Open Classrooms is a podcast series produced by the Academic Development Group in Science, Engineering and Health. Each podcast features interviews and stories from our staff who have opened up their classroom doors and shared their practices, innovations and ideas.
In this episode, Natasha Taylor talks to Ilya Kavalchuk about the approaches he uses to teach our Vietnam-based first year engineering students essential employability skills. Faced with the challenge of teaching a multi-lingual cohort of students who are culturally accustomed to a teacher-centric approach and rote-based assessment, Ilya has effectively used problem based learning and ePortfolios to give his course authenticity and relevance.
Contact Details
If you would like to contact Ilya, send him an email.
Supporting Resources
If you are interested to know more about introducing either problem based learning or ePortfolios to your teaching, here are some resources to get you started:
- Assessing with ePortfolios is an excellent resource from UNSW.
- The Association for Authentic, Experiential, & Evidence-Based Learning are an international professional development organisations for ePortfolio practitioners and researchers. They have a lot of useful resources on their website, including an open access magazine and online webinars.
- Beverley Oliver’s site, Assuring Graduate Capabilities, contains some excellent resources on graduate attributes, employability and micro-credentials. It is well worth a good explore!
- Barrett, T. and Moore, S. (2010) New approaches to problem-based learning – Revitalising your practice in higher education, New York: Routledge
