Abstract:
Within higher education, student voices or
perceptions are useful in measuring effective instruction
and are important to evaluate the nature and quality of
educational interventions. Student voices are often
considered in determining whether student academic
satisfaction exists with regard to the quality of
engineering education being offered. The question thus
arises “What does student voices say regarding practical
instruction offered in a Solar Energy course at the
Central University of Technology in South Africa”.
Research has shown that voices of undergraduate
engineering students indicated that they really enjoy
practical work scheduled in a laboratory, thereby
indicating a measure of student satisfaction. However,
this was reported on only for students in an electronic
communications course, with fewer results published for
undergraduate engineering students in other disciplines
at a university of technology. The purpose of this paper is
to consider student voices regarding practical instruction
offered in a Solar Energy course at a university of
technology. An exploratory case study is employed along
with descriptive statistics for the quantitative data
relating to the student voices. An electronic response
system was used in a classroom environment to listen to
student voices relating to the practical work done in the
laboratory. These student voices did confirm that many
of the students felt that the practical work was beneficial,
relevant and practical in helping them apply new
knowledge in solving engineering problems, resulting in a
measure of student satisfaction. This has the potential to
result in the retention of the best and brightest students
from among these participants for future postgraduate
studies which will most likely involve more intensive
laboratory work!
