1. Introduction
Digital technology is an integral part of the modern world. Texting, web-browsing,
video-gaming and online social-networking are all common activities in the daily lives
of today's teenagers and students arrive at university with many years of exposure to
digital media. As a result, it is often argued that teachers should incorporate digital
resources in their teaching methods in order to properly engage these technologysavvy students, or ‘digital natives’ as they are sometimes called (Prensky, 2001).
While there is not yet sufficient empirical evidence to verify the truth of this argument
(Pedró, 2009), there is no doubt that digital resources have enormous potential as
teaching tools. Images, videos and animations, design software, databases and
scientific publications are just some examples of the digital resources available to
teachers; however, not all digital resources make for useful teaching tools and even
those that do can be misused, such that they may actually detract from the student
learning experience.
The rapid acceleration of information available via the internet has meant that the
use of digital resources in higher education has risen dramatically in recent years. In
a 2008 survey of 119 institutions of higher education in the United States
investigating their use of digital resources for scholarly purposes (Mc Martin et al.,
2008), a majority (59%) of the respondents felt that digital resources were of "great
value" to their instruction. While the internet means that digital resources are easy to
source, their proliferation can present its own problems. Sometimes, teachers
incorporate digital resources inappropriately simply because they are easily
available, while, conversely, some teachers struggle to incorporate them at all
because they are overwhelmed by the sheer volume available. Indeed, McMartin et
al. (2008) also note that "the rapid acceleration of information available via the
internet makes locating high-quality, accurate, and truly useful educational resources
challenging for teachers".
Two important questions when considering using digital resources as educational
tools are:
1) Why is the resource being utilised?
2) How will it be integrated in the course?
In answer to these questions, the authors believe that digital resources should only
be used as teaching aids if, first, they enhance the student learning experience and,
second, they enable the student to achieve one or more learning outcomes. In some
instances, it may be the case that the former is accomplished while the latter is not,
i.e. the student learning experience is enhanced without directly enabling the student
to achieve a learning outcome, but it should never be the case that the latter is
accomplished in the absence of the former. Other important issues which may
enable one to answer the two key questions above are the quality of the resource, its
applicability to the subject area, its ease-of-use and the level of interaction/
engagement it affords the student.
Within a context of increased digital resources and the relatively recent availability of
content on-line, engineering education has been well positioned to take advantage of
these developments. Academic staff in the Discipline of Civil Engineering at the
National University of Ireland, Galway (NUI Galway) have successfully integrated
many different forms of digital resources in the teaching of civil engineering
undergraduates. Digital resources are utilised as teaching tools across all of the
Digital technology is an integral part of the modern world. Texting, web-browsing,
video-gaming and online social-networking are all common activities in the daily lives
of today's teenagers and students arrive at university with many years of exposure to
digital media. As a result, it is often argued that teachers should incorporate digital
resources in their teaching methods in order to properly engage these technologysavvy students, or ‘digital natives’ as they are sometimes called (Prensky, 2001).
While there is not yet sufficient empirical evidence to verify the truth of this argument
(Pedró, 2009), there is no doubt that digital resources have enormous potential as
teaching tools. Images, videos and animations, design software, databases and
scientific publications are just some examples of the digital resources available to
teachers; however, not all digital resources make for useful teaching tools and even
those that do can be misused, such that they may actually detract from the student
learning experience.
The rapid acceleration of information available via the internet has meant that the
use of digital resources in higher education has risen dramatically in recent years. In
a 2008 survey of 119 institutions of higher education in the United States
investigating their use of digital resources for scholarly purposes (Mc Martin et al.,
2008), a majority (59%) of the respondents felt that digital resources were of "great
value" to their instruction. While the internet means that digital resources are easy to
source, their proliferation can present its own problems. Sometimes, teachers
incorporate digital resources inappropriately simply because they are easily
available, while, conversely, some teachers struggle to incorporate them at all
because they are overwhelmed by the sheer volume available. Indeed, McMartin et
al. (2008) also note that "the rapid acceleration of information available via the
internet makes locating high-quality, accurate, and truly useful educational resources
challenging for teachers".
Two important questions when considering using digital resources as educational
tools are:
1) Why is the resource being utilised?
2) How will it be integrated in the course?
In answer to these questions, the authors believe that digital resources should only
be used as teaching aids if, first, they enhance the student learning experience and,
second, they enable the student to achieve one or more learning outcomes. In some
instances, it may be the case that the former is accomplished while the latter is not,
i.e. the student learning experience is enhanced without directly enabling the student
to achieve a learning outcome, but it should never be the case that the latter is
accomplished in the absence of the former. Other important issues which may
enable one to answer the two key questions above are the quality of the resource, its
applicability to the subject area, its ease-of-use and the level of interaction/
engagement it affords the student.
Within a context of increased digital resources and the relatively recent availability of
content on-line, engineering education has been well positioned to take advantage of
these developments. Academic staff in the Discipline of Civil Engineering at the
National University of Ireland, Galway (NUI Galway) have successfully integrated
many different forms of digital resources in the teaching of civil engineering
undergraduates. Digital resources are utilised as teaching tools across all of the