We have designed an approach to teaching and learning for years 1 and 2 that developed students’ autonomous and online learning skills. By doing this we are preparing students to take on the challenge of becoming student engineers within industry during years 3 and 4. The industry placement will challenge students to apply their knowledge, so we have ensured to set similar challenges throughout years 1 and 2 in order to develop student’s technical knowledge and transversal skills.

Our approach to learning is heavily weighted towards active participation of students during face-to-face learning activities such as lectures, tutorials, and practical work. The key to enabling active participation during the face-to-face time is the upfront and asynchronous delivery of some of the course content online. The online content will develop student’s foundational knowledge of a topic before they take part in face-to-face learning activities. This type of learning process is known as a ‘flipped classroom approach’.

This means that teaching and learning is shifted away from the more traditional form of teacher led and teacher centred delivery, to a format where the lecturer is a facilitator of learning and face-to-face time is focused on applied learning activities. Our assessment strategy focuses on continuous formative assessment, and this is fundamental to supporting the REEdI learning process. We are developing this strategy to enable students to demonstrate their learning throughout the semester and to allow the programme leaders to provide feedback and guidance.

We looked at how leaders and emerging leaders in engineering education are assessing their students. Amongst this cohort we found examples of where learning outcomes that focused on critical thinking skills, team work, and communication were assessed with innovative methods like self-evaluation, peer assessed group work, and reflective journals. We included these methods in the REEdI assessment strategy to bridge the gap in assessing learning outcomes that are not easily assessed with examination and other traditional methods of assessment.