Students' Perspectives: Do They Learn Much Outside of Lectures and Tutorials?

This study continues our attempts to determine the main factors that students look for in an engineering course and to identify aspects of the learning environment that students consider beneficial. Students in the Civil, Building and Environmental Engineering streams at Victoria University were surveyed to ascertain their perspectives on their course, and these responses compared across the four course Years. Following students' suggestions made in 1997, we specifically investigated how students perceived site visits and other non-lecture and tutorial experiences as sources of learning. Findings suggest that site visits and similar experiences contribute in a significant way to students' understanding of the social role of the profession, and add breadth to their knowledge of construction techniques and management.