EDUCATIONAL REFORM IN ENGINEERING:

UNDERSTANDING STRUGGLES OF STUDENTS IN SOLID MECHANICS

Abstract

Diploma in Civil Engineering Programme (CEEC110) offered by Universiti Teknologi MARA is an accredited engineering technician education programme approved by Engineering Technology Accreditation Council (ETAC), Malaysia. The attainment of programme outcomes (PO) by individual student at the end of their candidature must satisfy minimum requirement stated by ETAC i.e. scored at least 50% in each PO. Monitoring PO and course outcomes (CO) at course level is conducted in every semester in the faculty, and the current situation has revealed that attainment of CO-PO in Solid Mechanics course is below 50%. Therefore, this study aims to identify the lowest achievement of CO-PO in Solid Mechanics course and its corresponding assessment. Results show that attainment of CO2-PO2 is the lowest in final exam assessment throughout the studied semesters. Syllabus contents under CO2-PO2 (statically determinate beam) were discussed, and a case study was conducted to investigate the reasons of poor performance in solving problems related to beam questions in the final exam. Subsequently, effective teaching and learning of Solid Mechanics are discussed and suggestion on strategy to improve students’ final exam score is made.