On the use of audio-tapes for teaching vector analysis to engineering undergraduates

An audio-tape with an accompanying booklet of notes has been prepared specifically for teaching the topic of vector analysis to engineering undergraduates in their second year of study at Sheffield University. The audio-tape package was designed to replace four conventional lectures. The implications of introducing an innovative teaching practice into a mathematically based discipline are discussed. The reactions of two cohorts of students on whom this teaching innovation was trialled are described. It was deduced that students are likely to be more receptive to an alternative teaching practice if they are encouraged to participate in the decision-making processes concerning the details of its implementation. Such activities generate the concept of 'shared ownership', which tends to promote more positive student feedback.