Are Universities Using the Right Assessment Tools during the Pandemic and Crisis Times?

All industries have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and have worked to develop alternative strategies and actions to survive and continue business operations; the education sector is no exception. University administrators and instructors have faced challenges in finding the appropriate mechanisms to manage the final examination process. This essay suggests that project-based learning (PBL) assessment could be an effective alternative to online examinations. It advocates the adoption of PBL by highlighting the challenges/pitfalls associated with online exams supported by proctoring software tools

Project-Based Approach in a First-Year Engineering Course to Promote Project Management and Sustainability

To safeguard the environment and satisfy the energy needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to do the same, sustainable energy development is urgently needed. This complex task is riddled with social, political, scientific, technical, and environmental challenges. Education is essential if we are to meet the energy demands of the world in the most sustainable manner available to us. Langara College offers a first-year engineering course that is meant to introduce students to engineering design and case studies, in addition to providing a brief glance on the history, ethics, and the different disciplines of engineering (APSC 1010). Using a project-based learning approach that promotes teamwork and research, this course uses a variety of instructional methods including lectures, class discussions, and guest appearances by experts in their fields. Introductions to technical concepts, such as soldering, 3D printing, and microcontrollers, are also addressed in this course. This paper demonstrates how this, or similar courses, are optimized to raise awareness of the sustainability issues this planet is facing. Learning outcomes are evaluated using an anonymous student survey which demonstrates how the students’ project-management and presentation skills have improved

A Hybrid Spiral Project Based Learning Model for Microprocessor Course Teaching

High demands for technology increase every day. These demands required expert engineers with high skills to keep up with technology demands. Engineering departments need to responded for this requirement to develop their educational methods. researchers began to develop educational methods and measure their effectiveness.  This paper develops an educational method to educate microprocessor course. The educational model mixed the spiral method and project based learning to achieve the desirable goal. Educational activities used in the educational method like lecture, lab, and project. also, virtual lab developed to achieve better learning performance. The proposed educational method evaluated in two ways. First, statistical analysis for students’ scores shows significant differences and improvement in the learning outcome. second, students survey shows very positive impact on students learning

"Presence, participation and progress": project based learning in the trajectory of a teacher in training

[ES] La formación inicial del profesorado, asentada en un enfoque curricular técnico, presenta para el docente algunas limitaciones. Superarlas, sólo es posible escuchando cómo vive el estudiante su proceso formativo. El estudio que presentamos, tiene como objetivos conocer la experiencia de una maestra sobre su formación inicial; analizar cómo sus carencias prácticas en el aula fueron compensadas con su participación en un proyecto, basado en la Investigación – Acción; y observar cómo desde esta participación, la alumna descubre el método de Aprendizaje Basado en Proyectos (ABP) y lo pone en práctica en su aula. Para llevar a cabo el estudio se analizan los diarios biográficos de la protagonista, notas de campo y una entrevista semiestructurada. El análisis de datos nos lleva a concluir, que resulta necesario ofrecer al maestro en formación el conocimiento de métodos como el ABP, permitirle que lleve estas experiencias a la práctica y reflexione sobre sus bondades.[EN] Initial teacher training, based on a technical curricular approach, presents to the teacher some limitations. To get over them is only possible by listening how does the student lives his formative process. The research we present aims to know the experience of a teacher about her initial training; to analyze how their practical deficiencies in the classroom were compensated with their participation in a project, based on action-­‐research; and to observe how from this participation, the student discovers the Project Based Learning (PBL) method and how does she put it into practice in her classroom. In order to carry out the study, biographical diaries of the teacher, field notes and a semi-­‐structured interview are analyzed. Review of the data leads us to conclude that it is required to offer the teacher in training the knowledge of methods such as PBL, to allow them to take these experiences to practice and reflect on their advantages.S

“Presencia, participación y progreso”: el aprendizaje basado en proyectos en la trayectoria de una maestra en formación

Initial teacher training, based on a technical curricular approach, presents to the teacher some limitations. To get over them is only possible by listening how does the student lives his formative process. The research we present aims to know the experience of a teacher about her initial training; to analyze how their practical deficiencies in the classroom were compensated with their participation in a project, based on action-research; and to observe how from this participation, the student discovers the Project Based Learning (PBL) method and how does she put it into practice in her classroom. In order to carry out the study, biographical diaries of the teacher, field notes and a semi-structured interview are analyzed. Review of the data leads us to conclude that it is required to offer the teacher in training the knowledge of methods such as PBL, to allow them to take these experiences to practice and reflect on their advantages. La formación inicial del profesorado, asentada en un enfoque curricular técnico, presenta para el docente algunas limitaciones. Superarlas, sólo es posible escuchando cómo vive el estudiante su proceso formativo. El estudio que presentamos, tiene como objetivos conocer la experiencia de una maestra sobre su formación inicial; analizar cómo sus carencias prácticas en el aula fueron compensadas con su participación en un proyecto, basado en la Investigación – Acción; y observar cómo desde esta participación, la alumna descubre el método de Aprendizaje Basado en Proyectos (ABP) y lo pone en práctica en su aula. Para llevar a cabo el estudio se analizan los diarios biográficos de la protagonista, notas de campo y una entrevista semiestructurada. El análisis de datos nos lleva a concluir, que resulta necesario ofrecer al maestro en formación el conocimiento de métodos como el ABP, permitirle que lleve estas experiencias a la práctica y reflexione sobre sus bondades

Towards Active Evidence-Based Learning in Engineering Education:A Systematic Literature Review of PBL, PjBL, and CBL

Ajuts: This research was funded by The ECIU University project (project number 612521-EPP-1-2019-1-NL-EPPKA2-EUR-UNIV), co-funded by the ERASMUS+ Programme of the European Union.Implementing active learning methods in engineering education is becoming the new norm and is seen as a prerequisite to prepare future engineers not only for their professional life, but also to tackle global issues. Teachers at higher education institutions are expected and encouraged to introduce their students to active learning experiences, such as problem-, project-, and more recently, challenge-based learning. Teachers have to shift from more traditional teacher-centered education to becoming instructional designers of student-centered education. However, instructional designers (especially novice) often interpret and adapt even well-established methods, such as problem-based learning and project-based learning, such that the intended value thereof risks being weakened. When it comes to more recent educational settings or frameworks, such as challenge-based learning, the practices are not well established yet, so there might be even more experimentation with implementation, especially drawing inspiration from other active learning methods. By conducting a systematic literature analysis of research on problem-based learning, project-based learning, and challenge-based learning, the present paper aims to shed more light on the different steps of instructional design in implementing the three methods. Based on the analysis and synthesis of empirical findings, the paper explores the instructional design stages according to the ADDIE (analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation) model and provides recommendations for teacher practitioners

Fast Solution Techniques for Energy Management in Smart Homes

In the future, residential energy users will seize the full potential of demand response schemes by using an automated smart home energy management system (SHEMS) to schedule their distributed energy resources. The underlying optimisation problem facing a SHEMS is a sequential decision making problem under uncertainty because the states of the devices depend on the past state. There are two major challenges to optimisation in this domain; namely, handling uncertainty, and planning over suitably long decision horizons. In more detail, in order to generate high quality schedules, a SHEMS should consider the stochastic nature of the photovoltaic (PV) generation and energy consumption. In addition, the SHEMS should accommodate predictable inter-daily variations over several days. Ideally, the SHEMS should also be able to integrate into an existing smart meter or a similar device with low computational power. However, extending the decision horizon of existing solution techniques for sequential stochastic decision making problems is computationally difficult and moreover, these approaches are only computationally feasible with a limited number of storage devices and a daily decision horizon. Given this, the research investigates, proposes and develops fast solution techniques for implementing efficient SHEMSs. Specifically, three novel methods for overcoming these challenges: a two-stage lookahead stochastic optimisation framework; an approximate dynamic programming (ADP) approach with temporal difference learning; and a policy function approximation (PFA) algorithm using extreme learning machines (ELM) are presented. Throughout the thesis, the performance of these solution techniques are benchmarked against dynamic programming (DP) and stochastic mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) using a range of residential PV-storage (thermal and battery) systems. We use empirical data collected during the Smart Grid Smart City project in New South Wales, Australia, to estimate the parameters of a Markov chain model of PV output and electrical demand using an hierarchical approach, which first cluster empirical data and then learns probability density functions using kernel regression (Chapter 2). The two-stage lookahead method uses deterministic MILP to solve a longer decision horizon, while its end-of-day battery state of charge is used as a constraint for a daily DP approach (Chapter 4). Here DP is used for the daily horizon as it is shown to provide close-to-optimal solutions when the state, decision and outcome spaces are finely discretised (Chapter 3). However, DP is computationally difficult because of the dimensionalities of state, decision and outcome spaces, so we resort to MILP to solve the longer decision horizon. The two-stage lookahead results in significant financial benefits compared to daily DP and stochastic MILP approaches (8.54% electricity cost savings for a very suitable house), however, the benefits decreases as the actual PV output and demand deviates from their forecast values. Building on this, ADP is proposed in Chapter 5 to implement a computationally efficient SHEMS. Here we obtain policies from value function approximations (VFAs) by stepping forward in time, compared to the value functions obtained by backward induction in DP. Similar to DP, we can use VFAs generated during the offline planning phase to generate fast real-time solutions using the Bellman optimality condition, which is computationally efficient compared to having to solve the entire stochastic MILP problem. The decisions obtained from VFAs at a given time-step are optimal regardless of what happened in the previous time-steps. Our results show that ADP computes a solution much faster than both DP and stochastic MILP, and provides only a slight reduction in quality compared to the optimal DP solution. In addition, incorporating a thermal energy storage unit using the proposed ADP-based SHEMS reduces the daily electricity cost by up to 57.27% for a most suitable home, with low computational burden. Moreover, ADP with a two-day decision horizon reduces the average yearly electricity cost by a 4.6% over a daily DP method, yet requires less than half of the computational effort. However, ADP still takes a considerable amount of time to generate VFAs in the off-line planning phase and require us to estimate PV and demand models. Given this, a PFA algorithm that uses ELM is proposed in Chapter 6 to overcome these difficulties. Here ELM is used to learn models that map input states and output decisions within seconds, without solving an optimisation problem. This off-line planning process requires a training data set, which has to be generated by solving the deterministic SHEMS problem over couple of years. Here we can use a powerful cloud or home computer as it is only needed once. PFA models can be used to make fast real-time decisions and can easily be embedded in an existing smart meter or a similar low power device. Moreover, we can use PFA models over a long period of time without updating the model and still obtain similar quality solutions. Collectively, ADP and PFA using ELM can overcome challenges of considering the stochastic variables, extending the decision horizon and integrating multiple controllable devices using existing smart meters or a device with low computational power, and represent a significant advancement to the state of the art in this domain

Valuing diversity and establishing an approach to supporting excluded groups

Minority students and minority employees in Higher Engineering Education experience inequality. For academic staff these inequalities impact their personal development and career progression. To continue to grow and for engineering education to thrive as a professional discipline we must encourage diversity within both the student and staff populations. This paper cautions against a simple notion of diversity, rather a truly diverse culture within engineering is needed, one in which there is diversity of opportunity, diversity of thought and diversity of experience. To enable a more inclusive environment to flourish we must understand the scale of the inequalities which exist. However, this paper demonstrates that there are significant limitations to the current diversity data within the UK which leaves room for under-reporting and over-generalising. In addition, there are cultural challenges which give further likelihood to non-disclosure and lack of self-reporting. This paper proposes that further research is needed into the true lack of diversity within engineering and describes one example of a ‘thought experiment’ conducted by the researchers to start unpacking the data and highlighting the scale of the issue

XIV Conference on Technology, Teaching and Learning of Electronics

Livro de atas da TAEE2020.A conferencia TAEE conhecerá na sua 14ª edição um momento histórico. Não só é a primeira vez que a será organizada fora do território Espanhol, como terá lugar a verdadeiramente pioneira experiência de realizar esta conferência num formato puramente virtual no Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto. Esta opção representa a solução possível para um evidente problema mundial, que surgiu de forma repentina durante a preparação desta edição. Optamos por aplicar a típica abordagem de engenharia, instintivamente encarando este novo problema como uma verdadeira oportunidade, e aproveitando as limitações impostas para experimentar novas soluções para novas questões. Tentamos criar uma TAEE diferente, não melhor nem pior, mas indo buscar proveitos às tecnologias de comunicação emergentes de forma a criar e dinamizar um evento onde não estaremos fisicamente juntos, mas poderemos comunicar e conviver de forma virtual. A grande motivação da TAEE será sempre os visíveis entrosamentos, dedicação e motivação da comunidade e serão estes fatores que permitirão o sucesso nesta nova forma de estarmos e trabalharmos juntos, mas à distância.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Student Expectations: The effect of student background and experience

CONTEXT The perspectives and previous experiences that students bring to their programs of study can affect their approaches to study and the depth of learning that they achieve Prosser & Trigwell, 1999; Ramsden, 2003). Graduate outcomes assume the attainment of welldeveloped independent learning skills which can be transferred to the work-place. PURPOSE This 5-year longitudinal study investigates factors influencing students’ approaches to learning in the fields of Engineering, Software Engineering, and Computer Science, at two higher education institutes delivering programs of various levels in Australia and New Zealand. The study aims to track the development of student approaches to learning as they progress through their program. Through increased understanding of students’ approaches, faculty will be better able to design teaching and learning strategies to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student body. This paper reports on the first stage of the project. APPROACH In August 2017, we ran a pilot of our survey using the Revised Study Process Questionnaire(Biggs, Kember, & Leung, 2001) and including some additional questions related to student demographics and motivation for undertaking their current program of study. Data were analysed to evaluate the usefulness of data collected and to understand the demographics of the student cohort. Over the period of the research, data will be collected using the questionnaire and through focus groups and interviews. RESULTS Participants provided a representative sample, and the data collected was reasonable, allowing the questionnaire design to be confirmed. CONCLUSIONS At this preliminary stage, the study has provided insight into the student demographics at both institutes and identified aspects of students’ modes of engagement with learning. Some areas for improvement of the questionnaire have been identified, which will be implemented for the main body of the study