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This paper investigates whether using sensors during training is more effective than not. Results are presented from investigating novice vehicle drivers learning while using varying amounts of sensor support. Qualitative and quantitative data evaluations are made to compare drivers with sensors against those without while they learn to drive a vehicle. Reliance on the teaching processes used was recorded while various amounts of support were given by the intelligent systems. The work considers whether skilled drivers trained with sensors assisting them during training, could then work well without any assistance from sensors. Finally, some results are included. In all situations, assistance becomes more useful as environments became more complicated.

A quantitative and qualitative empirical evaluation is presented to show the effect of providing some sensor support during driving lessons as a tele-operator learns to drive a mobile robot. Different levels of sensor support were provided and the effect on training was measured. Different levels of force feedback were provided through a joystick.Results are presented and conclusions drawn about the way that teleoperators behave during driving tasks.

Research on the role of gritdefined as both perseverance and passion for long-term goalson human performance has been conducted for the past decade. It has been suggested that this non-cognitive factor is a better predictor of students' retention than traditional academic measures. These findings hold relevance for engineering education research but studies on this area are still scarce. This paper provides a systematic review of the current state of research on grit and its correlates in engineering higher education research. Publications were identified using three types of databases specific to engineering education; a final set of 31 relevant records was analysed by type of population, methods, research topics and main results. Most of the reviewed studies implemented quantitative methodologies to assess grit and also used one of the two versions of Duckworth's Grit scale. Key findings are that in engineering education research, both the conceptualisation of grit and research reporting procedures have been inconsistent. Such inconsistency hinders interpretation of the impact of grit in engineering education. In response, new research avenues and best practices for reporting are proffered.

During their final year undergraduate project a student may feel under-supported, stressed or isolated. In an internally funded project we set out to investigate the benefits of using a diverse blend of collaboration and communication tools alongside traditional methods of final year project supervision. We established separate formal and informal communication channels between the supervisor and their project students and a community of practice of students and supervisors was set up using twitter or a web forum. Using a wiki as a collaborative workspace and repository, student project pages were created and virtual supervision was blended with face-to-face supervision using electronic logs. at first some students were dubious about our approach and disapproved of at least one of the tools used. The supervisors were also initially sceptical of an increase in workload due to the multiplicity of tools used. In this paper we present how the staff and students benefited precisely because of the diverse range of tools used. The methods used resulted in transparency of students' and supervisors' actions, however, lessons were learnt about how to address student concerns about plagiarism in such an open environment.