Interactive Collaborative Learning

In Austria a unique research program the so called Sparkling Science has been introduced by the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy in 2007. Within this program, a research collaboration between Technische Universitaet Wien (TU Wien) and several Austrian Federal Secondary Colleges of Engineering (in Austria called HTL) has been set up. This paper gives an overview about the achievements so far including a survey about the impact to daily engineering education.

Mind mapping approach is acknowledged as a fruitful collaborative educational technique. However, there is a lack of researches on students’ experience during learning with mind maps. Nowadays, information technologies are developed and wide spread impetuously. Thus digital mind maps become more and more popular. The process of their creation is strongly supported by different software, but little is known about this software application to educational needs. This paper aims to fill this gap. The comprehension of mind mapping approach adoption is implemented in a form of pedagogical reflection. The data for the pedagogical reflection were gained from the research, which was designed in a mixed methodology. The combination of a survey and a participant observation aimed to get collaborative data on students’ perception and estimations of mind mapping. The survey’s questionnaire was developed based on the technique’s functions and results of participant observation. The analysis highlighted that the Coggle may be confidently use as an educational software in case of supporting in-class and home collaborative activities on mind mapping. As a result, the set of recommendations for teaching with mind maps was developed. The directions for a further work are discussed.

The paper deals with the research of collaborative learning technique efficiency in communicative competence development in foreign language teaching of PhD students in technical university. The experimental group was engaged in a collective learning organizational form as dominant in educational process. Pedagogical experiment was carried out during “Academic English” language course and demonstrated a high efficiency of certain collaborating learning methods.

This article presents a return of experience of a collaborative educational approach put in place to build a new course about the test of Printed Circuits Boards (PCB). This course was dedicated to 5th year engineer apprentice students from Montpellier Polytech School. The teaching method followed the “problem-based learning” (PBL) approach, which is a student-centered pedagogy: the students learn in-group about a topic (knowledge and know-how) through the experience of solving an open-ended problem proposed by the teacher. This approach targets two types of objectives: technical with the learning of PCB test methods and educational with the learning of thinking strategies, decision-making, negotiation and collaborative work. A course evaluation form has been created, based on the F2A Louvain University one, to help the students providing classifiable feedback about this “problem based learning” approach.

In introductory math courses, especially Calculus 1, dropout rates and failure are generally high, and creating activities that increase retention and motivate students to obtain better final results is a challenge. In order to develop several competencies in our students of Software Engineering courses, Calculus I at Universidad ORT Uruguay focuses on several competencies such as: synthesis, abstraction and problem solving (based on the ACM/IEEE Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Software Engineering). Every semester we reflect on our practice and try to answer the following research question: What kind of activities can we design in Calculus 1 to retain students and obtain better results? This paper explores students’ perspectives on creating an article based on IEEE conference format related to one of the course topics and present the work in class using a poster. Preliminary results show an increase in retention and significant differences in final course results compared with two control groups. Collaborative learning activities using online editing tools encourage students to become self-learners and our role as teacher changed from being the center of the class to becoming a moderator where the principal figures are the students.

The Department of Electrical Engineering plans to run one of its basic courses, Introduction to Electrical Systems and Computation (EE 206), in Active Collaborative Learning (ACL) format. We have surveyed and examined several alternatives and flavors of running ACL, in an attempt to customize a platform that best achieves the course objectives. Issues related to team formation, team management and team assessment were debated. A survey of similar courses in other leading universities was conducted. The authors had the opportunity to test parts of the proposal in their running courses during the phase of the new course development. The feedback and lessons learned were incorporated to make adjustment and fine tuning to the proposal. The course is divided into four modules: Introducing EE fields, Project I: Research Activity, Matlab, and Project II: Robotics. In drafting the pilot course material, we did every effort to provide the fine details so that instructors feel comfortable with the approach. A complete set of documents has been developed to run the course in a productive and engaging manner.

Today’s researchers have not only the traditional publications, but the open access publishing method whereby research papers can be published via the Internet as well as print publications. Researchers must carefully scrutinize the open access publishers in order to ensure the publication is a legitimate scholarly publication.

Collaborative learning activities can raise students’ motivation and help them to achieve better results. Faced with many available tools that support these activities, teachers need to choose the most suitable one. This paper presents a criterion-based procedure for selection of a Web 2.0 tool for collaborative activities in the domain of process modeling. The procedure defined a set consisting of domain specific criteria and general criteria important for assessing Web 2.0 tools for any application domain. The importance of each attribute included in the criteria is expressed numerically using weights. The established criteria are applied to nine Web 2.0 tools intended for diagramming in order to select a tool that will be used for process modeling education as part of the e-learning environment consisting of Moodle LMS and the educational recommender system ELARS.

Nowadays, to participate in a team activity or to collaborate with somebody does not require a physical presence. Virtual settings connect individuals across space and time; allow their real-time communication and collaboration across the globe. It allows formation of virtual teams enabled by the information and communication technology (ICT). Such teams accomplish various functions in work, education and private life. Compared to local teams of physically present individuals, the collaboration in virtual environments requires intensive motivation of the team members, extensive support by their team leader and appropriate technology.At the same time, no ICT tool is equally suitable for each and every activity. This paper aims to provide analysis of various ICT tools, to disclose their potential to contribute to team’s quality communication and to reduce drawbacks caused by impersonal environment. Our aim is to optimize the composition of the ICT supporting infrastructure in order to form successful and effective collaboration.

In order to make the assignments in our Web-design course more attractive for students, the educational strategies of peer assessment and team-based learning were employed. Students worked in teams on a whole-semester lasting assignment – a web application (project) based on their own designs. The project implementation was divided into three phases. After each phase all teams were supposed to submit their work for peer reviewing by other teams. Moreover, students peer-assessed also their team-mates contributions. Following this, each student’s score in every particular phase was counted based on her team project evaluation and also the peer assessment she received.The focus of this paper is on students’ acceptance of these innovative peer assessment methods as well as on students’ opinions about their possible benefits and usefulness.

The main objective of this paper is to provide a better understanding of the online tutor’s role in establishing and maintaining the feeling of social presence among the participants in asynchronous text-based collaborative learning environments. The context of the study is a distributed online course involving groups of participants who do not have a shared history of working together. The data were collected from a student survey and follow-up interviews. The study shows how the online tutor’s facilitation in such environments is crucial, and several practical implications for online tutors are presented. In addition, complementing the asynchronous text-based learning platform with synchronous tutor-facilitated meetings is beneficial for learners in terms of building common ground, receiving instant feedback from the tutor and engaging in more off-task interactions.

Risk-management training in the operating room (OR) can be achieved by involving learners in a simulated risky situation. The task is particularly complex because most of the time, the causes of an accident or an adverse event imply a large variety of contributing factors that are (i) difficult to combine artificially and (ii) even harder to detect and evaluate in a dynamic training context. This paper describes a model for specifying pedagogical objectives that has been integrated and used in a 3D virtual operating room project designed to train medical staff on risk management, particularly risks linked to communication default. Training sessions organized with trainers, student-anesthetist-nurses, student-operating-nurse and student-anesthetists show how teamwork efficiency in critical situations may be evaluated in a collaborative environment.

Study Islands are a setting for collaborative learning and guided self-study at a university. Success factors are identified, leading to a multi-dimensional approach: A conceptual understanding in regard to space and time, competences of the staff, and interaction between students and staff is introduced. Stake holders in the guided learning process – students, tutors, and academic staff – and their goals are identified. Developing an understanding of students’ motivation to attend opens up possibilities to encourage student participation. Experiences from two study islands show that established place and time as well as face-to-face interaction between students and staff play a major role in founding a stable relationship and forming a basis for students’ success.

The System Usability Scale (SUS) has become an industry standard where survey participants are asked to rate ten predefined questions on the scale range of strongly agree to strongly disagree. CIRCLE (Classification, Identification, Retrieval-based Collaborative Learning Environment) is software which lets students learn and gain real time knowledge about classifying objects like plants and animals or rocks and minerals. This paper compares the results obtained by SUS surveys done on CIRCLE in its early and later versions.

The analysis of students behaviour in web learning environment within distance learning is one of the most significant areas for learning optimization. The aim of this article is to analyse student’s behaviour and the use of e-learning course in subject Discrete Mathematics. Data and results of this analysis are important for further adjustment and improvement of the e-course. Results of the course traffic analysis were estimated using association rules Discrete mathematics is compulsory for both bachelor and master study program Applied Informatics in full-time and distance form of study as well as bachelor and master study program Teaching of academic subjects in full-time and distance form of study. This electronic course is designed to use linear and branched teaching programs. In compiling the course we tried to take into consideration target audience - students of Computer Science. The course is designed to not require any special knowledge in IT field. Discrete Mathematics Course 1 consists of 10 thematic units (areas) replicating the length of the semester in weeks. Authors describe detail analysis of student’s behaviour which is made of data taken from LMS MOODLE database. We used specific types of data, which are indicating user traffic on every single page of the course. We used a log file that contains records of e-learning course with 107 students. To identify sessions, we used the STT (Session Timeout Threshold). Purpose of session identification is to divide access of all users into separate sessions (relations). Session side-effect may exclude users who are behind a NAT or proxy device. So we can identify users who are sharing a single computer, for example in a library. Students who used the e-course of Discrete Mathematics 1 were more successful in the final examination. The fact that the course is effective does not mean that all activities have been fully utilized. Based on the results of our analysis, we can optimize and improve the e-course and bring it closer to the student’s needs. After implementation of necessary changes we can evaluate impact of these changes in the efficacy of the course.

When there is interaction within online learning groups, meaningful learning is achieved. Motivating and sustaining effective student interactions requires planning, coordination and implementation of curriculum, pedagogy and technology. For our aim to understand online learning group processes in order to identify effective online learning group mechanisms, comparative analysis was used on a massive open online course (MOOC) run in 2015 and 2016. Qualitative (interaction on the platform) and quantitative (survey) methods were used. The analysis revealed several possible ways to improve group processes. In particular, this paper concludes that course organization helped in increasing individual participation in the groups. Motivation by peers helped to increase sustainability of interaction in the learning groups. Applying these mechanisms in higher education can make online learning groups more effective.

This paper presents the design of a novel course in mechatronics, based on a project-based learning pedagogical philosophy that uses music as the theme to introduce to a diverse range of learners, the essential concepts of mechatronic practice. The course is designed at a post-graduate level and is targeted at international students who are likely to have a diverse range of background knowledge and potentially even a greater diversity in practical experience. The course builds upon our knowledge and capability in the construction or instrumentation of musical devices and cumulates in the construction of a new mechatronic chordophone and the preparation of an IEEE conference paper submission.

Defining an integrated project for freshmen students in software engineering was a challenge but we were able to define one that includes the following disciplines: (1) Programming, (2) Multimedia, (3) English, (4) Embedded System and (5) Mathematics. The project respects also the Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate steps with professionals and parents participation. Despite the good results, we faced several other challenges, especially with teams problems and how to make a proper assessment.

College students often express concern regarding the impact of fossil fuels on the environment. Studying bio-fuels allows students to learn about both the fundamental principles of their discipline and broader issues such as understanding the impact of technology in a global, economic, environmental, and societal context. Further, students are motivated by competition. University engineering challenges can be used to intrinsically motivate these students. This paper describes the benefits and challenges for the students and University in participating in the SAE Clean Snowmobile Collegiate Design Series competition.

This paper reports the design and development process of an artistic robot by a team of five engineering and design students from Belgian, Finland, Poland, Romania and Scotland. To contribute to this goal, the team designed and assembled GraphBot, a voice commanded drawing robot prototype, following the EPS@ISEP process. In addition, the team specified their target as young children and, in particular girls, and stated that their motivation was to introduce young generations to the world of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). In terms of outcomes, this project is expected to go beyond the boundaries of the traditional development of scientific and technical competences, by providing the students with a holistic learning experience, fostering also the development of personal and inter-personal skills within a multidisciplinary and multicultural teamwork set-up.

This paper presents the development of Bubbles, a didactic robotic fish created within the scope of the European Project Semester offered by the School of Engineering of the Polytechnic of Porto. The robotic toy is intended to provide children with an appropriate set up to learn programming and become acquainted with technology. Consequently, Bubbles needs to appeal to young children and successfully blend fun with learning. The developer team, composed of five engineering students from different fields and nationalities, conducted multiple research and discussions to design Bubbles, while keeping the fish movements and programming simple. The fish body was created with a colourful appearance, ensuring floatability, waterproofness and including a tail, inspired on real life fish, for locomotion and to retain a fish-like appearance. Finally, the team designed a website where they share, in different languages, the blue-prints of the structure, the schematics of the control system, the list of material, including electronic components, the user assembly and operation manual as well as propose exploring activities.

In this paper a new concept for engineering education is being presented. It is the result of a study which consists of two parts and has the goal to create an innovative learning environment which increases the motivation and supports the development of competences of the students through job relevant, practical tasks. The first part of the study comprises a redesign of a laboratory session, which is part of a Thermodynamics module. Thermodynamics is one of the core modules of mechanical and energy engineering degrees, dealing with very abstract concepts. To bridge the gap between theory and practical application a real-life problem should be integrated into the module. To do so, a laboratory session has been redesigned using a problem-based approach. In order to evaluate the new approach a longitudinal study was carried out at three different points in time. The results of this part of the study have been used in the second part of the study which is conducted as design-based research. This paper describes the first phase of the design-based research process resulting in the development of a prototype design for the new learning environment. In this design the university building is integrated in the education by creating an engineering consultancy where the students are the project engineers analyzing the energy supply system of the university building to identify energy saving measures. With this prototype design realistic tasks can be integrated in the education and competence development is being supported. The approach is a chance for future engineering education for sustainable energy use and helps to modernize engineering education.

The main aim of this work is to develop the skills of our graduate students in creation and management of industrial projects from Research development laboratory work to the industrialization at pilot scale in bioprocess production. In this study, we initiate interdisciplinary project with students in three different specializations: research and application, process engineering and quality (30 students). The project subject is the production and industrialization of recombinant proteins.

The Austrian federal working group “Entrepreneurship for Engineers” established a certification concept for Higher Technical Colleges. School sites as well as students may obtain a certificate, awarded by IGIP, if they confirm the activities and the commitment towards Entrepreneurship Education.

The role of project based learning in creating a modern education system is explored, making use of the Junior Achievement – Young Enterprise methodology as a case study. Through the ‘Company Programme’, students start up and run their own business over an academic year, developing skills for employment and entrepreneurship.

Academic readiness represents a certain level of behavior patterns every student needs to master in order to succeed in a credit-bearing education cycle of a postsecondary institution. To improve academic readiness of the first-year students should be one of the most important tasks for university teachers in preparatory phase of study cycle. Our survey brings the interview data on opinions of university staff and mature-age graduates from the bachelor program Specialization in Pedagogy suggesting some improvements on the topic.

This paper uses a Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (FDA) framework to examine the first-year engineering teaching and learning environment. Specifically it investigates perceptions and actions relating to the concept of ownership inside the construction of the learning and teaching space by examining interviews of lecturers and supporting related government and university policy material. In doing so this paper reveals the operation of power and its complex effects in higher education. Importantly, by doing this, it shifts the domain of investigation beyond that of the student to the context the student finds themselves in.

Formation of a creative personality able to self-development, self-education, and innovative activity is the main objective of graduate education. In this regard, a special attention should be paid to the organization of independent work of students in a university educational process management. One of the most recognized types of independent work of students is a functional conspectus. “Fishbone” technology (a type of functional conspectus) is a method of cause-effect relationships structural analysis, which allows developing students’ skills to work with information and their ability to formulate and to solve the problems. This paper deals with the application of this technology to the practical work on higher mathematics in order to increase the efficiency of the organization of independent work of students. Thus we have two objectives: first, to test the effectiveness of “Fishbone” technology in the organization of independent work, and second, to explore the possibility of using this technology in the higher mathematics university course. Comparative analysis of the test results of students who were trained with “Fishbone” technology application and without it demonstrates that its use can significantly increase the level of new information assimilation (in 19.8438%). Therefore, in future work we plan to consider applying other types of functional conspectus, such as insert, text markings, clusters, conceptual table and Bloom’s chamomile to the course of higher mathematics in order to compare their efficiency in the organization of independent work of students and identify the most productive of them.

In this paper we present our first steps in defining the type, scope and relevance of writing in higher education of software engineering. We aim to identify lacks of scientific research and raise a new and necessary research interest to push research in this area. First we clarify the relevance of writing in higher education in general. In a second step we highlight the relevance of writing in the domain of software engineering in particular. Soft skills to be taught to students of engineering professions and especially to software engineering students are highly discussed. We discuss the skill of writing from a theoretical view as well as reasons for the high relevance of this skill for future engineers. An obligation of teaching writing in the higher education is formulated.

Jigsaw is an active learning technique that consists in dividing a learning material into partial tasks, and each partial task is assigned to one member of a jigsaw team. Each student has to complete the assigned partial task and has to compare the results obtained with students of other groups that made the same partial task. Finally, one of these partial tasks, which eventually will end up integrated by all of the jigsaw team members. Although Jigsaw was originally designed for non-university students, the systematic literature review presented in this paper aims to summarize the experiences reported in 19 selected papers that show the application of the jigsaw technique in engineering and computing programs (undergraduate or graduate). Our findings suggest jigsaw technique can be applied in engineering and computing programs with good results.

This paper focuses on the current research work done within the Pro-Skima project (2015–2018) which aims at providing a suitable method to evolve classical Information Technology Master graduate levels towards some teaching contents and a pedagogical organisation more adapted to the competency needs of local employers and Qatar Society in the field of new technologies. A first important step of the project is to define a method for building a competency framework for the Master curriculum. The aim of this paper is related to the first step of the project, i.e. to examine critically different possible methods that can be used for designing such competency framework and analyse what can be a realistic approach considering local specificities of Qatar University, characteristics of the technical field (IT) and possible partnerships with some surrounding companies.

The field of Learning Analytics (LA) focuses on the collection, measure and analysis of data about learners and their contexts. LA benefits from tools that are normally rooted in probabilistic/frequency-based approaches, which are themselves incapable of capturing the meaning of texts at any level because probabilities do not constitute a natural language semantics. As alternatives to these approaches, Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques allow the integration of semantic aspects into the analysis. In this study, we aim to evaluate the coverage of the syllabus vocabulary in students’ documents using a method based on linguistic and cognitive knowledge. Our analysis is conducted using an asymmetric coverage hybrid measure, which combines semantic and lexical information with cognitive principles to determine how syllabus concepts are covered in students’ documents. To determine whether the concepts of a book are covered by the paragraphs in the students’ documents, we implemented a paragraph-to-document alignment strategy. This approach distinguishes between stronger and weaker productions by measuring the degree of concepts coverage between students’ papers and multiple sections of the syllabus.

This article focuses on innovation processes in the additional professional education of engineering staff based on contemporary government education policy, updated technologies of training and interdisciplinary approaches. Kazan National Research Technological University (KNRTU) experience on the development of advanced training programs has been offered as a positive model in cooperation with partners.

A philosophy glossary says that quality is an attribute or a property. According our common sense, usually we speak about better or worth quality. In both cases, the quality depends on either subjective feelings or objective facts and on the criteria being applied to. We discuss in this paper the term “quality of education” and critically compare different definitions of this specific term. We consider education as a universal public good, entity, determined quality in the philosophical sense. However, the term “quality of education” suppose comparison and assessment or measurement of value and management of quality. Often the quality of study programmes is in use instead of that. Then the theory of total quality management helps to improve quality. Known that assurance is its important part.

The goal of the given study was to develop, justify and test pedagogical conditions for effective formation of socio-psychological readiness for academic mobility (SPRAM) of engineering students. SPRAM of engineering students is studied as an integrative personal characteristics that includes stable motivation; psychological knowledge and skills; self-regulation and self-management mechanisms; need for application of the acquired knowledge of technologies and methods; professional competences and language proficiency; abilities for independent performance, planning and effective implementation in the academic and working environment; capability to communicate successfully, resolve social situations and choose relevant communicational strategies.The findings of the study allow concluding that the suggested pedagogical conditions for SPRAM development are efficient and helpful for the training of global engineers. The findings show that the engineering students’ SPRAM considerably improved when the suggested model was implemented.

The active learning principle implies a responsibility of all participants in education process, not only for the training but also for the process of identifying and developing the content, methods and techniques. It is also increasingly demanding of the personal qualities of teachers and trainers. A study was conducted to identify the perceptions and attitudes of three groups participating in the educational process: graduate students, PhD students (intending to become teachers and trainers) and teachers at the Polytechnic University. There were differences in the perceptions of the above groups of what professional and personal qualities of a successful teacher in a technical university should be. The cognitive and functional components of the pedagogical competence are more important for the technical university teachers, whereas the graduate students consider emotional and behavioral components of the pedagogical competence to be more significant. Graduate students and PhD students believe the interactive forms of the educational process to be most effective, whereas the technical university teachers prefer the traditional forms of teaching. The most important professional qualities of a successful technical university teacher include the following: a profound knowledge of the subject, a teachable presentation, an enthusiasm for the subject and the ability to inspire the students for their profession. Such personal qualities as sociability, friendliness, fairness, sense of humor, and sensitivity were the most frequently mentioned ones.

Certainly apprehensive with how things go in academia concerning engineering project education we observed and analysed different learning settings, either in engineering schools and companies, by discussing with different actors (academic community, teachers, pedagogical and scientific board elements, students). We exercised some alternative approaches to distinct learning paradigms, and we concluded for simple general recommendations that can be placed in practice in academia and companies, in engineering project contexts. The goal of our research is to make explicit a specific paradigm, an integrated way of looking into engineering practice and engineering learning, mainly in engineering projects context. Internalizing lessons from this alternative paradigm we deploy a way of doing in class that can be explored as active learning and project-based learning. The main advantage of our proposed approach is that learning occurs by doing and, we would say more importantly, learning occurs almost as a sub-product of doing. And in fact there are mix goals in our approach. One is performing, and obtaining results in engineering project design and development, the second one is a by-product and it is learning, enriching its own dynamic capabilities, and internalizing tacit and explicit knowledge about the work experienced. Of course the effectiveness of this model resides in the alignment of the two goals, which implies mature stuff and mature students almost about taking their master degree.

The idea to divide the curriculum for entrepreneurial education in modules, leads to the advantage that the programme consists of four modules and they can treated as separate subjects. Breaking away from the traditional teaching methods, the pedagogical tools get more and more interactive, self-learning and experimental. The didactic approach divides the content elements in three categories: (i) face-to-face instructions, (ii) independent learning and (iii) practical learning. The approach of active learning results in technicians, which are aware of the entrepreneurial spirit. They are fit to do all the economic and innovative engineering steps to evolve the product idea to a real, merchantable product. Through evaluation the success of the curriculum is verified and the basic element for quality assurance and further development.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and analyze results of the research carried out at Estonian Centre for Engineering Pedagogy at Tallinn University of Technology (TUT). Micro-lessons of 260 technical teachers teaching at vocational schools, gymnasiums and universities have been analyzed with special matrix for lesson analysis. The research has been carried out in 4 groups: (1) STEM teaching at vocational schools, (2) STEM teaching at gymnasiums (high schools), (3) STEM teaching at universities (including colleges and universities of applied higher education), and (4) STEM continuing education in engineering companies. Most common teaching models, strategies and methods enabling deep understanding and interactive learning used in STEM teaching by technical teachers who have graduated from TUT either on master level or in continuing education have been determined and analyzed in the present article.

In this paper, the author elaborates about several examples of the multidisciplinary projects on which he was involved throughout his five years as Integrated Master’s student in Mechanical Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of University of Porto. This self-reflection aims to explain how these projects contributed to enrich, not only his technological and scientific knowledge, but also on how they have influenced his methodology as a student and how it lead to the research environment. The author would like to highlight that the multidisciplinarity of the course fed his motivation to learn and allowed him to established multiple connections between different topics such as mechanics, informatics and electronics.

Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) makes a significant contribution to economic competitiveness and welfare in a global knowledge-based economy. The main challenge for vocational education and training is to meet the changing skills needs of individuals and the world of work in accordance with the principle of lifelong learning. Authors introduces the project “Model for improving the quality of graduates and job applicants in the European labour market” elaborated and submitted by the two Slovak institutions of higher education - Dubnica Institute of Technology in Dubnica nad Váhom and the University of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, Slovakia. The paper presents research results of the Slovak National Project supported by the Slovak National Grant Agency KEGA. Below, we are focussing mainly on evaluation of methodology for improving professional language competences of students of secondary technical and vocational schools through the so called “Project Semester”.

Robotics in education is considered as a powerful tool for motivating and training students. Thanks to its multidisciplinary character, it allows for the development of the contents of a multitude of materials, mainly those related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). This has been demonstrated in many studies and experiences that have been developed around the world over recent years. However, despite the undoubted benefits and the various initiatives, many educational communities have serious difficulties implementing this tool in the development of their curriculums. The purpose of this article is to present Ciberlandia, a real learning experience that responds to these difficulties and helps to extensively promote careers in scientific and technological disciplines for youngsters. This initiative has celebrated 4 editions and has involved 2,480 participants from 53 primary and secondary schools in The Canary Islands.

A discovery adventure! This is the program that has been developed by the Education Research Team of COPEC – Science and Education Research Council – a K12 School program for a city, with the goal of providing better and effective knowledge for young students, especially those who do not think about to enter a University. The main goal is to encourage more bright young minds to pursue careers in engineering or technology, by providing K12 students, from public schools of a municipality, knowledge about science and research methodology in a way that it will remain as a life practice. It fits into the counties’ necessity to improve competitiveness in technology growth, which has implications in workforce development, as well as in science and technology development. The main characteristic of this project is the possibility to apply new and innovative approaches, which provide teenagers students the ability to develop concepts and theories to solve and understand scientific and nonscientific problems and, consequently, find solutions for those problems.

The greatest challenge of teachers today is to capture the attention of their audience in regard to the content being taught and avoid that they do other things during the classes; like using smart phones and social networks. Indeed, learners have different capacities of listening and the speed with which they approach tasks is not the same. That is why the learning methods are still getting improved in order to meet different learning capacities and ways to receive the information. On one hand, the learning strategies must meet the social, economic, technological, and cultural development. Then, the teacher should know how to make learners acquire information and transform it into knowledge. In this sense, the learning processes should be inspirational and revolutionary. On the other hand, it has been proven that classical courses where learners receive an extensive amount of information from the teacher is less efficient than the interactive way of teaching, where the learner takes part in the course and interacts with their fellow students and teacher. When the learner participates, discusses, and manipulates the information, the brain is more capable of long term memorization.In this study, we suggest to work on the original learning method, based on theatre techniques and competition spirit, to improve students’ outcomes in the management and technical domains in our private institute ESPRIT. The simulation results of this approach show that it is of a paramount importance.

Despite the importance of competencies in computer science for participation in the digital transformation of nearly all sectors, there is still a lack of learning material and technically experienced teachers in German schools. In the paper at hand, we investigate the potential of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) for secondary education. Schools can profit from this learning content and format provided by well-known institutions. However, German schools provide some challenging conditions, which have to be taken into account for a meaningful integration of e-learning elements. Our statistical and qualitative results are based on the representative data of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), the learning data of more than 100,000 online learners from over 150 countries, and the outcomes of several workshops with teachers and school administrators.

Been applied as successful motivation and preparation for technical studies and future engineering professions, innovations in general mathematics and natural sciences education with orientation to inquiry based learning (IBL) and its connection to the world of work (WoW) are described and discussed in the paper. This topic is worked out within the 7th Framework Programme of EU Mascil (Mathematics and Science in Life) project. Its main objective is (1) to develop complex tasks for teaching and learning practice in mathematics and natural sciences highlighting the world of work and (2) to provide teachers the methodology courses to increase their professional skills. The project feedback from the Czech teacher’s environment is mostly positive, which provides chance to attract not only traditionally motivated teachers but also those expecting any outer motivation incentive.

The present study focuses on the educational value of lab work while teaching and learning Physics. Specifically, it investigates and compares the learning outcomes between three different experimental groups, in the study of the Simple Gravity Pendulum in the lower secondary school, using a sample of 61 students aged 14–15. The first group comprising 25 students practiced first on virtual and then on real lab, while the second group of 24, first on real and then on virtual lab (change of order in the tasks). An additional third group, involving 12 students, used sensors and data loggers during experimental practice. The educationally optimum order of use of such labs is investigated herein. The learners exploited the capabilities of the lab equipment, in that they themselves designed, constructed, and analysed the simple gravity pendulum. The focus in the teaching and learning of the pendulum was on examining subject relevance in the context of everyday applications, the independency of the period from the mass of the bob, or the amplitude, and the dependence of the period from the pendulum length, and the local acceleration of gravity. The research tools used were a stabilised questionnaire, with 16 closed-type questions and 7 questions asking for a justifying answer, in addition to a semi-structured interview. Data were taken and were appropriately analysed and compared, and conclusions are presented herein. The results confirmed that concerning some teaching objectives, learners’ understanding is positively affected by the order the real and the virtual labs are used in teaching. This result applies when addressing this age-group, and when teaching the simple gravity pendulum.

The lack of high quality engineering professionals are widely spread problem. Formation of such specialist should start from the very early stages of education with involvement of children and youth into scientific and engineering creativity. Tomsk Regional Children Non-Governmental Organization “Hobby-center” has developed a model of network interaction for increasing efficiency of this processes. The model was approbated in small number of Tomsk schools and one university, then scaled to involve most of Tomsk educational institutions. it is being replicating in other regions of Russian Federation in frameworks of program “Center of professional competences for involvement of children and youth into scientific and engineering creativity”.

The study is designed to gauge the forms, frequency and variety of electronic cheating of technical university students, and their attitudes toward various behaviors when taking an examination, as well as teacher attitudes toward cheating as perceived by students. The results are based on two samples - 102 engineering students and 98 engineering pedagogy students indicate that respondents felt quite liberal in their views of potential cheating when there were no effective preventive methods of course teachers. Attitudes toward cheating depended on what students saw and heard, on their personal qualities, teacher personality and policies enacted by institutional culture related to academic integrity.

Student honesty is a universal issue, however the reasons behind dishonest behaviour are complex and varied. This work in progress presents the development of a culturally focussed, online learning course designed to make students aware of issues surrounding academic integrity. This system has been designed to operate in a Muslim education environment, and attempts to take into account the specific needs, pressures and motivations of the students in this culture. A main, theme centres on the context of how personal academic integrity relates to being a good Muslim in an educational environment. This system is implemented on the university’s learning management system and will be completed as part of a mandatory first year English course.

A survey on media usage was conducted at Western University, followed by similar surveys in Germany, Spain and Thailand. It seems that the usage of IT-devices is more popular in Thailand and Germany than in Canada. The use of social network related applications in academia seems to be more common in Thailand compared to Canada and Germany. The competitiveness of the Internet-based market of academic education might be more intensive in Canada because of the proximity of the U.S. market. An international comparison is, nevertheless, problematic, because the circumstances are really diverse and in constant change. Future plans involve conducting a comparative global media survey in the area of higher education.

Youngster’s Science Festival in Chitose was started 10 years agok, and since then, this science event has been held once a year. Its original and main objective is laid in providing children in local community with opportunities for triggering their interests in various fields of natural science and technology through experiment demonstrations. In its early years, majority of demonstrators were active and retired teachers from elementary to ternary schools and educational institutes as well as university and high school students. Some people from industrial sectors also joined to serve as demonstrators explaining some technologies related to their corporate activities. The number of such participants from industry has been recently increasing. Moreover, scopes of the demonstrations have been expanded over the years so as to include certain fields in social sciences. For such fields, local residents who are voluntarily involved in lifelong educational activities have become main demonstrators who explain their achievements. Now, Youngster’s Science Festival in Chitose has become a successful science event in the local community which has been served as appropriate opportunities, not only for providing children with triggering opportunities for getting familiar with STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields, but also for allowing wider generations from parents to grandparent ages to enjoy lifelong educational activities. In order to enhance advantages obtainable through the event, establishment of collaborations among various sectors in the local community is very important.

This paper presents the first step of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia new strategy to reduce early school leaving. The project will develop along a three-year period and school drop-out will be dealt with from various angles. The objectives are to improve students basic skills, to enlarge school offer by introducing Didactic Laboratories by means of the organization of extracurricular activities based on innovative technologies and to offer psychological support to students (lines A, B and C). In this paper we shall concentrate on Line B. The seven laboratories developed for Line B were conceived to take advantage of student’s interest for technology and to increase their motivation to stay at school and reduce school disaffection, building at the same time a bridge between participating schools and the Sardinian economic actors.

During the current millennium, engineering education has confronted an emerging problem with learning. Driving forces have mainly been economical, since financial pressure and effort for increasing efficiency have given rise to growing amount of accessed and graduated students. Consequently, in the lack of time and financial resources, universities have had a tendency to decrease the emphasis on thorough and time-consuming learning of fundamentals. As a result, so called immediate skills have gained excessive role in comparison with long-term skills in engineering education. According to a generally accepted view, students learn to carry out engineering tasks quite well, but they do not necessarily learn to think. Recently, a study carried out at MIT ended up to call for “coherent and interconnected curriculum structure” to achieve excellence in engineering education. We suggest that by utilizing the hierarchical structure of natural sciences in engineering education, such a coherent and interconnected structure can be created. In this paper, we show how the method of cornerstones is implemented to clarify engineering substance and to promote higher learning. By making cornerstone-based structure visible to students, we aim to clarify and harmonize the substance and to promote both immediate and long-term engineering skills.

During recent years, Russian universities have demonstrated intention to get integrated into international education and research. One of such universities is National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University (hereafter TPU). Achievement of this goal requires a perfect level of English proficiency among TPU academic staff. This fact gave birth to a new direction in the work of TPU EFL teachers – searching for ways of improving English proficiency among TPU academics. A research devoted to this problem is being conducted in TPU. Before starting the main study, a group of researchers initiated a pilot survey to get an overall state of the problem. So, the paper involves literature review, deals with the results of the pilot survey covering TPU academics’ perceptions on language learning. Along with that, conclusions are formulated and further steps are outlined.

As latest knowledge and skills are required from technical and engineering graduates, innovations made in curricula at the FIM UHK are briefly introduced. Moreover, students’ visit rate to online courses supporting the subjects was monitored and correlated to evaluation of their final knowledge in three selected subjects. The results show that statistically significant correlation was detected in Enterprise Informatics I. Numerous practical activities are included in the learning content of this subject, students conduct them online, and this fact increases the visit rate to the online course.

The industry expressed expectations about future electromechanical engineers to recruit have greatly evolved in recent years. Now it is no longer to recruit an engineer who has theoretical knowledge-intensive and sit in a comfortable office, but rather to recruit an operational engineer very quickly and above all who will go on the field whenever there is a need to deal with all types of dysfunctions. This profile therefore requires expertise with strong practical components (technical and managerial knowledge). To meet this need, the classic approach widely applied in engineering schools is to book last semester courses in a graduation project (or internship) in which each student will process a concrete industrial problem within a business. Hence the importance of the end of study project in the course of an engineer. Now we notice, in recent years, deterioration in the quality of its graduation project either in substance or form. In this paper, we propose an approach that is simple, free and effective. Indeed, for a given module that processes multiple parts, it is to proceed in two steps. Firstly, we teach a given part by giving the essential theory and foundations. Secondly, we invite a recently graduated engineer (from our school) who has successfully validated its industrial project. This engineer will present during a session their main skills during the course related to that particular part of the module. Through this article, we show that this approach allows, among other things, to improve learning outcomes through: knowledge of the industrial’s reality, the removal of purely theoretical notions in favor of targeted practical knowledge and improving the quality of graduation project reports (content and form).

A bachelor’s program in industrial engineering is being developed in order to meet regional industry’s needs and students’ interests. Collaborative aspects of the conception phase are reported in this paper. The new study program is meant to be attractive for technicians going into management, business administrators in technological companies, and high potentials with vocational training. Stakeholders were involved in the development process. In order to determine companies’ requirements for such a program in industrial engineering, an online survey was conducted. The results are reported and were used, together with the other information, to put forward a curriculum that was adapted in several workshops. Competencies were grouped in three fields: engineering, business, and general competencies. Taking into account stakeholders’ views lead to a program that corresponds to the target group and their experience.

This article is focused on development of the academic staff competencies that contribute to the university internationalization. A list of the competencies is defined, including mastering English for professional purposes in order to deliver academic courses and to conduct R&D in English; ability to develop educational programs in coherence with international standards; ability to create a bilingual intercultural academic environment; ability to adopt world best practices in teaching and investigations, etc. The complex of academic staff training programs delivered at National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University and aimed at the university internationalization is presented. The focus is made on English language proficiency development.