Abstract
The University of Southern Queensland (USQ) has embarked on a radical transformation of its engineering programs to modernise and equip students to meet new global expectations of the profession. A major element in this change has been the introduction of a strand of four courses to encourage teamwork, life-long learning and communication, as will as technical skills through a Problem Based Learning (PBL) approach. These courses were delivered to USQ students for the first time in 2001. The initial cohort of students included 163 studying at a distance. These students were dispersed throughout the world and were not able to meet face to face for this course. Teamwork was achieved by electronic means using email, chat groups and web pages. Student grades in the foundational course were at least as good as those obtained in other traditional didactically based courses with 85% of the cohort achieving a passing grade or better. Analysis of the individual student portfolios indicated that about 92% of the students viewed the course favourably while 5% had no definite opinion. External students were at least as successful as on-campus students in achieving higher grades. We conclude that offering PBL courses to engineering and surveying students at a distance from the campus is not only possible but has been successfully achieved in the delivery of the foundational problem solving course in 2001.