The paper compares the effectiveness of in-person and virtual engineering laboratory sessions. The in-person and virtual laboratory sessions reported here comprise six experiments combined with short tutorials. The virtual lab combined enquiry-based learning and gamification principles. The integration of the virtual labs with in-person teaching…

Persuasive arguments attribute academics' persistent struggles in making time for writing to the increasing demands of a marketised sector on the academic role (Dickson-Swift et al. 2009; Macleod, Steckley, and Murray 2012). Whilst a significant body of literature promotes different writing interventions as potential solutions, the challenge of…

Additive manufacturing (AM) is projected to require 60,000 jobs in the UK by 2025, but there are a series of barriers to the industrial application. One of the most problematic is non-comprehensive knowledge in design for AM (DfAM). This study aims to test the effect of two undergraduate DfAM teaching approaches. A visual and audial approach…

The latest developments in virtual reality (VR) are gaining attention in education as they are expected to provide risk-free, hands-on learning experiences. However, the use of VR in laboratory settings is still in its early stages of adoption. Therefore, it remains unclear whether these technologies will be widely adopted to educate students in…

This article presents findings from a study of a U.K. university writing centre regarding understandings of tutor roles, involving 33 Chinese international students, 11 writing tutors, and the centre director. The research used interviews and audio-recorded consultations as data to analyze and explore participants' beliefs and understandings. The…

This article sheds light on employee wellbeing. We reveal how an 'adapted' action learning intervention (a change laboratory) introduced prior to the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK, enabled learning and action to emerge within an educational programme. We utilise the theoretical lens of activity theory to illustrate the challenges and tensions of…

This study captures student perceptions of the effectiveness of remote learning and assessment in two associated engineering disciplines, mechanical and industrial, during the COVID-19 pandemic in a cross-national study. A structured questionnaire with 24 items on a 5-point Likert scale was used. Parallel and exploratory factor analyses identified…

Computer programming education has practice-oriented as well as theory-oriented learning goals. Here, lab work plays an important role in students' learning. It is however widely reported that many students face great difficulties in learning theory as well as practice. This paper investigates the important but problematic relation between the…

The article is devoted to the problem on training of maritime specialists in universities of Great Britain; in particular, it is a question of training navigators. It was noted that there are dozens of maritime educational institutions and a long tradition of training maritime specialists in the country. The system of maritime education in the…

Policy innovation labs are emerging knowledge actors and technical experts in the governing of education. The article offers a historical and conceptual account of the organisational form of the policy innovation lab. Policy innovation labs are characterised by specific methods and techniques of design, data science, and digitisation in public…

The ability to apply prior knowledge to new challenges is a skill that is highly valued by employers, but the confidence to achieve this does not come naturally to all students. An essential step to becoming an independent researcher requires a transition between simply following a fail-safe set of instructions to being able to adapt a known…

Remote access laboratories (RALs) were first developed in 1994 in Australia and Switzerland. The main purposes of developing them are to enable students to do their experiments at their own pace, time and locations and to enable students and teaching staff to get access to facilities beyond their institutions. Currently, most of the experiments…

Argumentation is believed to be a significant component of scientific inquiry: introducing these skills into laboratory work may be regarded as a goal for developing practical work in school science. This study explored the impact on the quality of argumentation among 12- to 13-year-old students undertaking three different designs of…

There have been great changes in the numbers of students studying psychology at degree level in the UK since 1961--the year the author graduated. And, similarly there have been great changes in what is taught--with an ever-widening set of theoretical developments and practical applications. Nonetheless, despite these developments, the author…

The UK government aims to increase both the number, and also the status, of workers with intermediate-level skills, with a view to creating a "modern class of technicians" who can help to bolster economic growth and prosperity. This article considers the prospects for such a policy by focusing on one particular, but neglected, group of…