Lecturing

At the University of Sydney, I lectured at all levels of Physics on the following topics:

Laboratory Classes

I believe laboratory classes are an indispensable environment for students to consolidate their understanding and hone their laboratory skills. My laboratory teaching activities include:

LabRAT

The first year lab accommodates 800 students per week. Keeping track of the marks accrued by these students each week was a major administrative burden for my predecessor. I preferred to spend the time writing software, so together with some project students, we developed LabRAT, an all electronic laboratory marking system.

All 1st year Physics students perform a laboratory module at the University of Sydney. Up until 2006, all laboratory marks were recorded on paper by tutors working in the teaching lab. While this system was simple, it led to an administrative bottleneck, as each week the marks had to be transcribed from paper into a computer. To address this, an electronic laboratory marking system was recently developed and introduced into the junior physics teaching laboratory. The system allows tutors to enter marks into a central database directly using handheld PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) computers. The system has greatly reduced the administrative load in handling lab marks, but has also enhanced the student's experience of the lab. After the lab class has finished, students are able to check their marks online through a web-page. The students now regularly track their progress through the lab and can query potential recording errors as they arise.

References:

  • N.J. Ekins-Daukes & J.W. O'Byrne, LabRAT - An electronic mark recording system for large laboratory classes, Uniserve Science Conf., University of Sydney, Sept. 2006
  • Conference poster
  • Conference paper

Tutor Admin.

The School of Physics employs many Graduate and Honours students to work as tutors in the teaching laboratories and tutorial classes. Matching suitable tutors with available classes is akin to a sudoku puzzle and was a particularly tedious paper based task before I wrote the Tutor Admin. software.

Similar to LabRAT, the key to streamlining the administrative task of appointing tutors was to eliminate paper from the process. Tutors are now invited to apply online and complete a web-form, stating their contact details, background and work experience, their preferred times and classes. We typically receive 100 applications for our 40 or so classes, each of which requires at least three tutors. My software searches for candidates who are both available and willing to tutor the class in question. The appointment process is still manual, as this involves judgement of a tutor's capability. Once the timetable is complete, the software compiles email distribution lists for tutors awarded work and those who were not, compiles lists for the human resources office to issue appointment letters, compiles lists for nametags and most importantly, the software posts sorted class allocations and individual schedules onto the web.