Central Queensland University Research Articles

Demographic influences on enrolment and completion of an online MBA leadership programme: an Australian university perspective

ABSTRACT This paper examines the demographic factors of the subjects enroled and completed by an hyperflexible online MBA Leadership (L) programme for 1034 students at Central Queensland University using the deductive research methodology and statistical analysis. Australian-born students are influenced by their industry experience when enroling in subjects, whilst overseas-born students are influenced by where they are located, suggests more focus on their career. The time students are enroled in the online MBA programme have the most significant influence on the number of subjects enroled and completed. However, age and gender do not influence subjects’ enrolment or completion rate.

NIRS, fruit quality and Central Queensland University

NIRS, fruit quality and Central Queensland University

On students learning experience of fluid power engineering – Impact of simulation software

The School of Engineering and Technology of Central Queensland University focuses on the continuous development and innovation of best learning and teaching practices to increase student retention and improve their learning experiences. Face to face and distance learning (teaching delivery models) are fundamental aspects of providing quality support to the students’ learning. One incredibly important aspect of students’ learning is to provide relevant industry-related projects and applications of relevant simulation software to mimic the systems. This paper develops students’ essential problem-solving skills and control strategies of fluid power systems in mechanical engineering through the Master of Engineering programs by employing Simulink, SimScape Fluid applications in Matlab software and Energy Plus with Design Builder. The main focus is to ensure that the students achieve the required skills of building fluid circuit models based on physical connections that directly integrate with appropriate symbols and modelling paradigms in fluid power applications to model the appropriate physical models to mimic the industrial fluid power projects selected. The basic ideas and content are to be delivered through weekly lectures and tutorial sessions, and the students’ skills in fluid power systems and software are developed and monitored through weekly workshops scheduled for all projects. The key outcomes of this study are the level of understanding of fluid power systems, development of simulation skills using the software indicated, interpretation of the results the students have obtained and validations of those results. The students must show they have developed appropriate problem-solving skills using simulation software, professional presentation and effective team-building skills. As the students develop appropriate problem-solving and engineering practice skills, their satisfaction and feedback rates improve significantly.

The Role of Universities in Strengthening Regional Arts Sectors: Central Queensland University and the Regional Arts Services Network

Noting the unique challenges facing arts and culture in rural and regional Australia, this article takes the Central Queensland Regional Arts Services Network (CQRASN) as a case study to examine the role of universities in supporting the regional arts sector. Previous research acknowledges the contributions of universities to the arts sector through evaluation, innovation and knowledge transfer. This case study enables exploration of a different model of university and arts sector interaction. This article discusses the role and limitations of CQRASN in managing a regional cultural network and outlines future considerations for universities in strengthening the regional arts sector.

Humans and Technology

Free AccessHumans and TechnologyJulia Behrend and Matthew J. W. ThomasJulia BehrendJulia Behrend, Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University, Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives, 29 rue d’Ulm, 75005 Paris, Francejournal@eaap.net Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University, Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives, Paris, France Search for more papers by this author and Matthew J. W. ThomasMatthew J. W. Thomas, Appleton Institute, Central Queensland University, 44 Greenhill Rd, Wayville, SA 5034, Australiajournal@eaap.net Appleton Institute, Central Queensland University, Adelaide, Australia Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:May 08, 2023https://doi.org/10.1027/2192-0923/a000248PDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInReddit SectionsMoreThis issue of Aviation Psychology and Applied Human Factors presents a set of papers that reflect two different, yet equally important dimensions of our disciplines, that of technology and the human element.First, several of the articles in this issue focus on new technologies, and their potential role in enhancing aviation safety. Our disciplines of aviation psychology and human factors have from their beginnings focussed on technological innovation, given the rapid evolution of the aviation industry and the enormous technological advances that have occurred along the way. However, one of the most important roles we play is through the evaluation of those technologies, demonstrating their effectiveness from a human perspective, and identifying any unanticipated consequences in implementation.The evaluation of new technologies demands high quality, in the form of sound experimental design, disciplined data collection and appropriate statistical analysis. All of these characteristics are seen in the papers presented in our journal, and our reviewers and editorial team pay significant attention to the scientific rigor applied to the research we publish.While the focus on new technologies, and their scientific evaluation is important, just as important is the attention we pay to the individuals and teams who together create safety and efficiency in operations.Feeling safe at work implies more than the physical aspects, including an individual’s mental and social well-being. Aviation psychologists and human factors specialists play a major role in creating that diverse climate. Their knowledge, skills, and attitudes help to make the sky safer.The term competency is more than ever an area of focus for the aviation industry, looking at the job-related observable behaviors of safety-sensitive personnel. Keeping the balance of analyzing human behavior in a precise way without creating too narrow mindsets is a challenge for future operations. Gestalt psychology emphasizes that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.The human element and technology are two equally important dimensions of our discipline that should always create a synergy to keep safety the overarching priority.Every time, we receive a new submission, we are amazed by the brilliant research ideas and variety of thought. We would like to thank all authors, reviewers, associate editors, the editorial team and the Hogrefe team for their ongoing support to make the journal a continued success.Julia Behrend Matthew J. W. ThomasEditor-in-Chief EditorAuthor BiographiesJulia Behrend (PhD) is an associate member of the Department of Cognitive Studies at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University in Paris, France, and is Head of Safety Innovation & Human Cooperation at Air France. She aims to apply findings from aviation psychology and cognitive neuroscience to safety to better understand human performance in high-risk industries.Matthew J. W. Thomas (PhD) is an Associate Professor at Appleton Institute at Central Queensland University in Adelaide, Australia, and Director of Westwood Thomas Associates. His research focuses on error management and non-technical skills across high-risk industries.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 13Issue 1March 2023ISSN: 2192-0923eISSN: 2192-0931 Published onlineMay 8, 2023 InformationAviation Psychology and Applied Human Factors (2023), 13, pp. 1-1 https://doi.org/10.1027/2192-0923/a000248.© 2023Hogrefe PublishingPDF download

Towards enhancing teaching and learning computer programming in Saudi Arabia

Globally, numerous students struggle with understanding computer programming, which is one of the most difficult courses in the computer science curriculum as stated in the literature. This is especially true in a diverse learning environment where students come from different disciplinary backgrounds, language skills, and cultures. Hence, to improve on the aforementioned challenges, another research introduces a framework that combines constructivist and collaborative learning theories with a student-centered teaching pedagogy for teaching postgraduate introductory programming classes at Central Queensland University, Australia. However, the framework will not work effectively when teaching computer programming courses to undergraduate students in Saudi Arabia. This is due to geographical differences, study levels, negative emotional issues, and stress affecting students' learning. Such as students' first view that programming is difficult, or the difference between students' and teachers' perspectives on learning (disciplinary backgrounds, language skills, and cultures). Therefore, this paper proposed a student-centered learning and teaching method that combines constructive alignment (consistency), collaborative learning theory (collaboration, conception, and cognition), and bits of Maslow's theory (love/belonging and self-actualization) in a student-centered teaching pedagogy. The research findings reveal that when using the existing method to teach Introduction to Computing-II (Object Oriented Programming in Java) at the University of Hafr Al Batin, Saudi Arabia, only 87.5% of students passed the course, while 12.5% failed. However, when using the proposed method 95.2% of the students passed the course, while only 4.8% failed. Thus, the proposed method clearly shows significant improvement, with the failure rate reducing from 12.5% to only 4.8%.

Effects of pharmacotherapy on sleep-related outcomes in adults with chronic low back pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.

Adults with chronic low back pain (CLBP) suffer impaired sleep. Medications for CLBP can impact sleep which in turn may influence treatment outcomes. This systematic review and meta-analysis examined the effects of pharmacotherapy (any type) on sleep in adults with CLBP. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched PubMed, CINAHL, SPORTDiscus, PsycINFO, EMBASE, and CENTRAL from inception to 10 July 2022. Randomised controlled trials that investigated the effects of pharmacotherapy on sleep in adults with CLBP were included. Manual citation search of relevant systematic reviews and included studies were also conducted. Mean change from baseline for sleep outcomes (e.g., sleep quality, total sleep time, wake after sleep onset) was the effect of interest. Pairwise inverse-variance random effect meta-analysis was performed to impute pooled estimates (Hedges' g or risk ratios). The Hartung-Knapp-Sidik-Jonkman method was used where there were ≤5 studies. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) system was used for evaluating the certainty of evidence. This study was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42022309419). Assessment of 3959 records resulted in nine studies (n=2927) being included. Pharmacotherapy for CLBP management had a small, yet unlikely clinically significant, effect on improving sleep in adults with CLBP, when compared to placebo (g [95% CI]:-0.23 [-0.37,-0.09], p=.0009; I 2 =30.1%; n=1433; studies: n=8; GRADE: low). Notably, no eligible studies investigated the effect of sleep medications in this population, despite being within the scope of this review. Pharmacotherapy used to manage CLBP provided improvements in sleep in adults with CLBP. Given that these effects were small and unlikely clinically significant, clinicians could consider alternative treatments (e.g., non-pharmacological interventions) for managing sleep in adults with CLBP. However, low to very low certainty of evidence precluded strong conclusions. To improve certainty of evidence and confidence in the effect estimates, future research needs to use robust method to minimise bias. Additional research evaluating multiple sleep characteristics, using both validated objective and subjective measures, is also warranted to further investigate the influence of distinct sleep parameters. The Summer Research Scholarship from the Appleton Institute, Central Queensland University, Australia.

Analysing responses of Year-12 students to a hands-on IT workshop: Implications for increasing participation in tertiary IT education in regional Australia

<abstract><p>Two hand-on workshops on social media apps were conducted for the Year-12 students from two schools, one from a regional city and the other from a remote community, in a computer laboratory on the Rockhampton campus at Central Queensland University before the COVID-19 pandemic. The school in the regional city offered a specialist Digital Technologies Curriculum (DTC) to students in Years 11 & 12 whereas the remote school did not offer a similar DTC to students in Years 11 & 12. Statistical analyses of the students' responses to two casual questions during the workshop indicated that firstly the hands-on activities improved all students' general IT knowledge, and secondly the Year-12 students from the regional city were more determined to undertake tertiary IT education than the students from the remote school. Therefore, it is recommended that a mandatory specialist DTC for students in Years 11 & 12 in ALL schools should be included in the national curriculum in the future. Implications of these findings on improving the participation rate of post-secondary education in Australian regional communities are also discussed in this article. In particular, regional universities can play a unique role in producing "IT allrounders" to meet the needs of the regional communities through collaborations with governments, secondary schools, regional industries and businesses.</p></abstract>

Solving problems involving numerical integration (I): Incorporating different techniques

<abstract> <p>Numerical integration plays an important role in solving various engineering and scientific problems and is often learnt in applied calculus commonly through the trapezium and Simpson's methods (or rules). A common misconception for some students is that Simpson's method is the default choice for numerical integration due to its higher accuracy in approximation over the trapezium method by overlooking the requirement for using Simpson's method. As learning progressed to other numerical methods scheduled later in advanced mathematics, such as interpolations and computational modelling using computing tools like MATLAB, there is a lack of articulation among these numerical methods for students to solve problems solvable only by combining two or more approaches. This classroom note shares a few teaching and learning practices the author experienced in lectures, tutorials, and formal assessments on comparing or combining different numerical methods for numerical integration for engineering students in applied calculus and advanced mathematics over the past decade at Central Queensland University (CQU), a regional university in Australia. Each case represents a common concern raised or a mistake made by some students in different times. These efforts helped not only correct the misconception on the use of Simpson's method by some students, but also develop students' strategic thinking in problem solving, particularly involving decision-making for choosing the best possible method to produce a more appropriate solution to a problem that does not have an analytical solution.</p> </abstract>

Redesigning screen production pedagogy for hybrid learning models

ABSTRACT The Bachelor of Digital Media at Central Queensland University has a policy of offering all units on-campus and online. The introduction of screen production to the degree introduces a unique opportunity to interrogate best practice for delivering production units in this hybrid context. Despite widespread interest in hybrid delivery models due to COVID-19 restrictions, there has been little research into the possibilities of online screen production curriculum beyond the pandemic. In this paper, we interrogate the challenges and opportunities of a hybrid online/on-campus delivery model, arguing that this research is urgently needed to address gaps in access to training and resources for regional and remote practitioners. We outline our contextualised, student-oriented approach to screen production pedagogy, which focuses on designing scalable, equipment agnostic curriculum that encourages a ‘total filmmaker’ approach; building community and collaboration through online tools; creating robust online unit resources; and providing opportunities for small-group face-to-face activities. Our pedagogical approach challenges the screen production industry’s structural barriers and hierarchies, building the capacity of communities to tell their own stories and enabling new voices to emerge.

Guest Editorial: Learning, optimisation and control of cyber‐physical systems

Guest Editorial: Learning, optimisation and control of cyber‐physical systems

Delivering unexpected news to pregnant women and their attending family: Is sonographer training adequate? A narrative review

AbstractDelivering unexpected news is a common task many sonographers face within the clinical setting. Research has shown sonographers do not feel equipped to break unexpected news to pregnant women and their families. The aim of this study was to review current national and international literature to determine whether sonographers receive sufficient training to deliver unexpected news in the obstetric setting and the types of training individuals had received. Keywords were searched using PubMed, Google Scholar and Central Queensland University library. A total of 22 articles were selected for discussion and four main themes were identified during thematic analysis: (1) sonographers felt underprepared to deliver unexpected news, (2) sonographers felt training was or would be beneficial in delivering unexpected news, (3) a standard training protocol and guidelines should be implemented and (4) training and preparation to deliver unexpected news can improve patient care and satisfaction. Improved communication and patient care could be achieved with the implementation of standard guidelines and training, within universities or via professional associations to ensure sonographers are prepared to deliver unexpected news.

'Henry Reynolds, Truth Telling: History, Sovereignty, and the Uluru Statement'

Benjamin T. Jones Central Queensland University b.t.jones@cqu.edu.au https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4312-6995 Journal of Australian, Canadian, and Aotearoa New Zealand Studies 2 (September 2022): 98-99, https://doi.org/10.52230/ILBU1450 Book Review

Burnout in the sonographic environment: The identification and exploration of the causes of sonographer burnout and strategies for prevention and control

AbstractUltrasound is a diagnostic tool with many advantages, however, concerns over operator wellbeing have arisen in the last 20 years. Many sonographers experience burnout, which has the potential to cause financial loss for radiology clinics, and for sonographers, suboptimal examinations, high turnover and a reduced ability to communicate with patients. The aim of this narrative review was to explore, identify and categorise the causes of burnout in the sonography profession, and to identify burnout prevention and control strategies. A literature search was conducted through Central Queensland University library, accessing the following electronic databases; Wiley Online Library, Gale Academic, Ovid, Sagepub, CINAHL, Elsevier Science Direct, PubMed and ProQuest. Eight articles were reviewed. This study identified two key themes contributing to sonographer burnout: delivering adverse news and increased workload. Twelve causes of burnout were identified, with exposure to adverse news and time constraints the most commonly identified causes. In addition, other causes identified included managerial pressures to perform more scans/tasks within a short‐time frame, followed by the constant exposure to adverse news and the burden of delivering it to patients. Recommendations include considering reducing the required number of scans per week by increasing appointment times, counselling and skills training for adverse news delivery and use of technical assistants to perform soft tasks. Current literature relating to sonographer burnout appears isolated to the obstetrics domain with further study required on sonographer burnout in other fields of sonography, including burnout because of lack of career progression.

Bluestreak cleaner wrasse are unsuspecting parasite super-spreaders

Personal hygiene matters, whether it's preening or taking a shower. But some creatures are unable to maintain their own cleanliness, so fish subcontract out their sanitation to smaller fish that nibble at lice on their skin. ‘Cleaner fish may clean throughout their entire lifespan, using cleaning as their primary way of acquiring food, or engage in cleaning interactions predominantly as juveniles or as a secondary source of food’, says Pauline Narvaez from James Cook University, Australia. However, Narvaez and Kate Hutson (James Cook University) wondered whether there was a darker side to the symbiotic hygiene story. Could cleaner fish unintentionally carry and transmit to unsuspecting clients some of the parasites that they usually vacuum up? Intrigued by the possibility that cleaner fish could be inadvertent parasite super-spreaders, Narvaez and Hutson joined forces with Renato Morais (James Cook University), David Vaughan (Central Queensland University, Australia) and Alexandra Grutter (The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia) to find out whether bluestreak cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus) are vulnerable to infection by the pests upon which they usually feast. Venturing out onto the Great Barrier Reef at Lizard Island, Australia, Narvaez and Morais went in search of bluestreak cleaner wrasse, armed with barrier- and hand-nets. ‘Once the cleaner fish were caught, we gently moved them into plastic bags until we got back to the research station’ says Narvaez. She then released five famished parasitic juvenile gnathiid isopod crustaceans (Gnathia aureamaculosa) into each tank with an individual wrasse to find out how succulent the cleaner fish were for the parasites. Back at James Cook University, Narvaez also isolated cleaner wrasse with juvenile parasitic protozoans (Cryptocaryon irritans), which cause marine white spot disease, and parasitic flatworm larvae (Neobenedenia girellae), which attach to their host's body, to find out how susceptible the fish were to other infections.Impressively, the cleaner wrasse were remarkably resistant to both white spot disease and the parasitic flatworms; however, the juvenile parasitic crustacean larvae were able to grab a hold on the cleaner wrasses’ skin. So bluestreak cleaner wrasse aren't completely immune to freely swimming juvenile parasites, although they seem to be less vulnerable than other similarly sized species. But how susceptible might the wrasse be to adult parasites, carried by their clients, while going about their day job?This time, Narvaez dextrously transferred adult flat worms to healthy bluestreak cleaner wrasse to find out how the parasitic flatworms fared on the cleaning professionals. Impressively, the flatworms managed to hold on to their cleaner wrasse rides for the first 24 h, although roughly half detached in the following 24 h; the adult parasites are able to cling on long enough to reach their next host. Fortunately, when Narvaez monitored the number of eggs released by the parasitic N. girellae hitch-hikers, she found they weren't as fertile as when catching a lift on their usual hosts, initially producing only a fraction (7%) of the eggs that they usually release, falling to virtually zero by the end of the week.‘Some parasites may have evolved to exploit cleaning symbiosis as a mechanism for transmission’, says Narvaez, explaining that the flexible flatworms, which shuffle about on their host's skin, could hop off their L. dimidiatus ride as the wrasse burrows about in the gills of another client to infect it. And, as bluestreak cleaner wrasse provide hygiene services to approximately 2300 fish each day, Narvaez and colleagues suspect that infected cleaners could be contributing unwittingly to the problem.

A Workshop on Social Media Apps for Year-10 Students: An Exploratory Case Study on Digital Technology Education in Regional Australia

A designated hands-on workshop on social media apps was conducted for two groups of Year-10 students from three schools in or near Rockhampton, an outer regional city in Australia, before the COVID-19 pandemic. It was hosted in a computer laboratory on the Rockhampton campus of the Central Queensland University of Australia. Statistical analyses of the students’ responses to the interactive practices during the workshop indicated that social media apps were widely used among the school students living in Australian regional communities, but their general digital literacy seemed below the educational goals for Year-10 students required in the national digital technologies curriculum (DTC). The encouraging sign was that some students expressed a genuine desire and interest in learning more digital technologies and creating purposeful digital applications. In Australia, however, there is no national specialist DTC for students in Years 11 and 12. Hence, it may be worthwhile to consider designing and implementing advanced national specialist digital curriculum for senior students in Years 11 and 12 who are true lovers of digital technologies. Some thoughts on improving STEM education outcomes in secondary schools in regional areas are also shared.

Field Testing Satellite-Derived Vegetation Health Indices for a Koala Habitat Managers Toolkit

A Central Queensland University (CQU) partnership with the Queensland Government National Park management agency has developed a koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) habitat managers’ toolkit for vegetation health assessment. Private and public landholders use the field-based toolkit to assess habitat suitability or monitor conservation outcomes for the koala—an iconic Australian arboreal herbivorous marsupial. The toolkit was upgraded recently with instructions to process European Space Agency (ESA) Sentinel-2 multispectral satellite-derived selected vegetation maps for areal vegetation health trend monitoring. A field campaign sought to validate the relatively coarse spatial resolution derived indices (photosynthetic health, leaf area index and leaf water content) to verify their suitability for the habitat management decision-support toolkit. Other user requirement-driven criteria for including remote sensing in the toolkit were imagery and associated processing software costs and ease of map production for habitat managers without cost-effective access to spatial science skills. Despite moderate-to-low field and image vegetation proxy correlations, discussing the results with stakeholders indicates that, at a landscape scale, the use of cost-free, suitable temporal resolution, 10-m spatial resolution imagery is satisfactory when aligned with the design outcomes of a habitat health toolkit.

Problems, assumptions and solutions in locomotive design, traction and operational studies

Locomotive design is a highly complex task that requires the use of systems engineering that depends upon knowledge from a range of disciplines and is strongly oriented on how to design and manage complex systems that operate under a wide range of different train operational conditions on various types of tracks. Considering that field investigation programs for locomotive operational scenarios involve high costs and cause disruption of train operations on real railway networks and given recent developments in the rollingstock compliance standards in Australia and overseas that allow the assessment of some aspects of rail vehicle behaviour through computer simulations, a great number of multidisciplinary research studies have been performed and these can contribute to further improvement of a locomotive design technique by increasing the amount of computer-based studies. This paper was focused on the presentation of the all-important key components required for locomotive studies, starting from developing a realistic locomotive design model, its validation and further applications for train studies. The integration of all engineering disciplines is achieved by means of advanced simulation approaches that can incorporate existing AC and DC locomotive designs, hybrid locomotive designs, full locomotive traction system models, rail friction processes, the application of simplified and exact wheel-rail contact theories, wheel-rail wear and rolling contact fatigue, train dynamic behaviour and in-train forces, comprehensive track infrastructure details, and the use of co-simulation and parallel computing. The co-simulation and parallel computing approaches that have been implemented on Central Queensland University’s High-Performance Computing cluster for locomotive studies will be presented. The confidence in these approaches is based on specific validation procedures that include a locomotive model acceptance procedure and field test data. The problems and limitations presented in locomotive traction studies in the way they are conducted at the present time are summarised and discussed.

Design and implementation of multi-purpose quizzes to improve mathematics learning for transitional engineering students

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>For students who are academically ineligible to enter a bachelor program in engineering but still want to upskill their knowledge in engineering, many universities provide an associate degree program in engineering to these students. The higher achievers from the associate degree program can transfer to a full degree program in engineering. Mathematics courses in such associate degree programs are often challenging to both the teachers and students due to various reasons. This paper presents a small part of a mathematics revitalization project on pedagogical adjustment to scaffold mathematics learning for students in an associate engineering program at Central Queensland University (CQU), a regional university in Australia, from 2018 to 2020. The design and implementation of the online multi-purpose quizzes (MPQ) to improve both the learning environment and outcomes for the engineering students from 2018 to 2020 are reported in this work. Statistically, the online MPQ empowered students to achieve their best possible outcomes by attempting the questions with time flexibility, on a confined set of topics, and with more chances of amending errors than the traditional written assessments. Hence, their performance in the online MPQ was consistently better than that in the written assignments in 2018-2020. The weaknesses of the online MPQ are also discussed.</p>

Student work readiness in Australian engineering workplaces through work integrated learning

PurposeAs part of the Co-Operative Education Program (CEP) under study, a Work-integrated Learning (WIL) student engagement framework is presented. The framework focusses on the effectiveness of the WIL program with real-world assessment tasks to prepare students for graduate employment. In order to evaluate the level at which the engineering graduates are work-ready, an analysis of qualitative and quantitative survey data from CQU students, employers and data from other sources was undertaken. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachWIL is an effective pedagogical strategy employed in engineering curriculum to engage students with workplace partners and engineering practices. However, little is known about the problems exist in the WIL processes including insufficient resources and support for mentoring students. On overcoming the problems, an effective collaboration between students, universities and engineering workplaces provides an enhanced engagement experience and enables students’ work-ready skills. Central Queensland University (CQU)’s Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) and Diploma of Professional Practice (Co-op) students participate in two 6-month WIL placements over the course of their university studies.FindingsTo identify the impact of the co-operative education model on graduate outcomes, an analysis of student assessment data from 2016 to 2018 showed that the student employability indicators were consistently above the national average of graduate engineering students. All areas such as knowledge base, engineering ability and professional attributes, students’ performance were rated at or above the average of a graduate engineer by employers.Originality/valueAs part of practice assessment, engineering workplace employers provide an evaluation of students’ performance against the Engineers Australia (EA) Stage 1 Competency Standard for Professional Engineers, involving sixteen mandatory elements in the areas of knowledge and skill base, engineering application ability, and professional and personal attributes.