Staff Student Liaison Committee - Meeting Notes

Notes from School of Civil Engineering Student Staff Liaison Committee Meeting Wednesday 28 April 2010 1 pm

Present

Students
Shuming Zhang
Arthur Kourtesis
Michael Drummond
Danielle Jelfs
Sam Murray
Alex Hanbury Brown
Cameron Creigh
James Dagher
Elizabeth Fensom
Patrick James
Charmian Wong
John van Rooyen
Phillipa Childs

Staff Representatives

Dr Tim Wilkinson
Dr Li Liu
Dr Abbas El-zein
A/Prof David Airey (chair)


1. Welcome: DA welcomed all members.

2. Matters arising from last meeting in September

Previous minutes
Any relevant items brought up under separate agenda items

3. Learning space update

TW provide gave asummary of what is happening with the old Engineering library area and the PNR Drawing Offices. The library is becoming an informal student learning area with computer access, chairs, rooms, and cafe. The PNRDO are becoming more technologically advanced learning spaces.

Some questions:
* We need more chairs in the current old library space
* What will happen when old library area closes? Where can we study?
* We want quiet space in the new area.

4. Student engagement
What can we do to make students more engaged with learning and the content? This was a point from the Engineers Australia accreditation.

Discussions included:
* feedback loop - do staff tell students how they act of feedback
* in class assessment
* relevance of first year courses
* student perceptions often come from their friends in higher years

5. Student issues

Fluids & Envrionmental Engineering
* Mix of equations/mathematics vs visual issues
* Number of tutors
* Tutorial problems

Use of lectopia recording
* Should all lecturers use it? TW encourages but does not force staff.
* Not a lecture "replacement"

International students - 2nd semester cohort: Better advice on enrolment plan (CIVL2201 in Sem 1)

Air-con: Update on civil, and Link too ocld.

General issues (IT):
* Increased bandwidth/daily allowance
* Some problems in hawkins logging onto WebCT and email (outlook.com)

Meeting closed at 2.05 pm