Design and development of practical instruction for freshmen engineering students in a renewable energy course

Conference ProceedingsTechnical competence and problem solving skills are key graduate attributes that engineering students must develop, especially within a practical laboratory. A new specialized course in renewable energy was introduced at the beginning of 2014 at the Central University of Technology, with the main purpose of addressing this goal. The purpose of this research is to describe the design and development of relevant practical instruction which was introduced into one of the solar energy modules, termed Solar Energy Systems II. This module forms part of the curriculum of the new renewable energy course. The backward curriculum design method was applied in developing the practical instruction. Five learning outcomes were specified while three assessment strategies were selected, including oral presentations, written laboratory reports (headings include the experimental question, hypothesis, materials, procedure, observations, data, conclusion and reflections) and a final written class test. Two main pedagogical methods were used involving authentic learning and computer-based learning, while lectures, group work, videos and a learning management system were also used. A questionnaire was finally used to obtain student feedback on the practical instruction. Students indicated that the practical work was enjoyable (92%), relevant to the theory (83%), and a valuable learning experience (97%). This practical instruction has given freshmen engineering students the opportunity to demonstrate their acquisition of important graduate attributes that may help them to contribute to the socio-economic development of South Africa

Using reflective self-assessments in a learning management system to promote student engagement and academic success

Conference ProceedingLearning management systems have the capabilities of creating, fostering, delivering, and facilitating learning at anytime and anywhere, allowing students to engage in online discussion and collaborative activities. However, many researchers feel that the online space essentially remains a repository for content. However, the fact that some academics use such systems as a content dumping site cannot be generalized. No, such a blanket statement would be a grave injustice to those few academics that are trying to improve the teaching and learning process, especially through reflective practice. The purpose of this paper is to highlight how an academic in electrical engineering has effectively used BlackboardTM to promote student engagement and academic success through online reflective self-assessments. An ex-post facto study is used with descriptive statistics of the quantitative data. Two groups of students enrolled for different electronic communication modules were asked to complete biweekly online reflective self-assessments via BlackboardTM. Results indicate that those who completed more than 50% of these self-assessments were almost twice as likely to achieve academic success as compared to those who completed less than 50% of them. These results tend to suggest that some academics are using educational technology more effectively than other academics, to the benefit of students and higher educational institutions

Online experimentation and interactive learning resources for teaching network engineering

This paper presents a case study on teaching network engineering in conjunction with interactive learning resources. This case study has been developed in collaboration with the Cisco Networking Academy in the context of the FORGE project, which promotes online learning and experimentation by offering access to virtual and remote labs. The main goal of this work is allowing learners and educators to perform network simulations within a web browser or an interactive eBook by using any type of mobile, tablet or desktop device. Learning Analytics are employed in order to monitor learning behaviour for further analysis of the learning experience offered to students

The Impact of Student Unrest on Freshmen Engineering Students in South Africa

Confernce ProceedingsIn 2016 alone, Google Scholar listed 301 results for “student unrest”. These results listed countries such as South Africa, Nigeria, India, Canada and the USA. The devastating effects of student unrest on student well-being, academic performance and career paths have been documented. Added to this is the disastrous financial consequences that institutions of higher education must endure. The purpose of this study is to draw together the consequences of student unrest, highlighting those that specifically impacted negatively on freshmen engineering students in South Africa during 2016. The academic year in South Africa is divided into two semesters, with approximately 260 students registering for Electronics 1 in the first semester and 130 registering in the second semester. The same course is offered in both semesters. During the first semester of 2016, no student unrest was experienced. However, in the second semester, just after 8 weeks of instruction had passed, student unrest flared up. This occurred at a critical time in the semester, as students were preparing to complete their main test which contributes significantly to their final grade at the end of the module. A descriptive case study is used with descriptive statistics of the quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data contrasts the final academic grades of Electronic 1 students in 2016, where the second semester students were affected by student unrest. Students from this second semester were also asked to complete an online questionnaire which sought to obtain their perspectives of the unrest. Results indicate that students from Semester 1 (NO student unrest) enjoyed a 10% higher median grade and 26% higher pass rate for their exam as compared to students from Semester 2 (YES student unrest). It must be emphasized that all these students were exposed to the same course content, academic and assessments. Furthermore, student perspectives primarily highlighted that their study routine was negatively affected by the student unrest

How to throw chocolate at students : a survey of extrinsic means for increased audience attention

This paper presents an overview of established and innovative means and teaching approaches that contribute to higher students' attention during lecture. The results are based on an international survey among lecturers from eleven universities. This survey was initiated by three lecturers from different countries who met at EDUCON 2016. The objective was to collect teaching experiences about playful means that motivate students to be attentive during a lecture. The proposed teaching approaches fall into three categories: established teaching methods, unconventional extrinsic methods, and tools. We focus on the extrinsic methods and discuss 14 illustrative examples of these approaches

Systematic review on which analytics and learning methodologies are applied in primary and secondary education in the learning of robotics sensors

Robotics technology has become increasingly common both for businesses and for private citizens. Primary and secondary schools, as a mirror of societal evolution, have increasingly integrated science, technology, engineering and math concepts into their curricula. Our research questions are: “In teaching robotics to primary and secondary school students, which pedagogical-methodological interventions result in better understanding and knowledge in the use of sensors in educational robotics?”, and “In teaching robotics to primary and secondary school students, which analytical methods related to Learning Analytics processes are proposed to analyze and reflect on students’ behavior in their learning of concepts and skills of sensors in educational robotics?”. To answer these questions, we have carried out a systematic review of the literature in the Web of Science and Scopus databases regarding robotics sensors in primary and secondary education, and Learning Analytics processes. We applied PRISMA methodology and reviewed a total of 24 articles. The results show a consensus about the use of the Learning by Doing and Project-Based Learning methodologies, including their different variations, as the most common methodology for achieving optimal engagement, motivation and performance in students’ learning. Finally, future lines of research are identified from this study.This research was co-funded by the support of the Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca of the Department of Business and Knowledge of the Generalitat de Catalunya with the help of 2017 SGR 93

Open education and learning quality: The need for changing strategies and learning experiences

Open Education is movement with a long-term tradition and broad approach. In this paper we compare Open Education with smart education first. We can conclude that Open Education as a holistic concept can embed smart education with its mainly technological focus and covers all three quality dimensions to improve the learning quality: potential, processes and results. Furthermore Open Education embraces all three levels: macro, meso and micro level. Such a holistic concept can change strategies and learning experiences of future education to address the needed societal challenges. It requires future research and surveys that are started now based on a first pre-survey on MOOCs revealing the differences between MOOC designers and learners. We believe that Open Education can improve future learning and education to facilitate learner-centered education addressing the requirements from learners as well as educational providers, public authorities and societies

RoboSTEAM Project Systematic Mapping: Challenge Based Learning and Robotics

STEAM Education is nowadays a key element for our current digital society. Integrating STEAM and developing competences such as Computational Thinking is highly demanded by the industry and higher education institutions. In order to do so new methodological approaches are required. RoboSTEAM project is an Erasmus+ project defined to address these topics by using of physical devices and robotics employing Challenge Based Learning methodology. One of the first steps in the project development is the definition of current landscape in the research field. Which means to carry out a literature mapping that considers previous applications of Challenge Based Learning in STEAM education and use of robots and physical devices to do so. This paper shows the mapping review process and the main results obtained. The mapping analyze 242 candidate works from the most relevant bibliographic sources and selected 54. Form them it was possible to see that there are not many initiatives on STEM Education related to Challenge base learning and the most of them are specially focused on the application of specific tools and in the development of concrete competences

Boosting interaction with educational technology

Proceeding of: 2017 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), 25-28 April 2017, Athens, Greece.The MOOC movement has helped faculty in focusing on how to lecture. However, once this is done, it would not make sense not to use this content for on-campus classes. In this paper, we will explain how to harness top content created for MOOCs to improve on-campus classes, where the personal interaction is a key added feature. Interactive practices and on-site interaction, especially in-class interaction, are of particular relevance in the evolution of Higher Education towards a more effective learning.The eMadrid Excellence Network is being funded by the Madrid Regional Government (Comunidad de Madrid) with grant No. S2013/ICE-2715. This work also received partial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Project RESET (TIN2014-53199-C3-1-R) and fellowship FPDI-2013-17411, and from the European Commission through Erasmus+ projects MOOC-Maker (561533-EPP-1-2015-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP) and SHEILA (562080-EPP-1-2015-1-BE-EPPKA3-PI-FORWARD).Publicad

Mobile Learning Technologies for Education: Benefits and Pending Issues

Today’s world demands more efficient learning models that allow students to play a more active role in their education. Technology is having an impact on how instruction is delivered and how information is found and share. Until very recently, the educational models encouraged memorization as an essential learning skill. These days, technologies have changed the educational model and access to information. Knowledge is available online, mostly free, and easily accessible. Reading, sharing, listening and, doing are currently necessary skills for education. Mobile devices have become a complete set of applications, support, and help for educational organizations. By conducting an analysis of the behavior and use of mobile devices on current students, efficient educational applications can be developed. Although there are several initiatives for the use of mobile learning in education, there are also issues linked to this technology that must be addressed. In this work, we present the results of a literature review of mobile learning; the findings described are the result of the analysis of several articles obtained in three scientific repositories. This work also lists certain issues that, if properly addressed, can avoid possible complications to the implementation of this technology in education.This work was supported by the EduTech project (609785-EPP-1-2019-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHEJP) co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union