Designing an Open Virtual Factory of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises for Industrial Engineering Education

Curriculum of Industrial Engineering program must accomplish the requirement that graduates have the ability to design, develop, implement, and improve integrated system that include people, materials, equipment and energy. However, it is not easy to implement a curriculum that fosters such competencies. One of the strategies to achieve that is using an innovative learning media, so that the problem-based learning (PBL) can be accustomed. In this paper, we design a web-based enterprise resources planning. It is aimed to capture the real problem of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in bottled drinking water industries. The integrated system can be illustrated as ERP application that designed by using free open source software (FOSS). This research aimed to utilize the application to improve teaching methods in IE education. The result of the research can be used to improve the competencies of IE students, especially the abilities to identify, formulate, and solve the activities of the business process improvement in SMEs. Keywords Industrial engineering education, FOSS, innovative learning media, problem-based learnin

What did the Romans ever do for us? ‘Next generation’ networks and hybrid learning resources

Networked learning is fundamentally concerned with the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to link people to people and resources, to support the process of learning. This paper explores some current and forthcoming changes in ICT and some potential implications of these developments for networked learning. Whilst we aim to avoid taking a technologically determinist stance, we explore the potential for future practice and how some educational and pedagogic practices are evolving to exploit and shape the digital environment. We argue that we can change both the ways in which connections between people (learners and other learners; learners and tutors) are made and the nature of the resources that learning communities (particularly distributed communities) can engage with. In doing this we draw on two strands of work. Firstly, we draw on the ‘IBZL Education’ a UK Open University initiative to develop new scholarship in the context of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) through which educators are encouraged to think about technological change in the next five to ten years and ways in which we can intervene and shape these developments. We use problem-based learning as an example of a learning experience that can be difficult to implement in a networked learning environment. IBZL identified two broad strands of significant technological development. 'Superfast' broadband networks that are capable of supporting novel applications are being rolled in the UK (and elsewhere). Also, boundaries between the real and virtual worlds are becoming blurred as in the ‘internet of things’ where, for example, RFID tags enable information about the real world to be brought into the virtual one. We use the term ‘artefact’ to describe designed components, whether entirely digital, such as a computer forum, or material, such as a tablet PC. Networked ‘hybrid’ technologies of virtual and material components have may great potential for use in education. Secondly, we illustrate how these changes may be beginning to happen in distance education using the example of TU100 My Digital Life, a new introductory Open University. . TU100 Students use an electronics board in their own homes to work on a programming problem in collaboration other students through a tutor-led tutorial in a web conferencing system. We also note some of the evident complexity that establishing such resources as part of wider infrastructures of networked learning would be likely to involve

The role of four-hour blocks in promoting active learning strategies: the impressions of students and teachers

The technological degrees offered at the Polytechnic School of Águeda – University of Aveiro have been organized, since 2001, around a project-based learning environment [1]. One of the features of the curriculum implementation is that courses’ contact hours are not divided in several types of classes, as in traditional learning environments. Following an idea adapted from the Aalborg model [2], all courses are taught in four-hour blocks that can be organized differently according to the course, or the learning needs at any stage of the process, thus enhancing flexibility and allowing for reorganization of the provision for teaching according to students’ needs. This format was also meant to encourage the adoption of active learning strategies within the classroom, since traditional lectures in such a format would be little less than excruciating. This article describes an investigation into the “on the field” experience of both students and teachers with these four-hour blocks. The research questions were: How are four-hour classes being implemented “on the field”? What are the advantages and disadvantages of this format? Does the format actually foster the implementation of active learning strategies? Discussion sessions were organized for three groups of students, one for each of the academic years of the Electrical Engineering program, with the goal of identifying the various categories of four-hour classes to which they have been exposed so far. Each group of students elected a “secretary” and were left alone to discuss for about twenty minutes, after which the Author re-entered the room and discussed with the students any issues in need of clarification. Afterwards, each of the participating students was asked to list, in writing, the three most positive and the three least positive aspects of each of the blocks’ categories identified earlier [3]. All teachers involved in the program were also asked to list, in writing, the three most positive and the three least positive aspects of teaching in four-hour blocks. The results of the discussion sessions and the lists, from both students and teachers, were qualitatively analysed to answer the research questions. The results of the investigation show that students identify four categories of classes, ranging from more traditional approaches, to very engaging active-learning organized sessions, namely: “Full lecture”, “Traditional layout”, “Tutorial-like organisation” and “Active learning sessions”. From the analysis of the results presented in the article, it is possible to hint that the four-hour format pressures teachers to engage in less traditionally organized classes. Students also value more engaging learning environments, which are fostered by this format of classes. This trend becomes more apparent for students in more advanced stages of the programme, which may reflect their greater exposure to the PBL environment and also their increased maturity. However, students also value the formal structure provided by more traditional environments, possibly a consequence of their previous learning experiences and study habits. Naturally, further research into these findings is needed in order to get a better grasp of the dynamics of four-hour blocks and their role in ESTGA’s PBL environment. The results of this study will guide that research, establishing the general lines on which to pursue further enquiries. REFERENCES [1] Oliveira, J.M, Estima de Oliveira, J.P. (2009), Project-Based Learning in Engineering: an Actual Case, Proc. of the 37th SEFI Annual Conference (CD, ISBN: 978-2-87352-001-4), Rotterdam, The Netherlands. [2] Kjersdam, F, Enemark, S. (1994), The Aalborg Experiment, project innovation in university education, The University of Aalborg Press, Aalborg. [3] Savin-Baden, M. (2000), Problem-Based Learning in Higher Education: Untold Stories, SRHE & Open University Press, Buckingham

Advances in Teaching & Learning Day Abstracts 2005

Proceedings of the Advances in Teaching & Learning Day Regional Conference held at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 2005

Using the methodology problem-based learning to teaching programming to freshman students

This work registers the initial results of a teaching strategy implemented with students entering the Algorithms discipline with a higher degree in Computing. This discipline offered to first-year students records cases of dropout and evasion. Thus, it is necessary to implement teaching strategies to provide engagement, interest, and motivation with the subjects worked on. The main objective is apply an active methodology problem-based learning in programming teaching. In this work participated 177 students in the years 2019-2 (47), 2020-1/2020-2 (83), and 2021-2 (47), enrolled in the first period of the course. The methodology adopted for the development of this study consisted of: use of questionnaires to measure prior knowledge about computing concepts; group discussion of the answers recorded in the questionnaire; development of an APP for smartphone; use of the PBL (Problem-based learning) methodology as a learning strategy. It is an activity related to the active teaching and learning methodology of problem-based learning that is being developed on the first day of class in groups of up to five students. The strategy consisted of two actions: 1) answering a questionnaire associating everyday computing elements; and 2) even though the programming concepts were not presented, the groups were challenged to develop a smartphone application. Each group received a questionnaire containing 19 questions divided into four blocks. What can be seen from the completion of this work was the enthusiasm, motivation, and engagement of the students, who, even though they were newcomers, organized themselves into groups and researched the necessary strategies to complete the challenge. When measuring the knowledge obtained through the application of a questionnaire relating to the content (with the participation of 62% of students), it was found that 81% of the participants obtained the necessary grade for approval of that content. Following the strategy of an active methodology of learning and teaching that favors the protagonism and autonomy of the student, we concluded that strategy was benefic for to the students, and the teacher acted as a guide in the teaching process, directing what should be researched to find the solution and serving as a tutor in the resolution of the problem presented. Preliminarily, part of this study was presented at the 2nd International Computer Programming Education Conference.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio