Over the course of the summer, Engineering students from the University of Liverpool have been identifying visual learning resources relevant to their studies and have been entering data into our temporary database via a Microsoft Access (screenshot below).
Access form for students to enter details about online learning resources
We will then use these data to construct metadata and paradata statements to publish into our Learning Registry node.
With another week passing of creating the visual search engine our database reached the initial target of 25,000 links! This is a memorable day as it is also last day at work for one of our long term workers. We wish her a fantastic career in Civil Engineering as she will be starting her first job as a graduate student! Congratulations!
Even though, we`ve reached our initial target of 25,000 links we will keep working for another two weeks. Now our team will consist of only 3 people but we are hoping to cover all the key engineering modules` syllabus by the time our summer placement finishes. The hope and expectation is that the number of entries in the database will still grow beyond what our team has achieved thanks to all other engineering students that support our goals and are willing to help. But more about this later…
I hope you have been enjoying the Olympic spirit as much as we have! Our fact of the day is: Olympic rowing champions Tom James and Pete Reed (who won gold in the men’s coxless four) studied Engineering, as did George Nash (who won bronze in the men’s pair). Maybe we should get an office crew together!
Our numbers have been depleted this week, with a few students having finished their placements and others assigned to different tasks. Nonetheless, the 3 of us who are still ENGrich through and through are steadily progressing! We now have well over 22,000 resources logged having broken the 20,000 barrier at the start of the week. We remain on-track to register resources for every engineering module taught at Liverpool during our time on this project.
Towards the end we have been tackling more diverse and specialised modules such as biomaterials, spaceflight, smart materials, manufacturing, energy & power systems and laser processing. The inclusion of modules like these is just as important as the more common ones as they widen the potential reach of the finished ENGrich project, when students from other universities (globally) can use and add to the database. And now for the customary useful link! This interactive animation of an engine cylinder is very useful. It enables students to change engine settings and parameters and see how this affects performance. They could also attempt, for example, to maximise the power output or efficiency of the engine without causing knocking to occur in the engine, which is a serious problem). This is a great way to learn about the compromises required in internal combustion engine design