Managing student diversity in the Master of Engineering Practice program: by design

Abstract

The Master of Engineering Practice is a University of Southern Queensland distance education program accredited by Engineers Australia that enables experienced engineering technologists to become professional engineers. This innovative program allows students to use their workplace learning to demonstrate their achievement of the objectives in up to half of the courses in the program. More than 170 students have been admitted to the program since it was first offered in 2004, and 22 have graduated. The paper describes the educational strategies used to develop the program and the flexible teaching and assessment approaches used to manage student diversity and facilitate student learning.