the techniques concerned and how they can be further refined for greater effectiveness.