A publication of

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS

The Italian Association
VOL. 29, 2012 of Chemical Engineering
Online at: www.aidic.it/cet
Guest Editors: Petar Sabev Varbanov, Hon Loong Lam, Jiří Jaromír Klemeš
Copyright © 2012, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l.,
ISBN 978-88-95608-20-4; ISSN 1974-9791 DOI: 10.3303/CET1229246

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and its

Contribution to Teaching and Learning in Chemical
Engineering
Simon J Perry, Igor Bulatova
a
Centre for Process Integration, , School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science
The University of Manchester, Sackville Street, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
[email protected]

The development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) appears to be increasing in

pace on a yearly basis. The development of new hardware, new communication methods, and
software availability to exploit these new technologies, offers new opportunities in the education sector.
The existing generation of learners quickly become conversant with the new technologies available,
and are able to exploit them to their advantage. However, new technologies are far more slowly
adopted by academic institutions, and it is usually not even clear how older technologies can be
integrated into the curricula for the benefit of both learners and teachers. In addition, future employers
also have a vested interest in graduating chemical engineers possessing a range of skills related to the
use of commercially available software and technologies.
This paper examines some of the technologies that are being exploited for teaching and learning in
Chemical Engineering at The University of Manchester, and in addition how the learning of required
software and technology skills can be acquired. These include internet based technologies which are
being used to host virtual learning environments, which are now able to support many learning based
activities such as discussion boards, teaching and learning materials, student work submission,
feedback, and grading. Skills in commercially available general software, such as word processing,
presentations, and spreadsheets, are also required to be acquired by learners. Skills in mathematical
modelling software packages and chemical engineering simulation packages also need to be
integrated into the curriculum. In addition the paper will look at technologies not yet exploited
specifically in chemical engineering at Manchester, but which are making impacts in engineering
disciplines elsewhere.

1. Introduction
Teaching and learning in engineering disciplines has been required to respond to new developments in
computer hardware, communications, and software availability, although many of developments have
been outside of the direct influence of staff involved in teaching and learning. The most obvious of
these reasons are (Perry and Bulatov 2010);
 Changing demands of the modern industry, most especially related to communication and
collaborative/team working skills
 Increasing numbers of students applying for higher education, both at undergraduate and
postgraduate level, and partly in response to the downturn in the global economy

Please cite this article as: Perry S. J. and Bulatov I., (2012), Information and communication technology (ict) and its
contribution to teaching and learning in chemical engineering, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 29, 1471-1476

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  Changing IT skill levels of students entering further and higher education, and familiarity and
use of high technology products
 Changes from teacher-led to student centered learning and the availability of teaching
materials away from the traditional clasroom

Consequently Engineering related disciplines are adopting new and emerging learning technologies
and methodologies (Perry, 2002, Perry and Klemeš, 2004, Perry, 2006, Perry et al 2007) and also
making use of new hardware platforms, such as mobile phones and the more recently developed
iPads. Central to the adoption of new technologies is the increasing use of Virtual Learning
Environments (VLE’s), which are being used to distribute teaching and learning resources and to
manage the teaching and learning process. Dillenbourg (2000) describes the main features of a VLE
as;
 A designed Information Space.
 The provision of an environment where Educational interactions can take place, turning
spaces into places.
 A place where information/social space is explicitly represented. The representation varies
from text to 3D immersive worlds.
 A place where students are not only active, but also actors. They are able to co-construct the
virtual space.
 A place that is not restricted to distance education, but can also enrich classroom activities.
 A place that can integrate heterogeneous technologies and multiple pedagogical approaches.

Examples of most popular VLEs are Blackboard (2010), WebCT (now part of Blackboard), and Moodle
(2010).

2. Virtual Learning Environments

Virtual Learning Environments (VLE’s), such as Blackboard and Moodle have become a standard tool
in the tertiary education sector. These VLE’s are made available so that resources required for
particular needs are clustered in one place, and consequently teaching and learning resources are
more easily managed. The use of VLE’s in Chemical Engineering based education in The University of
Manchester, UK, is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. An example of the University of Manchester VLE

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The advantage of the VLE is that resources associated with individual courses are readily available at
all times, and that they can be accessed by both full-time students studying at the university and by
students who are studying away from the institution, such as part-time distance learners.
In addition, VLE’s can also be used to provide communication tools for academic staff to provide
general notices about the progression of the unit and also more specific information to individual
students or groups of students via Discussion Boards (Figure 2).

Figure 2. An example of a Noticeboard in a virtual learning environment (Blackboard)

3. Lecture Materials
The variety of hardware available to learners has made it possible to provide lecturing materials in a
variety of formats in addition to the traditional paper based format. The recording of lectures, with both
audio and video, is becoming common place, and at the University of Manchester many lecture
theatres have been equipped with recording hardware. The methods described previously as Virtual
Lectures (Perry 2002), and which involved recording audio off-line and then integrating with
presentation slides, has now been superseded by technologies that are able to produce recorded
lectures more rapidly. In fact, computer based technologies have now become so common place that
recording lectures can be accomplished with readily available software such as Camtasia Studio
(TechSmith 2012). Using this type of software and a radio microphone, lectures can be recorded
directly from the computer being used to provide presentation slides, and then uploaded to a video
server or a VLE (Figure 3). Software tools can also be used to edit the recording if necessary. These
recorded lectures can also be termed Podcasts.

4. Assessment Tools
In a previous work (Perry et al, 2007) a method was demonstrated for the creation and delivery of an
eAssessment in an undergraduate chemical engineering course unit. More recently Blackboard VLE
tools have been used to create an eAssessment based on coursework undertaken in a postgraduate
MSc course unit (Perry and Bulatov, 2010).
The coursework involved using bespoke simulation software which was made available to the students.

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Figure 3. The use of Podcasts via a Video Library

An example of one of the courseworks for the Energy Systems unit is shown in Figure 4. Students
were required to provide engineering solutions to the problems in the courseworks, to write and submit
a report via Blackboard, and to undergo an eAssessment test related to work undertaken.

Figure 4. An Energy Systems unit coursework (Practical) posted in Blackboard

The eAssessment would allow instant feedback to students and therefore provide them with an
objective evaluation of their knowledge and correctness of the solution to the problem stated in the
coursework. In this prototype version the feedback to the student is rather brief, thereby making it a
more summative rather than formative in nature. The types of questions used in the eAssessment varied
from “multiple choice to “true/false”, “short answer”, “fill in the blank”, “matching” and “combination” types
depending on which was most relevant.
To assist teaching staff in the task of recognizing plagiarism, various pieces of software have been
developed. At the University of Manchester the software of choice is turnitinUK (Turnitin, 2012) , which is

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either available as a stand-alone tool or can be integrated into the Blackboard VLE. A coursework
assignment can be easily set up within the VLE, with various options available to assist the teaching staff
with the task of plagiarism recognition. Submission dates can also be set, and the submission time recorded,
to help with the management of the assignment. Although assignments can be submitted in a number of
readily available formats, the production and use of pdf format has been found to provide the simplest and
least problematic method as it avoids differences in native formats used by the large number of word
processing packages used by students. Various features of turnitinUK can be used to assess the submitted
work, the most powerful of which is the Originality Report. The Originality Report, summarised by the
Similarity Index, provides the assessor with the instances in a student submission that corresponds to either
other submitted work, or work that is available on the internet or other electronic resources. However, the
findings of the report should be treated with certain amount of caution. It is possible that there are more than
one instance of a student submitted report as the student is allowed to submit draft versions before the final
deadline. The Similarity Index and Originality Report will indicate this as an instance of possible malpractice.
Similarly, the submission may include the original questions required to be answered, and this will also be
flagged by turnitinUK. Consequently any output from turnitinUK needs to be very carefully evaluated prior to
any decision making as to the merit of the submitted work.

5. Simulation
Simulation software has long been a staple in Chemical Engineering curricula. Various commercial
applications are provided to students by the University of Manchester, as well as in-house simulation
packages. More recently there have been examples of Remote and Virtual Laboratories being
developed. Cristea et al (2005) provided an example of remote experiments which are used in Process
Control, Mathematical Modelling of Chemical Processes, and Advanced Control of Chemical
Processes courses. Schofield and Lester (2010) reported on virtual chemical engineering simulations
at the University of Nottingham, UK. The Virtual Absorption Column was developed to allow students to
become familiar with the chemical process equipment and its operation. This allowed a good degree of
familiarity before they encountered the equipment in the real laboratory. A second virtual laboratory has
also been developed, but in this case is related to a continuous polymerisatioon plant. The aim of the
virtual plant is for students to become familiar with large scale equipment, its integration and operation.

6. Conclusions
The advances in ICT over the last 10 years has allowed new teaching and learning resources to be
developed and integrated with more traditional teaching and learning techniques and then to be
distributed on a far larger scale.
The use of Virtual Learning Environments has made significant improvements in the management of
teaching and learning resources, allowing academic staff to distribute materials when required in
relation to the progression of their course, and also to monitor student progression and provide
feedback when required. Access through the internet has allowed complete flexibility in the use of the
Virtual Learning Environments, both for uploading and downloading resources.
Materials associated with teaching and learning has also become more dynamic. The ease of creating
videos of traditional lectures with readily available and cheap equipment has allowed much greater
flexibility in the teaching and learning process.
The development of assessment tools associated with Virtual Learning Environments has allowed
greater flexibility in assessing student contributions and also allowed students to become more aware
of the nature of academic malpractice.
Computer hardware and software platforms have also allowed the development of virtual chemical
engineering worlds, which will allow students to become more familiar with the scale of real processing
plants.

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