While there is agreement that participation in online asynchronous discussions can enhance student learning, it has also been identified that there is a need to investigate the impact of participation in online discussions on student course performance. This paper presents a case study based on an undergraduate engineering management unit employing a formally assessed online discussion area. It was observed that while many students read a significant number of discussion postings, generally, the posting of new and reply messages occurred at the minimum level required to qualify for the assignment marks. Based on correlation and multiple regression analysis, it was observed that two variables were significantly related to a student's final unit mark-prior academic ability and the number of new postings made to the online discussion. Each new posting contributed three times as much to the final unit mark as its nominal assessment value, suggesting that the work in preparing their new discussion postings assisted students in the completion of a range of assessable tasks for the unit. The number of postings read was not significantly correlated with the final unit mark, suggesting that passive lurking in this online discussion did not significantly contribute to student learning outcomes.

<span>A longitudinal analysis of computer usage by commencing students in Deakin University's undergraduate engineering and technology programs over the period 1998 to 2001 revealed that; access to computers was at high levels; mean computer usage for off campus students had not changed significantly, but had risen significantly for on campus students; while access to the Internet / WWW had not increased significantly, reported regular use of the Internet / WWW had risen significantly; while most students continued to report their source of Internet / WWW access as either home or university, the proportion reporting home as their source of access had risen significantly; and the reported regular use of email rose significantly. Other results are also presented.</span><p>These results imply that commencing engineering and technology students are well placed to adopt online delivery and support of teaching and learning. However, while it might now be reasonable to assume that all students have access to computers and the Internet, the experiences of on campus students in computer laboratories with broadband network access will be different from off campus students accessing the Internet via a dialup modem connection. A small proportion of commencing students were unaware of the computing facilities provided by the university; an orientation program covering computing facilities and services would benefit all commencing students.</p>

A study of more than 9000 unit enrolments in an Australian engineering programme found that: (a) the of-campus withdrawal rate was close to twice that for on-campus students; (b) whether a student withdrew or not was highly correlated to their mode ofstudy; (c) the rate ofwithdrawal was signijcantly dgerent between the two student groups; (d) the grade distribution foy completing students was signijicantly d@erent between the two groups; (e) the meanjnal grade was signijcantly higher for of-campus students; (f) the failure rate for of-campus students was signijicantly lower; and &) the overall wastage rate (withdrawn rate plusfail rate) was signijicantly higher for of-campus students.

The literature suggests that many commencing engineering students do not have an accurate understanding of the nature of professional practice in their chosen career. Many of the methods for exposing students to professional practice are impractical for large classes of commencing students. An assessment activity involving students collecting job advertisements for professional engineering positions and analysing them for required skills and knowledge was trialed and evaluated. It was found that a significant majority (86.2%) of students reported at least some change in their understanding of professional engineering practice. No significant difference was observed in these response rates between the three demographic categories (gender, study mode and course of study) of respondents. Student written comments about how their understanding of professional engineering practice had changed indicated that they benefited from, and valued exposure to, aspects of professional engineering practice early in their undergraduate studies.

Students completing three-year engineering technology and four-year professional engineering undergraduate courses may undertake a number of common study units. To gain an objective understanding of the academic performance characteristics of both student groups in the engineering and technology programs at Deakin University (Australia), a study was undertaken of close to 9000 unit enrolments. It was found that overall: the BTech withdrawal rate was about 20 percent higher than for BE students; the rate of withdrawal was significantly different between the two student groups; the grade distribution for completing students was not significantly different between the two groups; the mean final grade was not significantly different between the two student groups; the failure rate was not significantly different between the two student groups; and the overall wastage rate (withdrawn rate plus fail rate) was significantly higher for BTech students. Other related results are also reported.