Engineering Education Research Centre (EERC)
We conduct research to develop engineers who will be equipped to address society’s most challenging transdisciplinary problems.
Engineers shape our world. We shape engineers.
Our primary research goal is to continually improve learning experiences for engineering students. We do educational research that informs and builds evidence-based teaching and assessment practices, innovative engineering curricula, teaching and learning technologies, and effective learning environments for future engineers.
As engineering educators within the tertiary sector we play a pivotal role in bridging the gap between high school and the engineering workforce. This presents us with a unique opportunity through our educational activities, our engagement with the secondary sector and with the engineering profession to ensure that the future workforce is fit for purpose.
Our research
At the centre of our educational activities are innovations and interventions within our teaching curriculum, delivered by our teaching staff. Our Professional Teaching Fellows (PTFs) are at the forefront of our curriculum design and delivery; they identify key opportunities for educational research.
We actively pursue the scholarship of teaching and learning, supported by an Advisory Board with staff from Engineering, Science, Education, and Creative Arts and Industries. Our teaching programmes are research‐informed and research‐led.
Our research in engineering education enables us to investigate and verify the underpinning principles that enable our diverse student body to excel as learners, academically, practically and as future leaders in the engineering profession.
Our areas of research:
- Engaging with industry during tertiary study and beyond
- Equity in leadership in our capstone courses
- The impact of initiatives that promote culturally inclusive curricula and student diversity
- Threshold concepts
- Misconceptions
- Technology-enhanced learning
- Virtual and augmented reality
- Machine learning
- Course design
- Assessment
- Active learning in laboratories
- Pedagogies for building information modelling
- Learning analytics
- Development of educational software tools
- Digitisation of the curriculum
The EERC supports each other with core research processes, like gaining human ethics approval for our studies, applying for funding, preparing publications, forming expert review panels and reference groups for peer review, testing of research instruments and building visibility internationally.
We also can support a range of educational research activities. These include hosting research schools, events, seminar programmes, supervising postgraduate students and engaging in peer review of teaching and research.
Our world-class, flexible and multidisciplinary learning spaces provide the ideal environment to co-design, test and implement innovative learning opportunities for students.
How can you work with us?
- Connect with us. Our Centre connects people, projects, publications, and research with resources, forums and events in engineering education.
- Work with us. We are an inclusive research community from a range of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines who participate in the scholarship of teaching and learning in Engineering Education.
- Study with us. We promote research-informed teaching and transformative learning in a dynamic, culturally diverse student group engaged in undergraduate and postgraduate study.
Our people
Our Commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi
The Engineering Education Research Centre is grounded in the Te Ao Māori principles of Waipapa Taumata Rau. The governance of the EERC has a strong track record of commitment to these principles, including several collaborations with Māori researchers.
Our mahi is tightly coupled with the Faculty’s Student Development and Engagement team with whom we consult and receive support from. Our Kaiārahi is crucial to identifying and pursuing some of our key research goals.