Teaching and Learning in a Digital World

There are many necessities that need to be improved in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education. The robotics represents a promising educational tool. Nowadays, robotic education tools arise with the aim of promoting the innovation and the motivation of the students during the learning process. Robots are becoming more common in our daily life; thus, it is important to integrate robots at all levels of our society. The aim of this paper is to present the use of Scratch - a widely-used tool - in order to guide educational robotics as the first step in introducing students into robotics. The robotics requires several skills such as systems thinking, programming mindset, active learning, mathematics, science, judgement and decision making, good communication, technology design, complex problem solving and persistence. These skills can be easily developed using Scratch. The obtained outcomes from the educational robotic course demonstrate how children without previous experience in programming or robotics can start learning both through experiences in the classroom. The result of this work shows that it is better to make very easy challenges, to adapt the difficulty to each of the children. Furthermore, it is necessary to develop previous concepts. Moreover, it is necessary to work the design, instead of programming directly. Additionally, it is important to combine theory and practice with the aim of including fun tasks intertwined with the challenges that are posed to apply theory in problem solving.

In classroom lectures with huge groups it is still time consuming for students to follow the teacher and accumulate all the information given on various media. Scripts provided in advance may support the learning and understanding process, however, this is – for various reasons - in many cases not done or done too short before the start of the lesson. So far we provided eLectures which contained the slides and the voice of the teacher. They were produced on an individual basis causing a lot of efforts. On our new Medical Campus we decided to provide a fully automated lecture recording system which is easy to operate by the teachers and provides a maximum of flexibility for the students. We introduce a concept and the implementation of this recording system which enables students to receive to full HD streams of the PC output and the whiteboard, which can be scaled to their individual needs.

Universities are making great efforts in order to improve their rates in terms of internationalization. With the rise of international mobility, among students, new challenges are emerging on the high education system. In this sense, this paper aims to show some key strategies in terms of teaching methodologies that Universities should follow forward to a better internationalization performance. It is based on the case of University of Beira Interior in Portugal, in a multidisciplinary approach, which involves scholars from the Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, and from the Department of Mathematics, teaching at the Civil Engineering studies. The main research questions of this paper are the following: are the currently used teaching methodologies prepared to accommodate international students who have different standards of proficiency whether in terms of language or in basic knowledge of mathematics? Which are the challenges of high education system, in order to improve the performance of international students, engaging them as part of a collaborative learning approach? The conclusions show that there is the need of following new teaching methodologies in a more collaborative approach, in order to promote the integration of international students.

This paper proposes an active learning approach for study of DC transients in series circuits. Students, divided into small groups, are advised to simulate various circuits using MATLAB and study the waveforms and construct the equations characterizing them. This method helps in concept development through collaborative learning.

In comparison with the traditional learning, the CSCL (Computer Supported Collaborative Learning) represents a combination of didactics and informatics approaches. This requires researchers to solve an additional design of specific educational software and suitable ICT infrastructure as was presented at previous ICL Conferences by the authors. This contribution describes a continuous progress under the umbrella of the research on technology-enhanced learning; and how the ICT integration is modelled for the collaborative writing and activities when using an educational beta-software BIKE(E)/WPad. The practical experiences are demonstrated with some examples of how the WPad is applied to the CSCL issues, in off-line mode or shared virtual space.

Supplementary Instruction, also known as Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS), is a popular program supporting the educational development of students in a collaborative setting. Flexibility of delivery has been explored for a number of reasons including: work and family commitments; distance from campus; and integrating regional and transnational satellite campuses. Previous studies have found attempts to undertake online delivery of PASS lacking in student interest and have been restrained by the technology. This study attempts to build upon this research by investigating student interest and the suitability of using a mixed reality technology called iSee, based on video avatars within a 3D virtual world. Consistent with previous studies student interest was low, converting a planned quasi-experimental study into a simulation. The simulation suggests that the technology was suitable for online collaboration, with effective communication of course content between participants and a good sense of presence. This suggests this trial may gain greater student interest if undertaken within institutions offering predominantly online, distance education.

The Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) field is based on social learning theories which offer that knowledge is constructed through learners’ interaction, knowledge sharing, and knowledge building as a community. Knowledge Building Theory presents a conceptual framework that allows researchers to investigate the social character of learning and its application with corresponding methods of CSCL area. This case study mainly aims to reveal learners’ knowledge building process located in time-stamped logs of a VMT environment that covers chat, shared whiteboard, and wiki functions. The study was conducted in the setting of a graduate level course in a state university in Turkey. In order to examine learners’ knowledge construction process in the VMT system, their verbal interaction related to course assignments were considered. Sentences of messages were applied as the unit of analysis and inspected them based on Progressive Knowledge Building Inquiry cycle (Hakkarainen 2003; White and Frederiksen 1998), which begins with a trigger activity and covers of four main stages; (a) idea generation, (b) idea connection, (c) idea improvement, and (d) rise above. In addition, we applied content analysis method to analyze learners’ submissions to wiki environment.

This article reports on a study done to improve interaction among distance learners offering the blended Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) programme at Makerere University. The study attempts to answer the question: How can a Learning Management System be used to improve learner interaction on the blended B.Ed. programme at Makerere University? The study adopted the Affordance eLearning Design Framework. This study was done among 54 students studying a Policy Planning and Implementation course on the B.Ed. programme. The study employed qualitative approaches to data collection and analysis. These included semi-structured interviews and observation of the interaction logs within the groups and open forums. The results revealed that LMS affordances coupled with well-structured activities increased interaction among learners. Other factors that accelerated interaction and participation included grading of contributions and regular tutor presence. In conclusion, technology alone cannot bring about interaction among students; the way the activity is structured should be emphasized for interaction.

The importance of entrepreneurship education from elementary school through college is now recognized as an important aspect of children’s education. At the level of basic education, the development of entrepreneurial activities using Information and Communication Technologies, specifically three-dimensional virtual worlds, is seen as an area with potential for exploration.The research presented herein is a model that allows the development of entrepreneurial activities in virtual worlds with children attending primary education. This model allows the preparation, monitoring and development of entrepreneurship education activities in virtual worlds, including safe interaction in virtual worlds between the children and the community. For this, we identified a set of requirements that would allow the teaching and learning of entrepreneurship in virtual worlds, from which a technological model was implemented through an application, EMVKids (after the Portuguese expression “Empreendedorismo em Mundos Virtuais com Crianças”, entrepreneurship with children in virtual worlds).

Teaching and learning at virtual universities have their own obstacles. The isolation of students separated from the rest of their “classmates” results into specific problems non-observable in traditional classrooms. The students miss their social contacts which naturally evolve in traditional educational environments. They contribute to cohesion in the group and support team building. The feeling of belongingness is an important motivational factor and has a positive impact on the capability of an individual to overcome problems (in our discussed case, the ones connected to his/her study). This paper aims to study the ways in which the “university spirit” can be enhanced.

A Formal Methods course was taught using a blended-learning pedagogy at graduate level. The blended-learning environment was designed with the objective of improving the students’ learning experience and to address some of the inherent challenges of teaching FM. This study presents results of evaluating the contents of online discussion forums that were used in the course. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework was used to assess the level of collaborative learning by measuring social presence, teaching presence and cognitive presence of the participants. The results of the study show healthy levels of participation on all the three CoI dimensions. More importantly, there was no or little difference between mandatory and non-mandatory discussions. However, the discussion in mandatory forum was more open and organized on social front indicating an evolved sense of community and trust for time-critical and mission critical tasks within the course.

The city of Lublin in Poland is a place of many overlapping cultures and religions: Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Armenian, Jewish, German, etc. Remains of these cultures are present in the city space in the form of architectural monuments. Unfortunately, the awareness of this fact disappears in society, especially among the school youth.The paper presents the results of a survey of the level of knowledge about the architectural monuments of the city of Lublin, Poland. The study was conducted among K14 youngsters with the use of questionnaires and 3D models. The results of the research show a low level of knowledge about monuments and their history.The next part of the article presents the game “Architectural Jewels of Lublin”, which was developed as a board game, using modern information technologies such as RFID systems, 3D modelling and printing, gamification and real time systems programming. The technical layer of the game is an electronic board with the city plan of Lublin and models of architectural monuments, a sensory network using RFID technology, and a palmtop with game control software. The game allows the implementation of collaborative interactive learning of history. The article also presents the logic of the game and the elements of gamification used in it. The directions of its development and dissemination are also presented.

The paper presents the 3D maze collaborative game for learning the history of the city. The idea of the game was described as also the main functionalities. Collective gameplay consists in helping the lost participant to get between two points of the 3D maze. The research on the influence of joint gameplay on historical facts acquiring was made. The results of interview and survey were described. The study focused on game design and gamebased learning results.

This article analyzes strategies that aim at creating innovative solutions or business concepts on a user-centered approach: lean startup. Those approaches involve customers, potential users, or other stakeholders into their development process. Although there are significant differences between the traditional approach and the lean approach, in our future work we plan to investigate the strategies of applying tailored structures to guiding students in in Higher Education Institutions, in creating market-demanded innovation.

This paper aims to demonstrate the modeling and implementation of innovative teaching-learning practices in Higher Education, based on Active Learning Methodologies, by highlighting especially, PBL – Problem Based Learning using Rapid Prototyping devices. In order to apply PBL’s methodology to the graduation courses, it was developed an implementation model, in which, there are four levels of implementation. Each level has four class attributes, which are classroom space-time, student autonomy, teaching role and problem’s scope. The obtained results show that the students demonstrate higher levels of interest, participation, and involvement with classmates, motivation and content’s perennial assimilation. With the application of these methodologies, skills required by job market, such as teamwork, relationship, collaboration, proactivity and entrepreneurship are also developed.

A high dropout rate from universities has been a topic of interest in educational research for more than a decade. The withdrawal from the university on the one hand is frustrating for the students and their families, and on the other hand mostly means a waste of time and money. Tailoring every higher education program to each students’ learning styles and needs is difficult. However, mastering the requisite study skills at the pre-university phase (K-12) is considered one of the solutions to diminish university dropouts. By conducting a literature study, we identified relevant study skills and their influencers as well as the appropriate period to improve these skills. We created a model illustrating the relationship between five study skill categories, their influencers and their effects on dropout from university. This study aims to increase awareness and active stakeholders such as families, teachers, and universities for cooperating to strengthen the study skills of school students.

The current paper presents of a continuous longitudinal research dealing with different aspects of accuracy and the way the students understand it. Previous studies have shown that understanding the accuracy concept is not obvious. A previous study exposed students’ difficulties in calculating measurement accuracy of digitized signals. After writing a special study unit on measurement accuracy and measurement error and adding it to the curriculum of Digital Electronics course, two questions questionnaire entered to the final test on digital electronics course. The students’ grades showed an improvement in understanding the accuracy concept, but not sufficient. The study unit included explanation, tutorial and homework. A replication of the previous experiment in Fall semester 2015 showed a substantial improvement in the students’ achievements regarding the accuracy concept. This time the students got explanation and example but no homework concerning the accuracy concept. Nevertheless, they had the chance to see and solve the previous questionnaire so the questions regarding accuracy did not surprise them. Solving old test questionnaires is a common mode of learning among our students therefore this may be the explanation of the improvement in the students’ grades.

Specialized programming knowledge and further generic competencies are needed to be able to develop software adequately. Therefore, it is essential to foster communication skills in higher software engineering education. One aspect of communication – feedback – is used rather frequently in agile software development as well as in educational settings, but: How does this indirect feedback affect the attitude of students in higher software engineering education? This paper describes a research proposal in order to detect how and to what extent indirect feedback has an impact on the individual’s attitude.

In the course of the last few years, our students are becoming increasingly unhappy. Sometimes they stop attending lectures and even seem not to know how to behave correctly. It feels like they are getting on strike. Consequently, drop-out rates are sky-rocketing. The lecturers/professors are not happy either, adopting an “I-don’t-care” attitude.An interdisciplinary, international team set in to find out: (1) What are the students unhappy about? Why is it becoming so difficult for them to cope? (2) What does the “I-don’t-care” attitude of professors actually mean? What do they care or not care about? (3) How far do the views of the parties correlate? Could some kind of mutual understanding be achieved?The findings indicate that, at least at our universities, there is rather a long way to go from “Engineering versus Pedagogy” to “Engineering Pedagogy”.

This paper shows two best practices examples to bring Internet of Things, especially Internet of Vehicles in a classroom (i.e. at engineering educational institutions). It includes a proposal on how to incorporate the most complex topic “Internet of Things” in particular “Internet of Vehicles” with small exercises on a model system that students themselves have designed and built. The model system was created as a diploma thesis at a higher technical school TGM in Vienna at the Department of Mechanical Engineering with the focus on automotive engineering. Using this practical model system, the networking of things can be more easily understood, or even problems can be easily shown.

To study mathematics, many students face problem to understand the concept of question and the method to solve it. Here the purpose is to develop simple methods to solve them. Looking at the method of the students solving math problems, simplified methods to solve the problems are developed. These methods can save the time and take less effort to solve the problems.Read, Think, and Learn (RTL) is the main course of studies for the students. Once one acquires it, he/she will enjoy mathematics.

Since the mid of the 1990s, Qatar is engaged in an economic diversification strategy to move away from an economy strongly based on gas and oil. The national authorities consider that high-quality education, especially at the tertiary level, is absolutely essential to succeed in this strategy. Despite of repeated reforms since the middle of the nineties, there are still some important difficulties in the Qatari higher education system, and especially in Qatar University (QU), the main national university. One of them is related to academic programs not really preparing students for professional integration. The Pro-Skima project aims at finding possible pedagogical modifications of the curriculum of the Master of Science in Computing of QU, to better meet the needs of highly skilled workers in the IT professional sector in Qatar. Part of this project is a sociological study of the main characteristics of the existing curriculum of this master program. Results highlight a curriculum based on an Anglo-Saxon model. In this model, several internal and external accreditation institutions have a strong influence on any evolution of the curriculum. They put different constraints that give little space to discuss more flexibly with local employers in order to change the curriculum. Further developments of the project consist in finding what could be some concrete solutions to overcome these difficulties and bring the curriculum closer to employers’ needs. On possibility is to experiment a curriculum that includes more workplace learning periods.

Our paper aims to explore the effectiveness of a constructivist approach to the teaching of engineering ethics through case studies, by putting forward a contextualization of the much discussed case study “Cutting Road Side Trees” [12] in light of the constructivist frame suggested by Jonassen [8]. First, we briefly analyse how the use of case studies for the teaching of engineering ethics eludes the complexity of the engineering professional environment before arguing that constructivism is a learning theory that can help to address this complexity. The final section proposes a constructivist reworking of the case method in a manner that aims to correct the deficiencies identified, followed by a discussion of the results of applying the contextualized exercise to First Year group of engineering students. The key findings reveal that the contextualized scenario enhances, in some respects, students’ understanding of the social dimension of the engineering profession.

Introductory Calculus is one of the foundational courses in any engineering curriculum. Many innovations have been introduced in the teaching of this course to enhanced students’ understanding of its material. One new innovation that is increasingly being adopted is the Flipped Classroom method. This paper reports on an experiment that measures the increase in comprehension of students who took an Introductory Calculus course taught using the Flipped Classroom method that was specially designed for a developing country setting. Results from the experiment shows that students who were taught using this Flipped Classroom method had better comprehension than students who were taught using the traditional classroom method. Specifically, students who were taught using the Flipped Classroom method had, on average, 17.45 points higher exam scores.

Continuing previous researches on engineering education, this paper presents how to build and use a professional training simulator. The training simulator is specified and then, it is implemented as a set consisting of a technical simulator, basic concepts and techniques and a basis for professional regulation documents. An example of usage shows that, through the construction of the training simulator, the individual performance of student work increases significantly, professional skills are acquired in an integrated way and cooperation between students becomes a permanent practice. In conclusion, recommendations are being made to extend professional simulators to a larger coverage of professional skills. This extension will be at the expense of accumulation of theoretical knowledge with a potential and probable future application.

In the course of the last three years, a longitudinal study researching engineering students’ understandings of the concept of accuracy and error has been carried out. Previous studies of the researchers investigated general misunderstandings of the concept of accuracy and error among engineering students from different programs, and specific misunderstandings of those concepts among electrical and electronic engineering students in Digital Electronics course. The studies showed that students’ understanding of these important engineering concepts is insufficient. The current study researches students’ achievements in solving problems that relate to the concepts of accuracy and to basic analog electronics concept of non-linearity and saturation. The research was carried out in April - May 2017 during Analog Electronics course with 38 participants. A mixed methodology was applied; in the quantitative stage the students solved problems relating to the concept of accuracy, and in the qualitative stage 15 open interviews were carried out. It was found that engineering students with inadequate understanding of basic accuracy concepts struggle with interpreting the concepts of analog electronics while solving problems related to the issue. The research intends to be continued with the aim to show that consistent treatment of the issue will benefit students’ understanding of basic electronics and accuracy concepts.

Current technological innovations and continuous change in the labor market have generated new challenges for higher education, and universities now underline the importance of competency development. The purpose of this paper is to examine the competencies of undergraduates attending Engineering Informatics education, and to identify their personal needs for development in the light of workplace demands. The characteristics of the motivation and personality profiles of Engineering Informatics students are also addressed in this research in order to reveal possible ways of motivating them by implementing new methods or approaches in Engineering Informatics education.

In the paper we studied the results of sociological surveys conducted in 2 target groups including representatives of the so called “technical intelligentsia” social stratum - engineers and top-managers employed in industry and scientific research. Both groups are involved in creation and R&D of intellectual products for the development of science and technology. The analysis of respondents approach on the following problems is given herein: attitude to the national scientific and technical policy, skills necessary for professional career, evaluation of personal competences and needs to forge qualification, look into their own knowledge of current regulating documents for educational and technological activities, perception of interconnections between engineering education and the labor market. The needs within target groups are identified by areas of activity and within the framework of educational programs of professional development.

After more than four years of research and assessment of a sociocybernetic system, the present paper makes the first coherent and concrete reporting. The purpose of the sociocybernetic system is to deter plagiarism in a society clogged with this scourge. The technical features of identification of the act are given, and further the sociocybernetic tool functions included in the sociocybernetic system are specified in the form of the Plagiarized Works Index. The functionality of the Index is placed on the detailed structure, organized on the presentation of records and databases. From the operation of the Index, information is collected so that one builds up statistics that are detailed interpreted. In conclusion, the way of action on historical plagiarisms is made so that they represent an exemplification in the training of the young students, but also a way in which the authors of the published plagiarized works are subject to public rebellion.

The necessity to design and implement training programmes in English is conditioned by their relevance to current goals of the university development. The training programmes for TPU staff since 2013 incorporate three pathways: courses for research and teaching staff; courses for professional services staff; courses for university senior managers. The programmes are complemented by joint programmes run with international partner. Verification of courses accomplishment is being monitored by independent testing procedures run by another TPU structural unit in order to confirm the correspondence of the level of language proficiency of the courses graduates to the results announced at the beginning of the studies.

The paper aims at analyzing the best practices of government funded inbound international faculty mobility programs in Russia through the experience of a leading national research engineering university. The paper gives an overview of the global inbound international faculty mobility programs, and then narrows down to the programs funded by the Russian government institutions. Analyzing a specific case of a visiting foreign professor, the study reveals several short-term and long-term outcomes of the inbound mobility practices: from enhancing motivation of students to be internationalized and further developing other academic mobility initiatives such as student mobility, joint research activities, and dual degree programs to a positive impact on a regional economy.

This paper reports on the results of research whose aim was to find out whether and how the respondents’ skin conductance change due to emotions experienced while watching emotional videos and whether there is a relation between a type of personality and a type of “emotional” curves we measured (the respondents were the teachers of vocational subjects). Emotions arise as an immediate response to a current situation with regard to the individual’s experience, interests and goals, comprising both subjective experiences and physiological changes, changes in attention and readiness, and changes in motoric expressions. The paper aims to show how secondary school teachers experience emotions and whether there is a relation between the measured values of skin conductance and types of personality. We found out that the skin conductance method reliably measures the intensity of experiencing emotions. It became apparent that the intensity of experiencing emotions is connected with a personality type in certain cases.

The project is at the theoretical level oriented to the possibilities of enhancement of the adolescents’ motivation to the study at technically oriented secondary schools. Innovative methods and forms of teaching are important means that put emphasis on the use of information and communication technologies and elements of practice learning. The project proceeds from the combination of extensive (theoretical analyses, observation) and intensive way of research (moderated discussions, focus groups, pedagogical experiment). The teaching methods and techniques using ICT will be proposed on the basis of the respective school documents and professional literature analysis. The attention will be concentrated on outlining of a motivation programme for the secondary school students that will be realized and verified in teaching at the secondary schools. At the same time the interest of adolescents in science and technology will be systematically developed. The project anticipates cooperation with the distinguished science and technology specialists and with experts from technical workplaces. The project is based on the following fundamental premises: the need of study at technical schools as a priority of the Ministry of education in 2016 and the important demands of the labour market, i.e. the fulfilment of graduates at the technical professional posts.

For ensuring quality of engineering training it is necessary to use in educational process of a technique, providing this quality. Each subject matter has to play a role in formation of professional competences of future experts. The humanitarian discipline “Management of training processes” in the contents considers questions of creation of professional career.During classroom occupations by masters methodical recommendations “Planning of career as an advance element on an office ladder” have been developed. During an educational semester they actively participated in research, educational and other actions, and then investigated personal changes.

This paper describes an implementation of project based learning to a class of Russian students studying psychodiagnostics. A survey of the students after the experience was compared to a separate class of BS students in professional education. Based on these surveys and interviews with students, the results suggest that explicit training in project management tools and exercises in skills for team dynamics might enhance the positive experience.

We present our work about the development of a system, which allows taking notes during a lecture, and having the notes integrated in the video recording of the lecture itself. The notes become semantic markers into the video, and could possibly be shared with peers and teacher.

Increase in student mobility is one of the objectives of the European Union (EU) and many other countries of the world. This mobility is meant to increase the ability and flexibility to acquire knowledge and skills by students, get them used to the freedom of movement of people and services, and educate them in the area of international and multicultural cooperation. The EU, through a number of programmes (especially those grouped in Erasmus+), supports such mobility organisationally and financially. The article presents the results of research among students of Computer Science (CS), aimed at detecting their perception of the opportunity to participate in a one-semester international academic mobility, i.e. to study abroad for one semester. The survey covered almost all undergraduate CS students of the Lublin University of Technology at their fifth semester, when they take decisions to apply to go abroad for one semester. We analysed their overall assessment of this type of travel, the level of the perceived usefulness of the experience, the concerns and risks associated with it and the students’ interest. Some elements of the research were differentiated for Polish and foreign students. The results of the tests are not conclusive, because despite the generally positive perception of the programme, a relatively small percentage of students declare their willingness to take part in it.

The aim of the European research project mRIDGE (Using mobile technology to improve policy Reform for Inclusion of Disadvantaged Groups in Education, PROJECT Number 562113-EPP-1-2015-1-BG-EPPKA3-PI-FORWARD) is the design of digital learning resources for mobile devices, for improving the educational integration of disadvantaged students, i.e., groups at risk whose ethnical and cultural features, special needs or socioeconomic status significantly constrain their possibilities to receive a suitable education.The mRIDGE project aims at evaluating the suitability and development of mobile applications with augmented reality (MDR Model) for improving motivation of students in the educational process, according to the Quality Assurance Plan designed for this project.

Seeking a systematic combination of the pedagogical model of m-learning with the Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) approach, this study concerns the use of math trail as a learning activity model that can take the advantages of mobile computing devices for the design of effective learning experiences in an authentic context. The paper presents the design and the study of the first pilot implementation of a math trail, using mobile devices for primary school students. In this math trail, the students are guided, through a digital map, to a sequence of preselected sites of a park where they solve specially designed math problems using data from the environmental context. The students measure real objects’ dimensions either with conventional instruments or by measurement applications of their tablet. According to the findings of the study, students solved the puzzles by applying mathematical knowledge, discussion and collaboration. The students applied and reinforced their knowledge through an effective and engaging learning activity. Moreover, the students were puzzled about the differences of the measurements by conventional and digital instruments and this confusion triggered social negotiation. Further research is needed for a grounded theory development about m-learning design for RME.

This study aims at identifying the ideal characteristics of a virtual speaking buddy (VirSbud), as perceived by the teachers, so that the current VirSbud application can be further developed to meet the users’ expectation. Employing a qualitative approach, an in-depth group interviews was conducted with five English language teachers teaching in Standard Three (nine-year-old pupils). Prior to the interview, the teachers used the application as a teaching aid for eight weeks. The interview reveals the ideal characteristics of an application for virtual speaking buddy. The teachers expected a more sophisticated application which enables online participation, two different interfaces accessible by learners and teachers, looping in the prompts given to the learners, and the use of voice recognition which enables automatic response to the learners. The findings point towards the need of semi-formal learning, instead of formal and informal learning, in developing learners’ speaking skills with the teachers being virtually present at a distance.

With the passage of time that is modern, technology has been very advanced in various places so that humans are very easy to meet human needs quickly and efficiently. In this social network or often called an online store with all the needs of people ranging from small to very easy to get. The M-Tais Timor is an initiative to create a mobile application learning environment. In this mobile learning application is more helpful with the process of learning Tais Timor and Tais Timor’s webbing process. So by looking at human needs that more and more, then the process of learning Tais Timor webbing is very helpful to be able to keep traditional art mats and Tais Timor can be processed into any outfit according to needs. The tutorial on Tais Timor fabric and the online system created in East Timor Tais.

Technology development for the purpose of learning virtually now is much needed. This research integrating knowledge virtual based on education and learning at the zoo especially in Indonesia based on mobile applications, in this case, will integrate application mobile use technology of QR Code and Image Recognition. Android system and web used for implementation in this research. Android runs a web application and to display the information in the form of text, sound, pictures, and video. QR Code technology used with capturing the barcode 2D (2 Dimensions). While image recognition used to catch photo the animals and do image processing, the results second this method of information for of text, sound, pictures, and video in an extract from a web. With this application, visitors can learn and also it can increase in learning about animals and the zoo in Indonesia through the application of mobile.

In recent Decades, a lot of applications are designed to assist communities in carrying out their activities from, whether applications for education, services or games. Notice from the significant development of technology in this world, especially in the smart phone application. Some of Reviews These developments are also being felt by the disabilities, some applications for education are designed to provide education from an early age. The aim of this study is to assist or to Facilitate Reviews those who have problems with Reviews their hearing. There are many factors that can cause problems with Reviews their hearing. They need an education about the problems that occur at their hearings. With the help of computer, information about what happen in their hearing can be quickly intervening and Easily Obtained. Moreover, the presence of a diagnosis system at hearing loss, they will get certainty about what already happen at their hearings. In diagnosing of Hearing Loss, the writer uses Mobile application Learning. And in writing, the writer Also uses forward chaining method and certainty factor method. But there are Also people who have problems with Reviews their hearing from birth. People with disabilities on their hearing are named the deaf. Also this system contains of the education about sign language for the deaf and the mute. The writer multimedia designs by using a smartphone application so it will be easy to access anywhere. The designer of this system was equipped by visualization and audio so it will be more easy to be understood by the user.

Academic calendar serves as a reference in planning and management of academic activities at a University. Many universities that include the academic calendar on web pages or in the form of a specific file format to be accessible. The trend of smartphone use is growing rapidly, making the academic calendar potentially developed into a mobile application that can help the management of academic activities become more effective and efficient. Pocket KalDik that incorporates the principles of the calendar and social media, allows the user to create learning schedule virtually and dynamically distribute the information of activities at the University in a real-time. This can indirectly help increase the productivity of education in the academic community. Pocket KalDik is a mobile application implemented with the Representational State Transfer (REST) architecture model. Pocket KalDik is expected to improve productivity and better time management for students and other academic community.

An E-learning system, which is considered as personalized, interactive, self-studying system, and free from time and place constraints, is an important factor for the flipped teaching. In Japanese higher educational institutions as in universities, many studies and practices on e-learning have been reported, but the state of trial and errors are still continuing. Thus, we propose the construction of an e-learning system incorporating not only with learner’s consciousness but also with their learning style. The system is consistent of three individual parts and one integration phase. The first part is composed of tools, methods, and facilities used to provide proper e-learning environment. The second part is composed of theoretical or practical result on learning styles. The third part is composed of learners’ consciousness factors on information security which we have studied by conducting questionnaire surveys to some Asian countries’ university students. In the integration phase, the components of e-learning discussed in the first part are evaluated from learning style related psychological aspects. Anticipated result in the paper is that we propose a prototype which includes several types of content with proper links to information security factors and to learning styles. By clarifying the relationship among some constituent elements related to the e-learning which helps flipped teaching, we propose a total integrated system of e-learning.

The widespread use of mobile technologies allows today’s students and teachers to work and study independent of place and time. Moreover, in some developing countries mobile access to internet is more predominant than other Internet access methods due to poor or destroyed communication infrastructure caused by political conflicts; therefore, mobile devices, like smartphones, are frequently used for Internet access. The aim of our research is to outline student satisfaction and preference regarding the usage of different devices – personal computers, tablets, and smartphones to access various types of learning content in higher education in the Republic of Yemen. In this study, 72 students were involved, of which, 51 of participated in the survey for evaluation of satisfaction and usability.

Concepts and technologies that have made it possible for devices to interconnect to real-world objects, have existed for some time. The Internet of things can be defined as a pervasive and ubiquitous network that allows the monitoring and control of the physical environment by collecting, processing and analyzing data generated by sensors or smart objects. As the number of devices connect to the Internet increases, it is necessary to provide a safe and reliable operation of such devices. This paper emphasizes the use of cryptographic algorithms that can be implemented in devices that can connect to the internet of things, in order to provide security for the transmission of information on the vast network of sensors, a network that is increasing in size and number. This paper describes the problem of security on networked devices and describes the main algorithms and processes that provide security to this technology. It is concluded that since the devices that form the Internet of things have little memory and processing, it is necessary to apply algorithms that use the least amount of bits, with encryption algorithms that are based on elliptic curves. The advancement of technologies and algorithms that provide security should be considered, because every day we are more dependent on the internet of things.

This paper focuses on cross-curricular instruction that encompasses place-based learning (as defined by Sobel, Elder and Lane-Zucker), location-based learning (one mediated by mobile platforms; as understood by Yehiel and Ziv, followers of Walter Benjamin and his distinction between the concepts of a tourist and a wandering man), problem-and-quest-based learning (particularly in its task-based aspect embracing tacit knowledge and supporting student choice) and project-based learning. It also shows how this type of “eclectic instruction” can be used to boost teenage student engagement and make young adults genuinely interested in local culture and history, examined through the tinted spectacles of a foreign language.

Collaboration in general but especially between students of Austrian Federal Secondary Colleges of Engineering (HTL) is becoming more and more important. Therefore, the joint diploma thesis has been introduced into the curriculum. Furthermore, joint student projects have become a crucial topic within the subject of mechanical engineering design. Because of the worldwide activities of most companies, being able to collaborate within a huge team is seen as an essential for future jobs. To support the collaboration process in engineering education, a product data management (PDM) system was introduced to several Austrian HTLs within projects carried out in the Sparkling Science program of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research. In the academic year 2016/17 a field study was started to figure out how to enhance collaboration between students by using this kind of software and methods. The outcome of this study will be to find out about the level of collaboration within students’ design projects.

This paper addresses four criteria that the Soundcool project meets: to “be sustainable”, “be future-oriented”, “be transformative” and “be innovative”. Soundcool is a pedagogical and technological project. A brief description of the technology behind Soundcool will be useful for the reader before addressing the four criteria. Soundcool is like a “Lego” for sound; Soundcool is composed of a series of software modules that run on a central computer, or host computer. Each module is sort of a musical instrument; it could be a synthesizer, a sampler, a sound effect processor, etc. these modules can be interconnected in different ways allowing the users, i.e. the students, to create their own arrangements, as we call the module creations and interconnections. Then, each module can be controlled either with the mouse or, what is more interesting, with a mobile device through WiFi. This way, every student can control one or several modules of the whole arrangement from their mobile device contributing to a collaborative and participative experience.

This is a case study of action research project applied to review modern techniques in manufacturing systems. It is often considered as one of learning outcomes in engineering courses for the engineering student to have insights regarding recent technologies applied in manufacturing fields. However, it is a challenge for the instructor to achieve the goal in a given semester hours while delivering scheduled subjects. Therefore this study proposes a teaching approach using an action research concept as a tool which motivates and engages more to the students as well as achieves the learning outcome to review modern technologies in limited semester hours. In other words, the same subject can be exposed to the students two times; once when they review it through searching recent journals by themselves and again when it was covered by the instructor according to syllabus schedule. Consequently, the findings from the action research have been summarized. The proposed approach shows how action research application in engineering disciplines is an effective tool to motivate learner’s abilities to review recent technologies.

In this paper, we analyze the behaviors of participants in two types of meetings (brainstorming and decision-making). First, we introduce the use of participant behavior based on facial movement. Next, we propose a method for modeling the behaviors of participants based on multi-layered neural networks. Lastly, based on our experimental results, we discuss the relationships between the meeting phase, participant behaviors, and the model parameters in these two types of meetings. Our results show the parameters in the above models to be strongly related to the behaviors and ideas of the participants in these two types of meetings.

The out-of-curriculum project team “Rika-Kobo” organized by university student members has actively performed various activities for over 10 years in local community that mainly aim to stimulate interests of children and other generations into various fields of sciences and technologies. The activities of the project team are in out-of-curriculum basis, which means the student members are voluntarily involved in. Thus, they are likely to have the same level of motivations and enthusiasms, leading to generally high qualities in the activities. Through several questionnaires for the student members, participation experiences into the activities of this student project team has been found to be very effective for the student members to achieve and/or improve various skills and abilities such as communication skill, collaboration, leadership, scheduling ability as well as problem finding & solving skill. In addition, their participations can also serve as desirable opportunities for allowing them to realize the fact that certain skills/abilities are required to be achieved and improved. Thus, although their out-of-curriculum basis, the activities of this student project team can become an effective educational and training scheme for university students as future researchers and engineers. In this paper, for the purpose of further investigating any possible educational effects achievable from the activities, based on the results of questionnaires for the student members conducted over several years, some build-up effects for achievements and improvements of their skills and abilities will be discussed, which can be realized through participation into the activities over multiple years.

Since 2011, we have been educating mentor teachers in four semester further training. Mentor teachers can support the preparation process of our engineering teacher students in secondary vocational schools by coaching their teaching practice. They have high standard expectations to learn the newest knowledge based on the most modern educational technology. It was important and interesting to get acquainted with presentation skills of mentor teachers, their knowledge about preparedness and success on that field. In 2016 we had organized a survey to measure presentation skills of mentor teachers and how they can use it in teaching learning process.For the survey we had elaborated a questionnaire. The purpose of questionnaire was to survey in four parts the presentation skills of mentor teachers. The goal of survey was to define how frequently they use presentations in their work, what kind of lack they have in editing process and how can we support their application of presentations in mentor and teaching work.In this study we described only the basic elements of survey. Deeper evaluation of data is in process. The survey raised our attention that further development of presentation skill needs methodology upgrading of our teaching process.

Using the Perspective Based Reading technique opens doors to new and enriching opportunities to design new teaching/learning arrangements. We set up a new approach that implements a perspective based task and (additionally) perspective based feedback. Therefore we provide the theoretical basis and elaborate more on Perspective Based Reading and Peer Feedback as well as on the needed perspectives, which we extract from the software development life cycle phases. We also define a new type of task that we called perspective based task with a perspective based feedback. For a better understanding we present an example scenario for a design pattern unit in a software engineering course.

Using peer assessment in the classroom in order to increase student engagement by actively involving them in the assessment process has been practiced and researched for decades. The literature suggests using peer review for project-based exercises. This paper analyzes the applicability of peer assessment to smaller exercises at secondary school level and makes recommendations for its use in computer science courses. For this purpose, two secondary school classes consisting of a total of 57 students were introduced to the peer assessment method within the scope of the same software engineering course. Two of 13 exercises were assessed using peer reviews via the Moodle workshop activity. The students were asked to evaluate these two exercises using an anonymous online questionnaire. At the end of the course, they were asked to rate all of the 13 exercises regarding their motivation to learn.Overall, the anonymous feedback on the peer review exercises was very positive. It has shown that the students not only obtained more feedback, but also received it in a timelier manner compared to regular teacher assessment. The results of the overall rating of all 13 exercises regarding the motivation to learn revealed that the two peer reviewed exercises have been rated distinctly better than the average of the other eleven exercises only assessed by the teacher. Evidence therefore suggests that peer reviews are a viable option for small- and medium-sized exercises in the context of computer science education at secondary school level under certain conditions.

To handle heterogeneity within students, to foster needed generic competencies, to motivate them, and to increase their employability, a didactical method to teach and learn programming in non-major degree programs shall be found. Therefore, this paper covers strategies and the theoretical underpinning concerning these four challenges and gives solutions how to cope with them. Finally, Pair Programming is presented as a method that addresses the issues introduced here.

In this paper we present a design model, PTD (Player Type Design), to create engaging gaming and non-gaming experiences for attracting different types of players to learning settings. Based on Bartle’s four player types, elements grounded on game design theory are introduced to design collaborative, competitive, explorative, and rewarding learning experiences. We illustrate the use of the framework on two different experiences. The main contribution of this paper is the design model “PTD”, which can be used to create and also analyse engaging experiences in different contexts (gaming and non-gaming) based on different player types as known from game design theory. The model is evaluated with two different experiences: (1) a blended learning experience, (2) a mobile game with purpose.

We have conducted a study with higher level education students, in lecture classes of three Undergraduate Courses and one Professional Higher Technical Course that involved six different subjects with a total of 324 students. In this research the use of Game-Based Learning platform was analysed in order to encourage the students’ participation, increasing motivation and keeping them motivated and committed during lessons, therefore, increasing their learning skills.Based on these results, we recommend that Kahoot is used in lectures in order to help students develop their performances and abilities and at the same time be more successful and prepared to have an active participation in society.

In the traditional methodology of CAD system teaching, one starts with acquirement of technical drawing principles and design of technical schemes and drawings based on manual drawing. Only consequently students learn to draw the schemes and technical drawings in some of the CAD systems. In their paper the authors present a new, by them created methodology of teaching modelling and simulation in CAD/CAE systems at which students (ISCED 3 level) start immediately with a machine element proposal (draft) and modelling. A key question related to the use of this innovative teaching methodology is whether the reduction of the technical drawing teaching will not have a negative impact on the students’ achievements. The answer to this question should result from a pedagogical experiment which the authors are going to carry out and a methodology of which, together with the research hypothesis and expected results, they present in the paper.

Programming has become an important and popular skill in our economy. However, the digital age affects not only our economy but our daily lives, our free time, our habits, and our education systems as well. The way we perceive and especially access information has changed drastically in the last 20 years. IT-based learning has become a widespread approach to educate anyone who wants to learn, regardless of gender, age, or cultural background. Many new approaches have been made possible by the technological advancement in latest years. One of these approaches is the playful approach. As a part of self-regulated and personalized learning strategies, it focuses on the student’s interaction with the subject. In this contribution, we connect the engagement students experience in video games with the educational content of standard curricula. By the means of a case study, we provide a scientific basis for future playful learning approaches.

Architectural design is a creative activity whose aim is to determine the formal qualities of objects produced by art. These formal qualities are not only the external features but principal those structural and functional relationships which convert a system to a coherent unity from the point of view of user. Architectural design extends to embrace all the aspects of human environment which are conditioned by architectural production, besides designer occupies a fairly wide band on the spectrum of human experience. The arranging of a creative collaboration between different professional groups has never been easy and constitutes a classic problem of reconciliation. Design is perhaps a special case as architects have been on divergent educational and professional paths.In the direction of all these current debates and statements, this investigation suggests a survey conducted to provide a better understanding through a case study of Nisantasi University’s Architecture Program. The design considerations and general background must be related to the actual means of production available for the specific application. In this paper it is explained that a complete harmony is required in this relationship for real success.

This paper presents an iterative framework for institutional level adoption of flipped learning based on the experience of implementing it at Middle East College, Oman. The framework is designed in three phases with each phase spread out over 2 years. A combination of models: the ‘Lewin’s Change Management Model’ and the quality assurance ‘ADRI Model’ has primarily inspired the design of the framework. The phased approach of implementation ensured that at any point in time all the modules undertaken by a student is taught in the flipped mode whereas all modules of a program is progressively flipped semester wise. Elements of work and evaluation of each phase were delineated into three categories as strategy, structure, and support. It was found that the phased cyclical approach helps to systematically and progressively implement flipped learning at a monolithic scale with minimal disturbance to the core functioning of the institution managing the associated risks effectively. The project also proved that contextual pedagogical definitions and E Learning content availability supported by curriculum with assessments suitable for flipped learning are required for ensuring quality of implementation.

Learning computer programming is a basic literacy in the digital age, which helps children develop creative problem solving, logical thinking and mental flexibility. Many countries have introduced computer science in their curriculum. For example, in the educational system of United Kingdom, pupils are introduced to computer science topics from the age of six, while in Greece the teaching of computer programming commences at the age of eleven. Given differences in culture, available infrastructures, as well as the age pupils are introduced to computer science, the challenge of forming a computer science curriculum that not only offers basic background but expands the cognitive horizon and cultivates the imagination of students, still remains a challenge. Towards this end, this study focuses on exploring the potential merits of introducing concurrent programming concepts early in the learning process. Results indicate that uninitiated to programming pupils at the age of eleven were able to comprehend basic concurrency topics, while pupils at the age of twelve with some programming familiarity were able to understand more advanced concepts and use them successfully for problem solving.

The purpose of this paper is to present in practice how the flipped learning approach works in the instruction of high number of higher education students. This article presents the developed flipped classroom method combined with project based group work in seminars. The participants were students majoring in field of Communication, Business and Tourism. In order to examine the efficiency of the implemented method and to confirm the positive or negative learning experiences, students were asked to complete a feedback questionnaire. In this paper we present the analysis of the opinions of 544 higher education students.

The present study constitutes the first part of a study about the use of the online game-based of Kahoot as a tool for teaching practices and ways to do this. This first part, described in this paper, focuses on investigating teachers’ views on the use of Kahoot. A number of 149 secondary education teachers participated for this reason in workshops where they were introduced to Kahoot and were asked to design their own tasks. Upon completion of the workshops a questionnaire was delivered to them to evaluate the tool and focus group discussions were conducted to detect their in-depth thoughts. The teachers’ opinions were positive as they considered Kahoot a motivating tool for teaching and assessment purposes which can make learning fun and a creative process. The teachers revealed their intention to use the tool in their future teaching practices with their classes to a great extent.

In the present study the programming language of Kodu was used as a tool to implement a cross-curricular series of lessons combining the subjects of English and Computer Science. The purpose was to see the extent to which Kodu can be used as a creative and effective tool to enhance learners´ English language skills. A number of 74 Junior High School learners participated in the research, with a control group of 35, and an experimental group of 39 learners. The latter were introduced to the tool and implemented programming tasks with Kodu. A pre and post-test was delivered to the learners to detect their level before and after the intervention and informal discussions were conducted with them. The results revealed that Kodu made the lessons for the experimental group more vivid, creating a lively atmosphere which kept them active in class enhancing their use of English which they employed to follow the instructions, work with one another and implement the tasks assigned to them.

The paper has been prepared on the basis of its authors’ great experiences in working in various areas at a technical university. It represents the result of long-term research and reflections on improving the legal support for engineering activities through developing the new forms of interaction between legal experts and engineers or between teaching staff and the management of engineering universities. The authors estimate the conventional approaches to organizing the teaching of future engineers legal disciplines as non-complying with the requirements of the modern engineering activities, and propose to both revise the contents of the existing courses and modify the organizational set-up of universities. Particularly, we propose to depart from traditional dividing into socio-humanistic and technical departments and create an interdisciplinary department. Teaching legal disciplines at an engineering university is, in our opinion, necessary and actual. However, they should be taught focusing on developing legal literacy in students as future experts in engineering. This would require retraining the teachers of law, their active interacting with the representatives of engineering sciences, and conducting relevant scientific and applied research. Training of humanities majors studying at engineering universities should be transformed in a similar way: They must acquire the basics of engineering knowledge to increase their competitiveness on the labor market.

Nowadays a huge number of ICT-based tools such as Google Earth, Google maps, search engines, crosswords, as well as word processors, presentation software and more can be used in Geography teaching and learning. Creating school presentations containing locational sightseeing or school magazines, be they printed or electronic, referring to monuments, famous people originating from a locality, customs etc. are also tools that can be used for this purpose. The educational trial presented herein aims to: (a) encourage pupils learn geography in a more creative and interesting way; (b) to familiarize students with basic ICT skills; (c) teach students to seek and evaluate information about specific topics; (d) and perhaps more importantly show students ways to use computers for self-education. The trial took place in two different school years and the participants 42 altogether aged 10–11 years (grade E). The school was an ordinary one in the suburbs of Athens. An impromptu computer lab was setup in classroom with rudimentary networking utilising a projector. Most students were so excited that they were willing to sacrifice part of their break to create another crossword or complete a presentation. At the end of the test, most students had acquired basic skills in using general purpose software. They learned to carefully evaluate information content found on the internet and try checking its relevance to geography. This approach has also improved students’ communicative and cooperative skills.

The present study investigates the extent to which the popular game-based online platform of Kahoot can be used as a creative and effective tool in the teaching practice and specifically in the teaching of basic concepts of electric circuits. A comparative study was conducted for this reason with two groups of 67 learners in total, where the experimental group participated in the design of their own questions within the framework of formative assessment with the use of Kahoot, whereas the second group followed a traditional way for their assessment. According to the results, the integration of Kahoot in the teaching process improved learners’ understanding of certain concepts on electric circuits, enhanced their active participation in the lesson, motivated them towards learning and constituted a creative and fun-tool to use for teaching purposes.

Globalization has changed the economy of the whole world: today, products are being transported all over the globe to arrive at the place of sale whereas before many articles, food and drink products in particular, were mostly supplied by nearby producers. Goods often cover distances over the whole continent or even across oceans by travelling to the destined store. This logistic network creates jobs and commercial connections by transporting the product supply to its demand. It enables the availability of various articles everywhere at any season of the year not obtainable otherwise. However, the transport with all its attributes are impacting the nature. These adverse effects are often not included in the calculated end price – occurrence called tragedy of commons. The aim of this paper is to propose a concept of assignments in a course intending to enhance students’ awareness of the impact of industrial globalization on nature to include sustainability in their consumer behavior.

This paper studies the methodological essence of ADR regulations training courses for drivers and safety advisers. The aim of research is to advance existing teacher-centred course model in Estonia with learner-centred methods that best suit specific objectives and meet expected learning outcomes. In Estonia, ADR regulations training courses are formed based on teacher-centred course design mainly. This methodological approach is outdated as the concept of learner is changing rapidly. The aim of this research is to make study based proposals, what kind of interactive methodological approach training course model meets the best trainees’ expectations in Estonia.The paper presents a combined development research strategy based on studies regarding ADR regulations training courses in Estonia as well as on analysis of teaching methods applied in professional training of adults. Data collecting on learners’ attitude and preferences regarding current methodological format of courses is collected by implementing questionnaires with structured questions from consignors/consignees, freight forwarders carrier companies and drivers. Based on learners’ needs and expectations, different interactive teaching methods are examined. Implementing methodology of qualitative comparison analysis (QCA) combination of best suitable teaching methods are identified.Theoretical outcomes represent detailed review of existing ADR training courses system, training opportunities and so far implemented methods. Empirical outcomes focus on introducing suitable interactive teaching methods within the existing format of ADR regulations training courses. Finally developed ADR training course model with a new learner-centred methodological approach considers all major parties involved into transportation chain of dangerous goods. Further researches related to this issue include discussions with ADR training courses providers and introducing an actual action plan regarding the implementation of new interactive methodological approach of ADR regulations training courses in Estonia. There is also a need for measuring exact impact of new methodological approach on operational risk management.

In today’s knowledge-based society, Information and communication technology (ICT) has become a must for teachers and learners. Their pedagogical potential is immense. However, when we consider the common pedagogical practices reported by the research, as well as the small impact observed on learning despite significant material investments, we can only question the reasons for such a situation. Research shows that there is a gap between how people use new technologies in their everyday lives and how they are integrated –or not in the classroom. This gap is still causing distress among teachers and even dropping-outs from the profession. One of the causes identified in the literature is the training of teachers. Professional development activities do not train teacher trainers on their e-learning culture. These training activities focus mainly on ICT use. There is lack of actual inclusion of reflective exercises regarding ICT integration.

From its inception, Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología (UTEC) has had the vision of causing a disruptive change in society by educating a new generation of holistic engineers. The university has recently embarked on a radical transformation of its educational model, in order to deliver its promise. A flexible curriculum provides students not only with a strong STHEAM backbone imparted in a student-centered, active-learning format, but also exposes them to real engineering challenges and promotes the acquisition of professional skills from the onset. For this radical change to be implemented successfully, UTEC has decided to design and launch a Laboratory for Educational Innovation, called Moray. Moray has been conceived as an open platform, consisting of a common space and a set of protocols through which faculty, students, staff, and experts from top universities worldwide can work interdisciplinarily and collaboratively, towards the enhancement of learning experiences in higher education.

The most common criticisms against the effectiveness of MOOCs usually point out the high attrition rates and the low level of learning effectiveness. Open courses generally require self-regulation (self-regulated learning), task awareness and learning methodology at a level most students cannot achieve. To increase the effectiveness of open courses, the planning process should focus on the stronger control over students’ activities; another important factor is that the learning materials should be able to ensure the continuous activity of the learners. The application of appropriate activity-based instructional design solutions can largely increase the effectiveness of open courses. Our research focuses on the possibilities of activity-based learning material development for online education purposes.

An investigation has been made to study the usefulness of SCORM based education in flipped classroom through a quasi-experimental design. The coursework assessments are used as a measuring instrument and the coursework assessment scores are statistically analysed. The results of Levene’s test, t-test and Mann-Whitney test reveal that mean of coursework assessment scores of the experimental and control groups are statistically significant. This confirms the Alternate Hypothesis that students who studied using SCORM based lessons (experimental group) attained higher learning compared to the students who did not use the SCORM based lessons (control group).

According to several studies, student collaboration can be helpful in learning process. In this paper, we propose collaborative learning for students of a technical university as part of courses on “Computer criminality”. We have prepared a base platform, MediaWiki, to support the collaborative approach. The MediaWiki is a free open source platform originally used for Wikipedia. We also prepared a questionnaire for students about their opinion on using collaborative learning as part of the school courses. We assume, based on the responses given by the students, that they prefer knowledge sharing among other collaborative learning approaches. The paper summarizes findings about students’ attitude to collaborative learning and suggests some improvements for the design and development of a collaborative learning tool. A case study - a course on Computer criminality, is briefly described. Preliminary results indicate, that students can highly benefit from collaboration.

Dated from 2016 the Digital Educational Strategy of Hungary [1] concluded, that adaptation of advanced pedagogic methodology and ICT is generally at low level in HEIs, its progress is slow and very much uneven not only regarding different institutions but even within the same faculty or department. Working for the e-Learning Centre at a provincial university of Hungary, we launched a comprehensive survey on the openness of our colleagues for educational innovation. Teaching staff at the six different faculties at our university were asked to fill in a questionnaire, asking them about their digital competencies and habits, about the different teaching/learning tools they know/apply. Answers were also analyzed to compare the teaching practice of different faculties and different cohort of teachers. In our poster, we wish to give detailed analysis of our first findings by attractive infographics.

Remote mode higher education at postgraduate level is becoming popular among students because of flexible learning opportunity and the accessibility to study programs offered by renowned universities in the world. Fast development of internet facilities and learner management systems along with the development of remote educational pedagogy have been the driving force behind the acceptance and development of distant mode study programs. The success of such a study programs is largely affected by several factors that are unique to the university that offers the study program and the demography of participants as well as infrastructure and the student support available at the receiving end.In the present study, the successes and the drawbacks as perceived by the participants of a distant master study program are evaluated. The study program considered was the Sustainable Energy Engineering Worldwide (SEEW) master degree program which was offered by the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden to students in Sri Lanka (Apart from Sri Lanka, SEEW was offered by KTH to some other countries; Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Mauritius). The objective of offering the SEEW master program was to assist the developing nations to build up human resources with expertise in sustainable energy generation and utilization, hence contributing to national development. As such the program also generally contributes to global efforts of alleviating unfavourable environmental impacts connected with power generation and utilization. The SEEW master program consisted of 120 ECTS (ECTS: European Credit Transfer System) and the courses were offered over three semesters followed by a research project of 30 ECTS during the fourth semester. Lectures were delivered synchronous with the parallel KTH on-campus study program in real time through internet with the support of a learner management system. The students were attached to the Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL) for providing academic support where necessary and for the supervision of written and online examinations. The first enrolment consisted of 21 students in intake 2008 and the program was conducted with varying student numbers until the intake 2010. A total of 72 students have successfully completed the SEEW program and they are at presently employed in key organizations in the energy sector as well as in national universities in Sri Lanka.The paper focusses on eight key areas that the students have identified as vital for success for this type of programs. These key areas are the effectiveness of web tools used, standard of teaching, standard of course content, examination procedures, online assessment, thesis projects, benefit to the students, and benefits to facilitating university. In the study 36 students responded to survey and overall rating of the program successfulness was identified as 72%.

The aim of this work is to evaluate the effectiveness of a gamification platform during an IT course at Corvinus University of Budapest. A total of more than 2500 students attended the course during 2015 and 2016. We used a gamification environment within the Moodle e-learning platform during the course. Gamification steps included a reward system, alternative learning paths, various feedback options and social interaction platforms. Course quality was assessed based on students’ willingness to participate in voluntary on-line tests, completion and results of final exams, as well as results of student satisfaction surveys. Our results indicate that gamification is able to improve IT course quality though it cannot solve all possible problems arising during such courses.

Research-oriented learning provides students the opportunity to develop their research competences by experiencing research practice, this often happens in the surrounding of research associations with different universities and companies. This paper introduces a two-step approach to evaluate the research-oriented learning within a research association. First we conduct the evaluation of the research environment with the instrument of the adapted Collaboration Maturity Model (Col-MM) to see whether the collaboration network and the management is able to support the students in their learning process. Additionally, we take into account the evaluation of the students’ research competence. This approach targets the assessment of the starting conditions of the students and to compare their performance level until the end of the research association project phase. These two evaluation phases provide the potential to create an ideal research environment and consequently enable the students to develop and improve their research competence.

It is uncommon to learn, work and grow up in a world without technology and so it is pertinent to explore exactly how digital learning assists in preparing our future workforce. Employers often note that new graduates (or the ‘new’ employees) lack critical thinking and problem solving skills and have poor communication, as their experience is often restricted to a worldview limited by a digital communication lens. This brief paper argues, therefore, that the need for developing critical thinking skills has never been more apparent as graduates/new workers transition to employment. The conference theme is Teaching and Learning in a Digital World and this paper investigates the what, how and why technology benefits learning. The Rowley and Munday (2014) Sense of Self model underpins the theoretical paradigm that encourages individuals to experience digital technologies to support critical thinking by exploring their own self-efficacy as a learner. Authentic learning is discussed via a simulated learner setting where individuals create evidence of their own professional or personal identity (or a hybrid of both) and discuss how utilising a reflexive process to create a portfolio (as both a learning and teaching tool) can support improvements in critical thinking. The paper concludes with strategies for exploring how we encourage students and/or new employees to reflect on the what, how, why and who of themselves through a critical thinking process associated with self-reflection and portfolio creation. Understanding the progressive ways portfolio process and products can be used to develop a professional identity through encouraging students to reflect and connect themselves to multi faceted professional identities benefits life long learning for future work readiness.

An intellectual capital represents all resources that determine the value of an organization, and the competitiveness of an enterprise. We would like to develop the intellectual capital of our students to simplify their adaptation to ways of working in IT companies. This paper presents a proposal to design a creative ecosystem for helping students to become more prepared for the real-life work on IT projects. We started with the SCRUM methodology; next, we applied some selected methods of active learning and continued with supporting software tools Slack and Sli.do. Our motivation was to achieve better students’ performance, timely delivery of the results and a high employment rate of our graduates. We discussed our preliminary results with participated IT companies and based on their positive feedback, we agreed on extended collaborations, e.g. invited lectures, interactive workshops or competitions for students.

In order to increase an effectiveness of the practice-oriented and dual training, the joint computer-based corporate training systems for educational institutions’ students and companies’ employees shall be developed. In practice of the Russian education this activity is carried out via the basic departments created by universities and colleges at industrial works and companies. Such projects use modern computer-based training systems as a software information base.However, the modern training systems do not take into account the specifics of training in project activities, such systems are not integrated with CAD packages and project repositories, and the designers’ project activity is not assessed.A goal of this research work is to enhance the competences of trainees (students and employees) through the development and implementation of methods, models and tools for project solutions’ analysis, and through the formation of personalized training on basis of the uniform intelligent project repository.

In 2013, a new IT university was launched in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, to contribute to the improvement of Computer Science education in Russia. The project is being supervised by the Ministry of Communications of the Russian Federation, and by the government of the Republic of Tatarstan. At ICL2013 in Kazan, Innopolis University (IU) announced its development plans, based on research findings [2], regarding instructional approach and curriculum development [3]. This paper aims to report on the current situation at Innopolis University, which is now in its 5th year of operation and is about to produce its first BSc graduates. The paper also presents Innopolis University’s plans in terms of partnerships with academia and industry, faculty profile, curriculum development, instructional methods, student profile, student recruitment practices.

Modern societies need young people who are able to think creatively, to collaborate well across multiple disciplines and to use new scientific, technical and engineering knowledge to achieve effective results. This brings a requirement for better teaching and learning approaches that can operate through a real world perspective where complex systems and problems are all around us. This paper describes the development of a framework designed to empower 2nd level teachers to achieve this by using Ubiquitous, Mobile, and Internet of Things technologies to enhance their approaches to teaching engineering and science subjects to their students. We provide a methodology and design approach towards forming and developing a Community of Practice (CoP), as a knowledge management schema for this and we describe exemplars from the engineering domain to illustrate the approach.

The blind encounter great difficulties in independent movement in an open environment. There are various systems that support their orientation usually based on devices such as suitably adapted GPS, cameras, RFIDs and their respective software. But there are no computer-assisted systems that would help with teaching blind children to move without exposing them to danger. It seems that a good idea for constructing such an assistant system would be to replace a physical reality with the help of suitable computer software in which the semantic technologies are used.

This paper deals with the problem of automated testing of students in the absence of a computer room. A computer system that meets the basic requirements for the simultaneous testing of groups of students is mobile and inexpensive due to its single-computer-based design has been developed and described. The system has sufficient options to conduct testing and questioning of students.

This paper proposes the technology of using own mobile devices based on BYOD concept for testing educational outcomes of students. The technology is based on Google cloud services, which provide a comprehensive support to the testing system from the creation of appropriate forms and storage of results in cloud data storage to the processing of test results and management of the testing system through the use of Google-Calendar service. The stages and types of testing of the educational outcomes based on Google search services using BYOD concept are described. It is noted that the use of BYOD concept extends the testing frameworks in space and in time, makes the testing procedure more flexible and systematic, adds elements of gameplay to it.

Freshmen students of computer science usually are a highly heterogeneous set, especially regarding their initial programming skills, which range from none to professional. As well, students are unequally equipped with essential base competencies, and differ in their respective pace of learning and the amount of practice they need to get new skills under their belt. As a consequence, every student requires an individual learning path to meet his or her specific needs. To ensure an efficient learning progress, it is crucial to select additional exercises for the students’ self-study phases appropriately, so that they really meet the individual student’s current need. Therefore, we developed a concept and implemented a prototype for a tutoring system that supports individual learning paths by providing each student with exercises that specifically address his or her specific needs and take existing skills and competencies into account.

According to recent research [1, 2], the latest generation technology causes disturbing forms of dependence on children, young people and adolescents, as well as increasing concentration and abstinence problems with obvious cognitive consequences and school behaviors. Moreover, subtle forms of solipsism would affect our young people; young people would try to solve such solipsism in virtual relationships that are consumed predominantly in social networks.Our thesis is that educative and cognitive training of new technologies implies knowledge of the thinking that supports its use, which in turn is the basis of a young person’s creative action and effective learning. We have identified the operational strategies in Educational Robotics. This article represents a reflection based on the work done with the teachers who participated in the course on Educational Robotics held at the Summer School organized by the Epistemology Laboratory of Euresis Training at the University of Ferrara and by the Robocup jr Italia State Network in Stresa (Italy) in August Of 2016. Chapters 1 and 3 are assigned to Prof. Anita Gramigna and Chaps. 2 and 4 to Dr. Poletti.

Integration of mobile devices in the multimedia delivery systems provides the users (learners or business people) with access to multimedia content outside the classroom (workplace). It allows them to easily store, record and deliver multimedia content in real-time. Process of delivering multimedia content to the users requires more computational resources than mobile device can provide. In order to provide users with multimedia content that is suitable for their mobile devices and according to their needs we introduce the mobile cloud (mCloud) computing environment as paradigm that is ideal to overcome these problems. The proposed interactive mCloud system should provide high scale collaboration and interaction between the users. The system is designed for delivery of multimedia learning content to the users according to the user’s cognitive style. The content is adapted according to the context-aware network conditions. In this paper, we provide some experimental results based on experience of 90 users (students) that participated in the m-learning cooperative process. After completing the course of Database Systems, the users estimated the Quality of Experience (QoE) by using a Learning Scenario Questionnaire.

The rapid progress of technologies has enabled the development of innovative environment in learning activities when the student used computer devices with access to Internet. The goal of this paper is to propose an ambient intelligent (AmI) system, directed at the teacher that indicates the level of attention of the students in the class when it requires the use of the computer connected to the Internet. This AmI system captures, measures, and supervises the interaction of each student with the computer (or laptop) and indicates the level of attention of students in the activities proposed by the teacher. When the teacher has big class, he/she can visualize in real time the level of engagement of the students in the proposed activities and act accordingly when necessary. Measurements of attention level are obtained by a proposed model, and user for training a decision support system that in a real scenario makes recommendations for the teachers so as to prevent undesirable behaviour and change the learning styles.

The article highlights the promising ways of providing access to the cloud-based learning and research software in higher educational institutions. It is emphasized that the cloud computing services implementation is the actual trend of modern ICT pedagogical systems development. The analysis and evaluation of existing experience and educational research of different types of software packages use are proposed. The general model of formation and development of the cloud-based learning and research environment of educational personnel training is substantiated. The reasonable ways of methods selection on the basis of the proposed model are considered and the prospects for their use in educational systems of higher education are described. The analysis and assessment of the prospects of the cloud-based educational and research environment development is fulfilled.

An extended Algarysh grant from the Republic of Tatarstan, Russian Federation was awarded to KNRTU. The goal of the project was to introduce PBL to the faculty, to develop a PBL training manual for interested faculty and to apply the PBL approach to several classes of students at the university as a demonstration of its effectiveness. This paper gives the structure of the classes, describes the project management lecture content and the related practicum, describes the projects that were undertaken during this program and finally evaluates the impact of the program using student survey and open-ended comments. For the undergraduate and master students, the experience was unique in their education, as many had never worked in teams on a project. Their feedback was highly positive. In general, faculty acceptance was limited to the younger faculty with senior faculty being resistant to the new techniques of PBL.

Education of engineers at Higher Technical Colleges is completed after five years with a final degree that requires the realization of a diploma thesis. In the presented paper the development of a recoil measurement device and first measurements are presented based on students work within diploma theses and on the study of teachers who supported the diploma theses within SciReAs, the scientific research association at the EUREGIO HTBLVA Ferlach. As the strength of recoil is an important property in security and weapon engineering, it is of huge interest of the Higher Technical College EUREGIO HTBLVA Ferlach to be able to perform and analyze these kind of measurements. Furthermore, it is planned to study the behavior of the human body on the occurring recoil when shooting a hunting rifle or a sports gun.

This paper addresses the issue of English-Medium Instruction (EMI) in European higher education, which has been referred to as ‘the language of higher education in Europe’ [1]. It outlines the goals of this new phenomenon, analyses the current situation and evaluates potential limitations. It investigates how, using team-teaching, inverted classrooms and active classroom techniques, potential hurdles may be reduced. How, through careful planning and coordination, students and teachers alike, can be prepared for the new challenge of teaching and learning content through English. It goes on to outline a systematic approach, coined by the authors as the Topic Oriented Mixed-Method System (TOMMS), where each topic is initially addressed in a contact lesson with a Language Teaching Expert (LTE), to prepare students, it then introduces them to the theory in self-study sessions, before applying the theory, under guidance of the Content Expert (CE), in tasks and projects. This paper provides a holistic mixed-methods pedagogical approach to address the issue of knowledge transfer in EMI programmes using state of the art methodologies to allow the LTE to support the CE in planning and teaching of content. It offers higher education institutes (HEIs), who may be averse to teaching content courses in English, an effective system to implement EMI and, for those that already have, it offers ways to improve the efficiency of them.

The significant role of ICT in everyday life could change concepts about skills, education and learning.The digital fluency means not more to use of ICT tools (browsing, chatting, interacting etc.), but also to be able to design and create something new with the possibility of new media and to be more than an ordinary user, to be a creative creator. Create a program is one of the possibilities that supports parts of computational thinking and helps express yourself, explore the range of computers and yourself, involve external representation of problem solving processes, and to reflect on your own thinking – and even to think about thinking itself.Men majorly dominate the IT sector. On average 30% of the tech jobs around the globe are filled with women, but in Europe this number is even lower, only 7%. The reasons behind the decaying numbers root in our culture too. To meet more women on this field we have to change the mindset of the kids – attitudes of boys and girls, too.The work presented in this study focuses specifically on the improvement of developing and organizing a competition in Scratch for creative groupwork for girls, called Scratchmeccs (ScratchMatch). 2017 was the second year that we could organized this event. We used background questionnaire and would like to study the workflows in groups and what influence the successful groups.

This paper is dedicated to improve the skills of Electric Engineering students about Industrial Automation. This is done creating a set of practical exercises in the laboratory that allow students to interact with didactic and industrial equipment understanding the compatibility problems and give students the tools, the knowledge and even some creative freedom to solve problems that happen in real situations. In this case it is focused on the interconnection of equipment from different manufacturers using the Modbus protocol. To allow to the students this practical study, it was developed a solution based on the Modbus RTU protocol directly implemented in the program memory of both S7-200 (using the Freeport configuration mode) and S7-300 PLCs. The solution allows a gateway between Modbus-TCP (over a Master TSX PLC from Schneider-Electric) and Profibus-DP (over a Master S7-300 PLC from Siemens).

Teaching industrial automation is a complex mission. The classical approach is based on lectures and laboratories assisted by teachers. Nevertheless, teaching industrial automation is not easy because this multidisciplinary area requires knowledge in control, energy, electronics, robotics and computer engineering, among others. In this way, this paper presents an approach to teach Industrial Automation based on a self-learning strategy. Instead of using only the classical approach where they use didactic back boxes with a particular system, students must also develop a research work and a didactic automation prototype. Since the approach is based in the autonomy and self-learning, the evaluation of this methodology indicates that students increase the interest about industrial automation and clarify important aspects of assembly, commissioning, parameterization and programming of electric and electronic devices. Additionally, this methodology seems to increase their self-confidence, apart from the necessary background to face the challenge of working in the real world. The feedback from employers is also very satisfactory.

This paper presents the development of an Escargot Nursery by a multinational and multidisciplinary team of 3rd year undergraduates within the framework of EPS@ISEP – the European Project Semester (EPS) offered by the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP). The challenge was to design, develop and test a snail farm compliant with the applicable EU directives and the given budget. The Team, motivated by the desire to solve this multidisciplinary problem, embarked on an active learning journey, involving scientific, technical, marketing, sustainable and ethical development studies, brainstorming and decision-making. Based on this project-based learning approach, the Team identified the lack of innovative domestic snail farm products and, consequently, proposed the development of “EscarGO”, a stylish solution for the domestic market. The paper details the proposed design and control system, including materials, components and technologies. This learning experience, which was focussed on the development of multicultural communication, multidisciplinary teamwork, problem-solving and decision-making competencies in students, produced as a tangible evidence the proof of concept prototype of “EscarGO”, an Escargot Nursery designed for families to easily grow snails at home.

This paper reports the collaborative design and development of Helios, a wearable UltraViolet (UV) meter. Helios is intended to help preventing the negative effects of over-exposure to UV radiation, e.g., sun burning, photo ageing, eye damage and skin cancer, as well as of under-exposure to solar radiation, e.g., the risk of developing vitamin D shortage. This project-based learning experience involved five Erasmus students who participated in EPS@ISEP – the European Project Semester (EPS) at Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP) – in the spring of 2017. The Team, motivated by the desire to find a solution to this problem, conducted multiple studies, including scientific, technical, sustainability, marketing, ethics and deontology analyses, and discussions to derive the requirements, design structure, functional system and list of materials and components. The result is Helios, a prototype Wearable UV Meter that can be worn as both a bracelet and a clip-on. The tangible result was the Helios prototype, but more importantly was the learning experience of the Team, as concluded from their closing statements.

Recently, The Tecnológico de Monterrey (ITESM) in Mexico has launched the Tec21 Educational Model. It is a flexible model in its curriculum that promotes student participation in challenging and interactive learning experiences. At the undergraduate level, one of the central scopes of this model is addressing challenges by the student, to develop disciplinary and cross-disciplinary skills. Two institutional strategies have been implemented to reach the ultimate goal of the ITESM, to work in all careers under the Challenge Based Learning (CBL) system: the innovation week (i-week) and the innovation semester (i-semester). Here we report on the results of four i-week and one i-semester models implemented in 2016. The i-semester was carried out in conjunction with a training partner, the worldwide leader Pharmaceutical Company Boehringer Ingelheim. Thirteen Sustainable Development Engineering career students were immersed for a 14 week period into the strategies to solve real-life challenges in order to develop the contents of four different courses. Six teachers of the academic institution and four engineers from the Boehringer plant served as mentors. Continuous evaluations were carried out throughout the abilities examination and partial and final examinations were performed by both experts, from the company and from the University.

Electronic course development tools for web-based training make crucial prerequisites to meet the target group instructional design requirements, and ways it has to be delivered to the trainees. The unsatisfactory situation in teaching technical subjects was an incentive to search for the innovative forms and methods of education and modernizing the educational process, and a stimulus to apply them into educational practice. The authors draw attention to the design of methodology for development of multimedia presentations with elements of e-learning. They introduce the design, development and implementation of Multimedia Educational Aid (MEA) developed on the basis of the proposed methodology, multimedia processing and Flash, PHP and XML technology. They used this tool in the educational process of secondary technical and vocational schools in Slovakia with emphasis on achieving greater clearness of abstract concepts included in the thematic unit “Electricity”. Conducting research methods, they investigated experimental and control group of students using Niemierko’s taxonomy of educational objectives and Simpson’s taxonomy of educational objectives to verify the seat up hypothesis. The aim was to raise the students’ active approach to this issue. The paper presents results achieved by natural pedagogical experiment.

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest for collaborative training in risk management. One of the critical point is to create educational and entirely controlled training environments that support industrial companies (in aviation, healthcare, nuclear...) or hospitals to train (future or not) professionals. The aim is to improve their teamwork performance making them understand the importance applying or adjusting safety recommendations. In this article, we present a method to design multi-player educational scenario for risk management in a socio-technical and dynamic context. The socio-technical situations focused in this article involve non-technical skills such as teamwork, communication, leadership, decision-making and situation awareness. The method presented here has been used to design as well regular situations as well as critical situations in which deficiencies already exist or mistakes can be freely made and fixed by the team in a controlled digital environment.

Education is an important service which can be financed from local sources of a country. However, many countries have a large uneducated population, people who are unable to make significant progress. International organizations have been calling for different ways to support the education sector for a long time. What determines the success of a development program? This study provides an insight into some programs, pilots and the socio-cultural background of the participants. It is based on participant observation and ethnographic interviewing methodology.

Crowdsourcing is the latest revolution brought by the digital technologies of computing and communication. It is a nowadays popular way of finding services, concepts, or content by asking contributions from a large group of people, particularly from users. According to Jeff Howe, crowdsourcing generally refers to the participatory online activity of calls for individuals to voluntarily undertake a task. The key elements of a crowdsourcing project are the open call format intended for an enormous network of potential contributors. It is a revolution that brings people together and harnesses their collective intelligence. Crowdsourcing in an online, distributed problem-solving model that pulls the collective intelligence of online communities to assist explicit goals. Online communities, or crowds, are given the opportunity to answer to crowdsourcing activities requested. In crowdsourcing, there is no clear frontier between the subjects of a research and the researchers themselves. It differs from traditional outsourcing as it involves a random, volunteer crowd and not previously selected group of individuals. A crowdsourcing - along with big data and citizen science – is a key part of an important scientific, methodological and educational phenomenon. With advent of crowdsourcing, a paradigm shift can be witnessed in information procurement, transfer, storage and processing as well as in learning. In the practice, crowdsourcing forms a firm bond with the phenomenon of wisdom of the crowds and user-generated content.

This paper is focused on the problem of repetitive strain injuries in hands. These injuries are mostly related to professional activities where people are subjected to a high rate of work and the performed tasks often lead to repetitive actions. The objective of this paper is to develop a serious game to prevent strain injuries in hands. The game scenarios promote warm-up and stretching off hand exercises that should be executed before and after the working period. The game is developed in Unity software, associated with a 3D sensor, Intel RealSense 3D Camera F200 for hand and movements detection. With the activity implementation in companies and establishments the employees will be able to exercise their hands, thus reducing the risk of being affected by strain injuries.