A European vs Australasian Comparison of Engineering Laboratory Learning Objectives Rankings

Learning objectives are important as they provide direction to teaching staff towards what content should be taught, what activities should be undertaken and what assessments are to be used to confirm understanding. Two decades ago, the evolution of new learning modes such as recorded, remote, and simulation/virtual started the research process to define and better understand learning objectives in the teaching laboratory. Much is still to be learnt about laboratory learning objectives including which are most important, and if what is deemed important is universal. For example, do academics in Europe and Australasia align in which objectives are most important and which are not? To answer this question, European and Australasian engineering academics were asked to rank laboratory objectives across the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domain using a predefined tool called Laboratory Learning Objectives Measurement. A total of 113 academics from Australasia and 25 from Europe responded to the survey. A statistical analysis was conducted to compare the rankings. The findings from this survey show that substantial alignment occurs across the cognitive and psychomotor domains but differs across the affective domain.