DIY Durability Lab

Author: Lisa Ottenhaus
University of Queensland

An authentic assignment addressing real life timber engineering challenges

Dr Lisa Ottenhaus a Lecturer in Structural Engineering at the University of Queensland lead an assessment  trial,  a do-it-yourself lab within a final year civil engineering elective called Design of Timber Structures. The course has a cohort of 60-90 students consisting predominantly of final year bachelor students and a small number of master students. The durability module in this course is taught jointly with Prof Jeffrey Morrell from the University of the Sunshine Coast and Director of the National Centre for Timber Durability and Design Life. The assessment for this module was a durability report for a timber structure. 

Teaching in a technology enhanced environment with external delivery option. 

Prior to COVID-19, students were required to assess a timber structure on campus such as a timber bridge or walkway as one group, utilising their mobile devices to take photos to support their individual durability reports. The course was intended to be delivered in blended learning mode, with online modules, and designated on-campus activities including tutorials and labs. With the rapid pivot to fully online learning in semester 1, 2020, Lisa and the teaching team had to manage the uncertainties related to returning to on-campus labs in semester 2. Furthermore, several students had enrolled as external students as they were either overseas or studying remotely in Australia. Finally, the risk of a “second wave” was very real and imminent possibility as this was the reality overseas.

The first COVID friendly DIY lab 

Lisa and Jeff redesigned the durability lab with the following criteria in mind.
They needed the lab to;

• provide resilience in the event of sudden changes to delivery modes (Campus lockdowns)

• provide an authentic assessment that would facilitate external students to have an equivalent experience to on-campus students

• minimise the risk of academic integrity issues as has been experienced with online exams during this period

• foster ownership of the students’ learning journey and therefore facilitate increases in engagement 

• encourage development of flexible time management skills (final year or masters students)

• provide capacity to mark externally, as Jeff was not a UQ staff member

Lisa and Jeff pivoted to what was coined a ‘DIY Durability Lab’ where students could choose a local timber structure such as picnic shelters, utility poles, park benches, or a timber temple if one happened to be close by, allowing students to stay in their neighbourhood while working on their assignment in their own time. Their task was to assess the durability of the timber structure identifying existing decay and suggesting methods of mitigation and maintenance strategies going forward. Students could work with peers but had to deliver their own 2-page report including their own photos or sketches.

A little more detail

The assignment was an individual assignment. The students were given a worked example which reflected a professional engineering report, and a comprehensive rubric with marking criteria. The teaching team also trialled a cloud-based assessment product called Inspera to enable marking by non-UQ staff. 

The most significant advantage of the DIY lab was that it provided resilience in the event of a sudden change to delivery mode as a result of a campus lockdown. An alternative assignment option was also offered in the event students could not find or access a timber structure, however, no student opted for this.

Student feedback

An optional student feedback section was added to the Inspera submission form, asking for aspects the students liked about the assignment, aspects they struggled with, and parts of their submission they would like specific feedback on. 

The student feedback was overwhelmingly positive with students generally enjoying the self-paced and self-directed nature of the assignment, its relevance to practice, and they appreciated the opportunity to leave their desks. 

Staff reflections and opportunities for improvement. 

In the context of this particular assessment item, the greatest benefit by far of using Inspera was the opportunity for collaborative and external marking. Prof Morrell remarked “Once I got the hang of it, Inspera was great.  The UQ staff were exceptional in helping me- which was important because I was a guest on the system and they were still working out the bugs.”

Academic Integrity

The nature of the DIY lab meant that there was virtually no collusion as every student chose their own timber structure. It was also evident that many students chose structures they really cared about, including parts of their own homes (and quite likely did maintenance work as a result of this assignment). This also reflected in the students’ marks who did very well on average - with the added unexpected benefit that the assignments were actually quite interesting to mark for the instructors; Prof Morrell said “It was interesting to see the range of project students chose.  While there were a few repeats [such as utility poles], most students made an effort to identify a real project.” 

Room for improvement

One of the points of improvement that both the students and instructors identified was that there was limited interaction between students and staff. One student commented: “I think it was good as we had free reign into what we would consider an interesting structure to analyse. One thing that was lacking was the interaction and wisdom you would get from a tutor in a supervised lab.” The instructors concluded that it would have been beneficial to “take a little tour around campus” to point out design issues before they embarked on their own DIY labs and this will be offered in the future.

Overall, Prof Morrell concluded that it was a valuable experience for the students “I think it was a decent exercise for students to use what they had read and heard [in the lectures] on a real structure. I had expected some to take on a bit more than they did (some did the easy things like critique a fence).” 

Conclusion

A DIY lab is a great option for higher year courses where the task has a genuine professional life experience which can be carried out in a safe manner. In this case study, the DIY lab authentically reflected what a structural timber engineer would do when assessing the durability performance of a timber structure. Giving the students the opportunity to choose their own timber structure and examine it with their own device in their own time, gave students the autonomy to manage their own time and the consequent sense of ownership over the project.

Ultimately, the DIY lab was fun for the lecturers to design, fun for the students to complete, and even fun to mark and will be continued post-COVID.