Research and Practice of Active Learning in Engineering Education [1 ed.] 9789048504831, 9789085550914

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Copyright © 2005. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

Research and Practice of Active Learning in Engineering Education

Editors Erik de Graaff Gillian N. Saunders-Smits Michael R. Nieweg

Copyright © 2005. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

Research and Practice of Active learning in Engineering Education

Research and Practice of Active Learning in Engineering Education, Amsterdam University Press, 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central,

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Copyright © 2005. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

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Research and Practice of Active Learning in Engineering Education, Amsterdam University Press, 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central,

Copyright © 2005. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

Research and Practice of Active learning in Engineering Education

Editors: Erik de Graaff Gillian N. Saunders-Smits Michael R. Nieweg

Research and Practice of Active Learning in Engineering Education, Amsterdam University Press, 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central,

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To Alouschka and Malou, for your dedication and time. an Active Learning experience to remember.

Lay-out: Alouschka van Dijk and Malou Godet

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Publisher: Pallas Publications, Amsterdam University Press Editors: Erik de Graaff, Gillian N. Saunders-Smits & Michael R. Nieweg ISBN 90 8555 091 2 Copyright © Pallas Publications – Amsterdam University Press, 2005 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book.

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Contents Editorial Part 1: Research and Theory on Active Learning 1. The task takes over: assuming too much in online collaborative Learning

7 11 12

2. What can teachers learn from what students say about PBL?

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3. Is Active Learning more efficient than traditional learning?

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4. An evaluation of elements of project based learning in Civil Engineering Z. Adam Krezel, Peter Ling 5. The effect of online user-driven formative assessment

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6. Active Learning in Engineering: Examples at Tecnológico de Monterrey in México

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7. Enhanced learning abilities from a POL (project oriented learning) greenhouse production course compared to traditional POL courses.

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Part 2: Curriculum Development 8. Active Learning and the Process of Science: Beyond Information Skills

70 71

9. Integral Test as a Crowbar for Curriculum Design and Professional Development

79

10. Integrated training trough projects: Example in Engineering Thermodynamics

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11. Towards a new way of applying problem based learning in an undergraduate calculus course: the case of redesigning an engineering building

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12. Introducing active learning activities in an introductory physics course at the Universidade de Caxias do Sul

101

13. Preparing for the workplace, practice and considerations

107

Michael Christie, Fariba Ferdos, Maria Spante and Ann-Sofie Axelsson

Geneviève Moore, Benoît Raucent, Anne Hernandez, Bernard Bourret, Daniel Marre Raucent B., Galand B., Frenay M., Laloux A., Milgrom E., Vander Borght C., Wouters P.

Mariëlle den Hengst, Marie José Verkroost

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Darinka Ramírez-Hernández & Noel León-Rovira

Eleazar Reyes

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Maurits Ertsen, Jan Kooistra, Rudi Stouffs Rinus Huisman, Wim Blok, Alex Kemps Bernard Lemoult

Pilar Gonzalez, Antonio Serrano

Valquíria Villas-Boas, Osvaldo Balen, Helena Libardi and Véra Lúcia da Fonseca Mossmann

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Gerard Oosterloo 14. Towards a sustainable engineering education and practice in Nigeria

114

15. Creating innovative products teaching learning approach

120

16. Early exploration: a project-based approach

127

Part 3: Faculty and Facilities 17. Information literacy as support to active learning and vice versa

136 137

18. Active learning for net generation students

142

19. Theatrical skills in higher engineering education: captivating both teachers and students

150

Part 4: Good Practice of Active Learning 20. An example of active learning in Aerospace Engineering

155 156

21. Active learning in biomedical engineering

164

22. The challenge of teaching a software engineering first course

170

23. Project week bachelor degree built environment, Working on location – Town Centre Almere 2005 Cilian Terwindt, Herman

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24. Experimental mechatronics education at Monterrey Tech

183

25. Morphologic design based on active learning

192

26. System dynamics projects presented by poster: product and process synthesis

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27. Active induction of first-year students at the University of Chile

205

28. Effectiveness of the Course of Entrepreneurial Development, in the development of the entrepreneurial profile of the student

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29. Active learning through inspection

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Olorunfemi, B. I. O. Dahunsi Norma F. Roffe

Mark Somerville and John Geddes

Pernille Andersson and Åsa Forsberg Ellen Sjoer, Wim Veen

Toine Andernach & Gijs Meeusen

Vincent Brügemann, Harald van Brummelen, Joris Melkert, Aldert Kamp, Bernard Reith, Gillian Saunders-Smits, Barry Zandbergen Ákos Jobbágy

Rubby Casallas, Luz Adriana Osorio, Angela Lozano Hensen

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Rubén Morales-Menéndez, Ricardo A. Ramírez-Mendoza. Jorge Limón-Robles Naoko Takeda, Carlos Ortiz Gloria Perez Salazar

Patricio Poblete, William Young, Sergio Celis, Rodrigo Palma, Ramón Verdugo, Claudio Foncea, Carlos Gherardelli, Roberto Avilez, Mauricio Ramírez. Rafael E. Alcaraz Rodríguez Tim Heyer, Albin Zuccato

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Research and Practice of Active learning in Engineering Education Editorial Erik de Graaff, Gillian Saunders-Smits & Michael Nieweg

Copyright © 2005. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

As society evolves the educational formats adapt to changing needs. One explanation for the increasing popularity of Active Learning methods in engineering curricula is the growing awareness that it is no longer possible to train engineers for a life long career within a comparatively short period. A modern engineer needs competencies in teamwork and communication skills in order to be able to apply technical knowledge in various circumstances (de Graaff & Ravesteijn, 2001). When knowledge is insufficient, or has become obsolete, the engineer must be able to gather additional information efficiently. Therefore “learning to learn” has become one of the most important learning goals in engineering education. Some engineering educators use Active learning as a synonym of concepts like “problem based learning” or “learning by doing”. In other instances the choice of didactic method is left open and a didactic method is considered to be activating depending on the degree to which it succeeds in exciting study behaviour. The common denominator in the variety of different formats of Active Learning is that the students are stimulated to take responsibility for their own learning. The following advantages of Active Learning are regularly mentioned (de Graaff, E., & Christensen, 2004): 1. To train engineering students in applying knowledge in practice situations 2. To train communication skills 3. To raise awareness of ethical en environmental issues 4. Preparation for a career of ‘life long learning’ 5. A lever to start off educational innovation projects Presently, most European Universities of Technology apply one or another variety of Active Learning methods in their curricula. Competency based education trains students to act as ‘masters of their own education’. Applying Active Learning is the logical consequence. Delft University of Technology is a frontrunner among the schools that use Active Learning methods as a means to promote innovation. The Hogeschool van Amsterdam has along standing tradition in designing curricula based on ‘learning to learn. Since the year 2001, the international network Active Learning in Engineering education (ALE) organized a series of international workshops.

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The ALE network started as an informal international collaboration between teachers and educational developers. The initiative to the cooperation was taken in 1999 by the Ecole des Mines de Nantes, France and Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia under the name ‘Innovation in Engineering Education’. The ALE mission is ‘to bring active learning back into engineering education’ (Christensen et al, 2003). The ALE cooperation is based on workshops for people dedicated to better teaching, from institutions ready to implement new teaching methods, and collaboration of workshop participants between the workshops.

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The ALE workshops do not pretend necessarily to break new ground, but aim to provide a focused forum for the exchange of ideas and mutual enrichment for teachers and institutions. The workshops are real workshops, where the participants work by means of brainstorming activities for new ideas, hands-on exercises and interactive poster sessions. The first ALE workshop took place at Universidad Simon Bolivar in Caracas, Venezuela in January/February 2001. Since then we have had International ALE workshops in 2002, jointly hosted by the Technical University of Denmark and Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, in 2003 at Olin Engineering College near Boston in the USA and in 2004 the ALE workshop was hosted by Ecole des Mines de Nantes, in collaboration with the Curriculum Development Working Group (CDWG) of the European Society of Engineering Education (SEFI). The Fifth International ALE workshop will take place in the Netherlands from June 8-11, jointly hosted by the Amsterdam School of Technology and Delft University of Technology. Like last year’s workshop in Nantes, the workshop is a joint activity with the SEFI CDWG. Following the principle “teach as you preach” we want to avoid the traditional conference format of paper reading during the workshop. Instead we have asked the contributors to prepare Hands on Sessions, Panel Discussions or Interactive Poster Sessions. In preparation for the workshop we have asked the contributors to write papers elaborating on their experiences with Active Learning. Together, the papers collected in this book reflect “the state of the art” of Active Learning in Engineering Education today. This book is produced in the first place in order to make the content of the contributions available to the participants of the ALE 2005 workshop. However, we feel that this overview of experiences in research and practice could be useful as a source of inspiration for educational innovation for all engineering educators. The papers have been divided into four groups: Research on Active Learning, Curriculum Development, Faculty & Facilities, and Good Practice. The papers in the first section provide research outcomes on Active learning. In the second section papers have been collected discussing experiences of introducing Active Learning in an Engineering Curriculum. The application of new educational technologies results in the creation of rich learning

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environments, calling for Active Learning. In the section Faculty & Facilities we have placed three papers aiming at creating a stimulating learning environment. The fourth section consists of examples of Good Practice from different engineering disciplines from all over the world We hope you will enjoy this book and may it help you to find inspiration for educational innovation. Erik de Graaff, Gillian Saunders-Smits and Michael Nieweg Delft – Amsterdam, June 2005

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References Christensen, Hans Peter; Bernard Lemoult, John Miller-Jones, Mauricio Duque, José Tiberio Hernández, 2003, ALE: The international Active Learning in Engineering Education network, In: Alfredo Soeiro & Carlos Oliveira (eds.) Global Engineer: Education and Training for Mobility Proceedings of the annual SEFI conference, Porto, September 7-10 2003. Graaff, Erik de & Wim Ravesteijn, 2001, Training Complete Engineers: Global Enterprise and Engineering Education. Eur.J.Eng.Ed. Vol 26, N0 4, 419-427. Graaff, E de, & HP Christensen (Eds.). 2004. Theme Issue Active Learning in Engineering Education European journal of Engineering Education 29 (4).

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Copyright © 2005. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

Part 1: Research and Theory on Active Learning

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Chapter 1 The Task Takes Over: Assuming Too Much In Online Collaborative Learning Michael Christie, Fariba Ferdos, Maria Spante and Ann-Sofie Axelsson Chalmers University of Technology Göteborg, Sweden E-mail: [email protected] SUMMARY In this paper we refer to a case study carried out at Chalmers University of Technology to investigate aspects of the use of virtual environments in collaborative and active learning. When people work together in virtual environments, using different systems, their assumptions, background, abilities and the systems they use can lead to misunderstandings and non collaborative behaviour. We took for granted that collaborative learning should be a conscious working together to achieve a common goal. This is an important generic capability in engineering education and can be engendered in many different ways. We wanted to test some of the obstacles and some of the aids to such collaborative learning in virtual settings. The activity that we used was the solving of a virtual rubrik’s cube puzzle. We were interested to see how the pairs helped each other solve the puzzle and what would happen if we had the pairs swap places and equipment half way through the 20 minute exercise. A key finding was that in a competitive tertiary setting, with highly motivated students, the task seemed to take over and individuals focused on solving the problem rather than on the stated purpose of the exercise, namely, to engage in and reflect on collaborative learning in a virtual environment.

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KEYWORDS:

Active, collaborative, online learning, virtual environments 1. Introduction We learn best by doing. Active learning in engineering education is a movement based on this principle. In this paper we present an experiment in active, online learning where we investigate some of the conditions that help or hinder effective learning online, especially when that learning involves collaboration with others. Our interest in the area stems from the fact that more and more engineers are required to solve problems online, using sophisticated equipment. As companies move offshore to obtain the benefits of low labour costs they can encounter situations where troubleshooters at head office have to assist local engineers to solve problems with equipment or processes. Good communication is at the heart of any such collaboration. But good communication is based on the ability to recognise

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that one’s view of the world, including the world of work, is based on certain assumptions that others might not share. Interrogating those assumptions is the first step in establishing clear communication in online collaborative teaching, learning and problem solving. In their book The university of learning, Bowden and Marton (2000) make the point that universities prepare students for an unknown future. Because of this it is important that students develop generic skills that will help them come to terms with a rapidly changing world. In this paper we argue that some of the most important skills engineers need are: the ability to acknowledge and question their own paradigmatic assumptions, the awareness that others see the world differently, and the ability to communicate clearly especially in cross cultural situations. For our experiment we selected eighteen doctoral students from diverse disciplines. Four out of the fourteen were women, which was a fair representation of the gender distribution within most faculties at Chalmers University of Technology, the institution at which this study took place. The group was mixed in terms of language and culture. There were a majority of Swedes but the group also included students from other countries. All the doctoral students at Chalmers are required to teach part time as a condition of their employment and were, at the time, taking part in a compulsory pedagogical course. The course was given in English and the group had meet three times previously for full day workshops. On the fourth day, as others took turns to teach 15 minute ‘mini lessons’ pairs of students were taken out to complete a task which involved solving a simple rubrik’s cube problem using different online tools. Two members of the research team directed the exercise and carried out the interviews. A third member was an independent observer while the fourth acted as a participant observer. The aim and nature of the experiment is described below. 2. Aim of the experiment The participants who took part in this exercise were told that they would be working online but in separate locations and on separate systems. They would have a few minutes to familiarise themselves with the equipment, ten minutes to work on the task before switching places and twenty minutes altogether to complete the task. They would be able to communicate verbally (by means of headsets with microphones and earphones.) and although the idea was that they should solve a simple problem in a given time the object of learning was pedagogical rather than practical. In other words we informed the participants that we hoped both the researchers and participants would increase their understanding of effective online collaboration. The systems differed in that one was immersive (a virtual reality cube – see picture) while the other was not (a desktop computer arrangement). The immersive system used was an IPT system, a 3x3x3 meter TAN VR-CUBE with stereo projection on five walls (no ceiling). The application was run on a Silicon Graphics Onyx2 Infinity Reality with 14 250MHz R10000 MIPS processors, 2GB RAM and 3 Infinite Reality2 graphics pipes. The participant wore CrystalEyes shutter glasses and used a 3-D wand for navigation. A Polhemus magnetic tracking device tracked the head

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via the glasses and the hand via the wand. The non-immersive desktop system consisted of a Silicon Graphics O2 with one MIPS R10000 processor and 256MB RAM and a 19-inch screen display. The dVise 6.0 software was used (Spante et alia, 2004). With the IPT systems, the subjects could move the blocks or cubes by putting their virtual hand into the virtual cube and pressing the button of the 3-D wand. On the desktop system, participants could navigate by moving the middle mouse button and could select the cubes by clicking on them with the left mouse button. To move the cubes, they had to keep the right mouse button pressed and move the mouse in the desired direction. They could also rotate the cube by pressing the right mouse button combined with the shift key. The movements of the avatar in the desktop system that was transmitted through the technology showed only the position of the avatar (no pointing) in relation to the virtual objects, visualized with a static avatar, whereas the avatar in the immersive system was dynamic and represented the user’s tracked movements. Both the IPT and desktop systems allowed the participants to ‘mark’ the cubes by selecting them, which made their outlines appear as dotted lines (which was also visible to their partner). The task was to solve a puzzle involving 8 blocks with different colours on different sides and to rearrange the blocks such that each side of the finished cube would display a single colour. The colours on the sides of the 8 blocks were red, blue, green, orange, yellow, white, and black. The participants got 5 minutes to orientate themselves to their environment before being allowed to communicate with each other and to start the task. No other rules were laid down. After completing the task the pairs were interviewed concerning their experience. (about 5 to 15 minutes). Focus groups involving between 4 to 6 participants were also used and these discussions took, typically, between 45 to 60 minutes to conduct. 3. Discussion of results Not all of the pairs solved the rubriks cube puzzle and for those that did very few solutions were truly collaborative. The most significant finding from the experiment and the interviews that followed was that participants did not take time to discuss with each other a common strategy for solving the problem. What tended to happen was that without too much preliminary discussion both individuals started rearranging cubes. In most cases they assumed that the other person had the same type of equipment as themselves. Rather than plan for collaboration individuals in the team seemed intent on solving as much of the puzzle on their own and in the shortest amount of time possible. There were exceptions of course. One pair said they began to collaborate early on. Those who started at the desktop were surprised, even challenged, by the fact that their partner seemed to be better than them. One of the participants said afterwards: “I thought it was a superman I had met that could do exactly as he pleased with his keyboard.”(D3). One Swedish male participant who was working with a female from overseas admitted: “We were not particularly communicative about what we wanted to do. (Laughs). We weren’t so used to each other and seemed to be working on our own most of the time. So I guess there

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wasn’t that much collaboration…in any event we didn’t solve the problem. It was an exciting experience. Perhaps language was a barrier. I don’t know” (D1). Another participant, D4, thought, like many others, that he and his partner sat in a similar situation, using similar equipment. He was surprised to find the systems differed and that one seemed easier to use than the other: “I thought it was much easier to move the cubes when one was in the VR cave than when one sat at the workstation. Up there it was harder to rotate the cubes and so on. It would have probably been much more effective for the person at the workstation to simply talk about what colours were on the other sides of the cube and let the one in the VR cave do the whole job of moving them around” (D4). What D4 had to say about the two systems was confirmed by many of the other participants. Although the person in the VR cave could manipulate the cubes more easily it was not so simple to see the sides of the cubes. One tended to walk around or bend down to work out the colours. D4 and his partner could joke about their lack of cooperation later: “I thought that was funny when you said ‘Hey do we have a strategy on this?’. (Laughs). Well clearly we didn’t. You didn’t think we had either. (Laughs)”. In the absence of any strategy, D4, the most competent member of the pair took over the task. His partner, D13, a male doctoral student from another country, said: “You know we started with no strategy at all. That was actually bad because we didn’t see what to do next. But during this final stage we understood each other better and that was a relief. I think M has a lot of imitative and it was really him who solved this cube thing. But I think it is a good way of trying to solve a task in team work”. Given that collaboration was cited as a specific aim of the exercise D13’s assessment is of particular interest. His partner, D4, tended to take over and culturally it was natural for D13 to let this happen rather than argue for a greater share in the action. In another study carried out by one of the authors (Ferdos, 2004) a similar thing happened but the reason was, arguably, gender rather than cultural conditioning. The women, who were a minority in collaborative group work exercise, felt that it was all right to hand over responsibility for solving online problems to some of the more capable males. They agreed to write up the report as their contribution. Unfortunately, because the men did the problems they got to practice them and were subsequently better at answering similar problems in the exam. The women on the other hand did very poorly in the exam. In the experiment that we report on here there were other examples where the less confident or less technically competent partner handed over responsibility to a more technically adept person, once again in the interests of solving the problem quickly. In one example a participant, who was an older person with a humanities rather than a science background, agreed that his partner should solve the problem alone. In his interview he said: “I think it was bad communication but I would blame myself as much as N. It seemed, maybe if we would do it properly we might have to make some ground rules but when he was down there (in the VR cave) he decided that it was really easier to do it down there than up here. I think because of my

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background it might have been just as hard for me down there as up here. But he could see that difference. So once he decided it was easy for him down there I handed over responsibility to him so we got the task done” (D14). What was interesting from our observations of the pair work and the subsequent interviews we held, is that many of the pairs felt positive about working together even though they did not communicate in a strategic way at the beginning of the exercise. Of the 18 participants 11 commented in a positive way about collaboration while 3 felt that they could have solved the task without a partner. Only two reported that their collaboration did not work at all. Most thought that their collaboration improved after having changed systems, and thought that they used this knowledge about how the different systems worked to improve their collaboration (Spante et al., 2004): “I thought it (the collaboration) worked well. I thought it worked very well when one knew, when one had tried out each other’s tools. In the first instance one did not know what kind of capabilities the other had. I noticed that he could move around much easier but I did not know if that was because of him being better to manage the terminal or what it was. I didn’t know that he was down here (VR cave), that he had a tool like this. It became much easier after, when one knew, then we could divide the work better between us.”(D7) 4. Conclusion The most significant pedagogical finding from our study is that an early verbal exchange about each other’s actual situation would have enabled the pairs to work in a much more collaborative way. A simple checklist based on four questions would have made a significant difference to the collaborative nature of the activity. The questions we suggest are: Why are we doing this? How can we do it best? How will we know if we have succeeded? How might we do it better next time? In answering the first question the pairs would have been encouraged to see that the task itself, as intriguing as it was, was not intended to be the main purpose of the exercise. They had been told they were to engage in collaborative online learning and then reflect on it. So the answer to the first question would be: ‘This exercise is more about good collaboration than speedy problem solving’. An answer to the second question would lead naturally to queries about the system that the other person was operating. Just knowing that one person was in a VR cave while the other was sitting at a desktop would have enabled them to come up with a problem solving strategy earlier rather than later. This in turn could lead quickly to a division of labour that suited the different capacities of those systems. Knowing each other’s abilities, background and limitations would also have helped as long as the original aim was followed. Since it was collaboration that counted involvement was important even if it slowed down the actual solving of the rubrik’s cube problem. Solving the problem would be one way of knowing the pair had succeeded but sharing in the solution was an even more important criterion. The final question on the checklist (How to do it better next time?) would encourage analytical reflection on the collaborative learning experience and deepen the individual’s awareness that others might have different approaches to

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problem solving and different styles of communicating. It is paradoxical that a number of participants had so much a fun (especially in the VR cave) and were so highly motivated to solve the problem that they forgot that the main idea was to collaborate. The task took over. One participant said: “Without voice communication it would have been difficult, so it (doing the task) was crucial”(D8). And yet despite this acknowledgment of the capacity and need to communicate he admitted that he became so engrossed in the task (especially while in the VR cave) that he sometimes forgot his partner altogether: “Since I did not see him, or rather he was over there so to speak, he was not close to the cubes. Then it was very easy to forget (him) …not until I was working alone I thought: oops, now I’m doing too much!”(D8) Participants in this exercise revealed that in any type of collaboration the individual brings to the common task a set of assumptions. When the task is to be done online, using different types of equipment in different settings it is very important to be aware of those assumptions, to question oneself about them in the light of the task and its purpose and to share them with one’s colleague. Assuming the other is like you or in a similar space is poor start to a collaborative process that relies on mediated rather than face to face communication. The exercise we carried out showed how easy it is to fall into such a trap. Collaborative online learning and problem solving will be improved if those involved are made aware of this and given simple guidelines to encourage clear, timely communication. References A.-S. Axelsson,

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‘The digital divide: status differences in virtual environments’ in R.Schoeder (ed), 2002, The social life of Avatars: presence

and interaction in shared virtual environments, London: Springer. J. Widerström, 2000, ‘A comparison of virtual and real environments’ Proceedings of the ACM conference, New York: ACM. J. Bowden and F. Marton, 2000, The university of learning: beyond quality and competence in higher education. London: Kogan L. Örhström et al., 2004 ‘The pedagogical implications of using MATLAB in integrated chemistry and maths courses’, submitted to the European Journal of Engineering Education, October 2004. M. Christie and F. Ferdos, 2004, ‘Engendering good learning in groupwork’, paper presented at the EARLI Higher Education SIG conference, ‘Optimising learning environments in higher education, Tallin, Estonia, 18-21 June 2004. M. Christie and F. Ferdos, 2004, ‘The Mutual Impact of Educational and Information Technologies: Building a Pedagogy of Elearning’, submitted to The Journal of Information Technology Impact (JITI), September 2004. M. Christie, 2002, ‘Identifying, implementing and assessing the generic capabilities of the good engineer’ Paper published in The renaissance engineer of tomorrow: proceedings of the 30th annual SEFI conference, Florence, Italy, 8-11 September 2002. M. Christie, 2003, ‘Transformative and transferable learning in Engineering Education’, Paper published in The Global Engineer: education and training for mobility, Proceedings of the 31st annual SEFI conference, Porto,

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Portugal, 7-10 September 2003. M. Spante et al., 2004, ‘How Putting Yourself into the Other Person’s Virtual Shoes Enhances Collaboration’ Conference paper written as part of a Doctoral Thesis currently being undertaken at Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden. M. Spante, 2004, ‘Shared Virtual Environments: Technology, Social Interaction, Adaptation and Time’. Licentiate Thesis, Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden.

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Chapter 2 What Can Teachers Learn From What Students Say About PBL? Geneviève Moore, Benoît Raucent, Anne Hernandez, Bernard Bourret, Daniel Marre UCL, Belgium, INSA-Toulouse, France E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

SUMMARY Implementing a PBL reform is an opportunity for teachers to stop and think about what they are doing, about their public and the aims of the training they provide. Even if they do not always reflect on it actively, teachers are de facto in a position to observe and analyse their own work as well as the students’ work and attitudes: commitment, involvement, creativity, lassitude, worry, demands, etc. The Faculty of Engineering of the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLBelgium) started a completely revised curriculum based on Problem and Project Based Learning in 2000 and Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Toulouse (INSA-Toulouse) introduced a pedagogical reform based on PBL in 2003 This paper presents results of studies conducted at UCL and INSA Toulouse on the student perceptions of the educational system. The aim is to bring out the common views and discrepancies between teaching staff and students in an active learning context. KEYWORDS:

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active learning, student perceptions, Project and Problem Based Learning 1. Introduction Introducing a new pedagogical approach is an opportunity for teachers to stop and think about what they are doing, about their public and the aims of the training they provide. It is therefore important to measure the effect of the reform, Rogers (1997), Vander Borgth (2003). Studies demonstrate the importance of the perception of the learning environment on the performance of students. This paper will therefore focus on the relationship between objectives and expectations, motivation and student perceptions. Two studies have been conducted on two different active learning implementations: at UCL and at INSA-Toulouse. Our aim is to bring out the common views and discrepancies between teaching staff and students in those two active learning contexts.

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2. Contexts 2.1. UCL-Model The model implemented at the Faculty of Engineering of UCL is based on Problem and Project Based Learning (P2BL). In September 2000, the curriculum of the first two years moved to a new integrated approach. By integrated we mean that all disciplines (mathematics, physics, computer sciences, etc) are concerned by the new pedagogical approach. The new curriculum is based on 6 terms of 11 weeks each, followed by 3 weeks of final examinations. Each term is structured around a multidisciplinary project and includes about 10 single discipline problems (in mathematics, physics,...). A typical student week now contains between 15 and 18 hours of scheduled contact hours (including 4 to 6 hours of lectures) compared to 22 to 24 hours in the previous curriculum (including 12 to 14 hours of lectures). The student groups (6 or 8) are constituted randomly for each term. The objectives of the new curriculum aim mostly at enhancing deep and meaningful learning, to promote high level capabilities, to develop student motivation and autonomy, and to facilitate team work. The curriculum itself is entirely based upon active and collaborative learning approaches.

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2.2. INSA-model The implementation of PBL has been rather different at INSA Toulouse where PBL courses are being introduced gradually. We apply the same course pattern as UCL and the aims in terms of improving the quality of students’ learning, motivation, autonomy and team work skills are very similar. In the first year about 200 students and 12 teachers were concerned. This year 800 students and about 25 teachers are involved and several new projects are planned to be implemented next year. The aim here has not been to change over from ‘classical’ teaching to PBL in the radical and interdisciplinary way it has been done at UCL but to include PBL gradually with the teachers who were willing to invest time and energy in the change. 3. UCL study 3.1. Methodology Results reported in this paper are based on a general study performed by a close collaboration between professors, students, members of the Institut de Pédagogie Universitaire et des Multimédias and researchers of the Chaire de Pédagogie Universitaire at UCL. The objective of this study was to carry out a comparative evaluation, before and after the reform, of the following topics: - Students’ performance with respect to academic contents - Student perceptions as to the educational system - Professors’ perceptions as to their teaching tasks and as to the students We present here only the trends that were identified by this study about student perceptions. Other phases are described in Frenay 2003), Galand (2002, 2005),Van der Borght (2003) and Raucent (2005). In order to measure a possible evolution of student perceptions, the process

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has been conducted over a four year period with 2 cohorts of students who went through the previous curriculum and 2 cohorts of students from the new curriculum. A multiple choice questionnaire was constructed on the basis of a compilation and translation of various scales that were selected after an extensive review of the literature, see Vander Borgth (2003). Students were asked to answer on a 5-point scale, ranging from “Not at all” (1) to “A lot” (5), e.g.: “teachers take our suggestions into account, “the various activities are well-coordinated”, etc. One box was devoted to personal remarks and suggestions. 3.2 Results Results of the comparison between students from the lecture-based curriculum and PBL curriculum indicate large differences in the way students perceive the instructional practices they are confronted with, Galand (2005).

Perceived instructional practices

Students from the PBL curriculum report more academic support, more supportive teacher-student relationships and more practices making links between theory and applications than students from the traditional curriculum. This effect suggests modifications in instructional practices that are consistent with the principles of PBL. But students from the PBL program also report more work overload and less coherence in the program and the assessments. They view organizational support more negatively.

Motivational beliefs

Analyses indicate no significant difference between cohorts regarding perceived ability, learning goals, performance goals, and work avoidance.

Self-regulation strategies

Students from the PBL curriculum report using more adaptive strategies (especially information search and monitoring) than students from the traditional curriculum. There is no effect for maladaptive strategies.

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Learning strategies

Students from the PBL curriculum report using more deep processing strategies (especially criticizing,) and less surface processing strategies (especially rehearsing) than students from the traditional curriculum.

Effort

Students from the PBL curriculum report more attendance and more study time than students from the traditional curriculum. It should be mentioned that most of the trends presented, such as deep processing strategies, difference in study time are no longer significant when one controls for academic support. This means the major factor seems to be the increase in academic support. 3.3. Discussions

Less coordination?

Results about instructional practices at UCL are consistent with the principles of PBL and with practices reported by teachers of the faculty. These results seem to reflect some difficulties in the implementation of the new PBL

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curriculum, maybe due to insufficient coordination among teachers. This is surprising because much effort was put into coordinating the curriculum. Each trimester a team of teachers, from all the disciplines involved, work together to construct the agenda, coordinate the activity, build an integrated project and define assessments, Raucent (2005). In the previous curriculum no particular effort was made to coordinate student work. How can we explain student perceptions?Two comments were reported by professors, Raucent (2005): 1. Efficiency of term coordination depends on “a spirit of collegiality” in the teaching team. It was reported that coordination works better when all members of the coordination team accept to share responsibility and accept to focus only on student learning. In other words, each professor should lose some autonomy (what we call academic freedom) for better curriculum coherence. Ramsden (2003) suggests that a new managing academic culture should be installed. 2. Student assessment is composed of continuous assessment once or twice per term and final assessments at the end of the year. Continuous assessment is basically multiple choice questionnaires in order to provide students with a rapid feedback whereas the final assessments are based on “open questions”. The problem in the student perceptions is probably due to the fact that multiple choice does not prepare to open question assessment. This problem is very important and shows once again that assessment is an essential but very difficult matter.

No difference in motivation?

Once again the result in the UCL study is surprising, because one important objective of the reform was to develop student motivation as suggested in some studies, see for example Evense (2000). This is probably due to the importance of assessment in our culture. Students report that the most important source of motivation is to “succeed in the assessment”. Changing this culture may take some time. Two year of PBL practice is probably not sufficient enough to change this. Copyright © 2005. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

More critical thinking?

We should add to the discussion that one of the major objectives of the new curriculum is to promote student autonomy and a critical attitude. Under the new curriculum students are pushed to be more critical in the group discussion as well as of the view presented by their professor. It is therefore absolutely normal that they become more critical of the curriculum itself. 4. INSA-Toulouse study 4.1. Methodology After eighteen months, a full investigation into students and teachers’ assessment of PBL could not be carried out as was done at UCL and would not have been significant or representative of the real impact of the pedagogical changes as they only concerned one fourth of the whole student population. However it seemed meaningful to test how PBL was perceived by students, who have followed such a course, by students who

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have not had the experience but may have heard about it from friends, and by teachers. Given the pattern of the implementation the danger was that certain inaccurate ideas may develop between the perceptions students and teachers may have of PBL over the months. Our study aimed at drawing an accurate picture of the actual perceptions of the various actors in the school to refocus on the main aims of PBL and to compare the outcome of the study with some aspects of the UCL results. About 300 students and 20 teachers were asked to fill in the same questionnaire. It consisted in a quantitative study with a set of closed questions on learning, motivation, interpersonal aspects, intrapersonal aspects, resources and workload. The statements were deliberately formulated not to invite comparisons between PBL and other courses. Respondents were asked to state their agreement or disagreement on a scale from 1 to 5 including a ‘no opinion’ entry. This study was complemented by a more qualitative one with four open questions for respondents to express freely their perceptions of the strong points of the PBL method, the difficulties a student may encounter, student expectations from a tutor, and the implementation of pedagogical change. They could also state personal suggestions or comments. 4.2. Results The study shows that students who have not followed a PBL course either have no opinion on all or some questions or have very similar perceptions to those of students who have experienced PBL. The comparison below refers therefore to all student respondents and teachers.

Learning

The majority of teachers believe PBL leads to more in depth learning whereas only 50% of students agree with this. Students, on the other hand, seem more aware of their learning processes in PBL than teachers thought was the case. However, in the open questions, a large number of students indicated that the active participation required in PBL contributed to better understanding and memorization of new knowledge.

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Motivation

Students are motivated both by the challenge of the problem and group work but not quite to the extent teachers think. The open questions reveal that students at this stage perceive PBL as working in a group rather than collaborative learning.

Interpersonal aspects

Perceptions of the interpersonal aspects of PBL (moral contract between group members implying a greater sense of responsibility and involvement, communication skills, and an ability to work within a team) are similar for students and teachers. For a large majority, these elements are believed to be enhanced in a PBL context. This is confirmed by the replies to the question concerning the strong points of the method. It must also be pointed out those problems between group members (lack of commitment from one or more members of the group, poor communication skills) are seen as the main difficulties that may hamper the success of the method.

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Intrapersonal aspects

Both populations indicate that PBL contributes to the development of a critical approach. A majority also considers that it develops autonomy, but the proportion of students is slightly smaller. Autonomy is quoted by many as one of the strong points of the method. The same is true for the development of problem solving skills but this time the proportions are inversed. The open questions also show that students gain in self confidence and initiative within the group and for autonomous learning.

Resources

The usefulness of the project booklet is not fully appreciated by students and teachers alike. A marked difference in perceptions concerns the role of the tutor as providing support for learning seen by practically all teachers but only half of the students. The dialogue between students and teachers is seen to be improved by all but yet again by a smaller proportion of students. In the replies to the open question concerning the student’s expectations from a tutor, both teachers and students identify the role as guide. Students are more in demand of direct answers to their questions whereas teachers are concerned about guiding students towards their own answers.

Workload

There is absolute agreement on the fact that PBL increases the workload of students. However, it is interesting to note that teachers feel their own workload has been increased while this is perceived by a very small proportion of students, as more than half feel there is little or no change for teachers.

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4.3. Discussion The implementation of pedagogical change is overwhelmingly perceived as stimulating which is very encouraging and satisfactory. The introduction of PBL is appreciated by all but a handful of students. The study reveals a number of challenges which need to be faced to strengthen the basis of the reform.

Preparing for change

For some students, the new learning situation where the teacher no longer ‘teaches’ but, as a tutor, guides them in their learning can be difficult to adapt to. Is it as clear for students as it is for teachers involved that there has been a real shift of roles and that traditional expectations are no longer there to be met? The pressure students’ doubts put on tutors may also be disturbing for the latter particularly when they are new to teaching. There is a need for ongoing collaboration among tutors as well as preparation for the new approach. One question prevails: How much preparation is in fact needed for new roles to be understood and accepted by both parties alike?

Handling autonomy

In PBL, students experience the conflicting situation where they feel unsure of their moves and yet enjoy the autonomy they are trusted to develop. It is hardly surprising that they request strong guidance as they want to be reassured that they are on the right tracks. A tutor’s intervention

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has to be tactful enough not to hamper autonomy but to build the students’ confidence in their learning initiative.

Learning outcomes

Concern about what and how much students are learning is a core matter for students and some teachers. Improvement in the quality of learning in PBL is recognized but not easily measurable. Long term acquisition and patterns of learning will only prove to have been effective in years to come. In the short term, it is necessary for assessment to be seen as appropriate and explicitly adapted to decrease the anxiety of students about the learning outcomes.

Critical thinking

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Involving students in their learning encourages them to develop an awareness of the various aspects of the learning context. It is hoped that they understand that the focus of their learning should not exclusively be on the mark they obtain but on the processes and strategies they develop. For this to be meaningful, students must be in a position to call into question the project, the project booklet, the tutor’s attitude, etc. Explicit formulation of their questions and comments is essential to progression and the tutor has to be able to take that on board. This type of dialogue may be new to both parties and may take some time to develop harmoniously. 5. Integrated/pilot approaches? There appears to be significant differences in student perceptions in the UCL and INSA studies on the following topics: student motivation and academic support. This may come from the fact that UCL has an integrated approach and therefore students cannot compare approaches. On the other hand, the INSA model is composed of PBL courses running within a “classical” curriculum, it is therefore easy for students to compare and appreciate motivation provided by the PBL approach. In the same way, at INSA students compare teaching attitudes and there is a greater demand for a traditional role of the tutor and for example direct answers. In the integrated approach students have a clearer understanding of the tutor’s role. The preparatory session organized at UCL during the first week of the curriculum might provide a good method to clarify this role. 6. Conclusions The results of the studies support the idea that the implementation of a PBL curriculum has induced more student self-regulation and higher quality learning. Moreover, they suggest that these effects could be attributed to an increase in coaching. Nevertheless, the results also highlight some pitfalls in the implementation of this method that may undermine its effects and that may have negative consequences in the long run if not regulated. It shows that a careful monitoring of innovation is often very useful. Taken together, the results of this study indicate that a problem-based curriculum is an effective and viable way to increase the cognitive engagement of undergraduate students.

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Acknowledgement The authors wish to thank all the students and staff who took part in the studies and at UCL more particularly E. Bourgeois, M. Frenay, B. Galand , K. Bentein, E. Milgrom, C. Vander Borght, P. Wouters References Aguirre E., Jacqmot C., Milgrom E., Raucent B., Soucisse A. et Vander Borght C. (2001), Meeting the needs of our stakeholders: engineering a new engineering curriculum at UC Louvain, SEFI Conf., Copenhagen, 12-14 Sept. Dochy F., Segers M., Van den Bossche, P. and Gijbels D. (2003), Effects of problem-based learning: A meta-analysis. Learning and Instruction, 13, 533-568. Evensen, D.H. & Hmelo, C.E. (Eds.) (2000). Problem-based learning: A research perspective on learning interactions. Mahwah (NJ): LEA. Frenay, M., Bourgeois, E., Galand, B., Wouters, P. & Vanderborght, C. (2003, April). Faculty Involvement in Teaching Tasks within a Changing Curriculum Context: Role of Institutional Supportive Context. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago. Galand, B., Bourgeois, E. & Frenay, M. (2002). Développement et

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validation d’un outil de mesure permettant d’évaluer l’effet d’un dispositif pédagogique. Actes du 19ème Colloque de l’Association Internationale de

Pédagogie Universitaire. Institut de pédagogie universitaire et des multimédias, LLN, Belgique. Galand, B., Bourgeois, E., Frenay, M. (2005). The impact of a PBL curriculum on students’ motivation and self-regulation. Cahiers de Recherche en Education et Formation, 37,1-13. Harris A. and Bennett, N. (2001), School effectiveness and school improvement: Alternative perspectives. London: Continuum. Howell D.C (1998), Méthodes statistiques en sciences humaines (trad. M.Rogier), De Boeck. Raucent B. and Vander Borgth C. (2005), APP efficace? Perte de temps? Magister ou metteur en scène ? De Boeck Université, to appear. Ramsden P. (2003), Learning to lead in higher education, Routledge and Falmer, London and New York. Wertz V., Wouters P., Aguirre E., Delsarte P., Dupret F. , Vandeuren J.P., Vitale E. (2000), Problem based learning for a mathematics course in first year engineering, Proc. Of 2nd Int. Conf. On Problem Based Learning in Higher Education, Linköping, Sweden, Sep 2000, pp 71.

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Chapter 3 Is Active Learning More Efficient Than Traditional Learning? Raucent B., Galand B., Frenay M., Laloux A., Milgrom E., Vander Borght C., Wouters P. Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) – Belgique E-mail: [email protected] SUMMARY In September 2000, the Faculty of Engineering of the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL-Belgium) started a completely revised curriculum based on Problem and Project Based Learning (P2BL). Students and professors moved from a culture based on knowledge transmission centred on the teacher to a culture of appropriation centred on the student. What are the actual outcomes to be expected from active learning? In order to provide an answer to this question, a study was set up to carry out a comparative evaluation, before and after the reform, of the following items: (i) students’ performance with respect to academic content, (ii) students’ perception of the educational system, (iii) Professors’ perception of their teaching tasks and of their students. This paper presents phase (i) of a study related to student performance in academic subjects. KEYWORDS

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active learning, efficiency of active learning 1.Introduction In September 2000, the Faculty of Engineering of the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL-Belgium) started a completely revised curriculum based on Problem and Project Based Learning (P2BL) for the 350 first year students of the 5-year engineering curriculum. Students and professors moved from a culture based on knowledge transmission centred on the teacher to a culture of appropriation centred on the student. A reform with such ambitious goals generates huge expectations. An article in the Economist (December 2001) devoted to reforms in university pedagogy concluded that the two traps to be avoided are excessive expectations and early discouragement. What can really be expected from active learning? More precisely, the question asked by many teachers is: Can better student performance be expected at the end of the curriculum? Or, at least, can we be assured that student performance will not be worse than was the case in traditional approaches, since a non-negligible part of the new curriculum is devoted to the acquisition of non technical competencies? Intuitively, most of our colleagues think that efficiency can only be measured through students’ success rates. Traditional examinations are certainly an important element of information on the performance of educational systems, but they should not be considered as the sole relevant

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indicator. The Faculty of Engineering at UCL decided, early on in the reform process, to compare the efficiency of the new curriculum with that of the previous one using appropriate and soundly grounded methods. A close collaboration has been established among professors, students, members of our Staff Development Institute (Institut de Pédagogie Universitaire et des Multimédias), and researchers with the Chaire de Pédagogie Universitaire at UCL in order to set up and to run the study. The objective of this study was to carry out a comparative evaluation, before and after the reform, of the following topics: • Students’ performance with respect to academic contents • Students’ perceptions as to the educational system • Professors’ perceptions as to their teaching tasks and as to the students This paper presents the first phase of this study, related to student performance in academic subjects. The other two phases are described in Frenay (2003), Galand (2002, 2005) and Vander Borght (2003) 2. Context 2.1. Why change at all? Even though our graduates are certainly highly valued by industry, a lingering sense of dissatisfaction had taken hold of our faculty for a number of reasons: low student motivation, high drop-out rate, shallow mastery of course material, low retention rate, little demonstration of higher-order skills, not enough initiative or autonomy, etc, Aguirre (2001). Within this context, a new curriculum was launched in September 2000. The preparation process preceding this launch took more than two and a half years. In the early phases, staff members of the faculty of engineering defined general objectives to be achieved by the new curriculum. These objectives have been grouped into the categories displayed in . Table 1. Some of the general objectives of the new curriculum

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Motivation • • •

students’ motivation has risen students are happy to learn staff are happy to educate

•

high level competencies (synthesis, analysis, problem-solving strategies) are acquired students know how to evaluate themselves students are able to build and exploit models scientific knowledge coming from different disciplines is integrated

Competencies • • •

Content •

deep and meaningful scientific learning is enhanced

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Socio-relational • •

students take an active part in their own education staff work together efficiently

Ethical •

students are aware of the roles and responsibilities of engineers in Society ethical problems are identified

•

the number of engineering students has increased

•

Economic

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The objectives of the new curriculum aim mostly to enhance deep and meaningful learning, to promote high level capabilities, to develop student motivation and autonomy, and to facilitate team work. The curriculum itself is based entirely upon active and collaborative learning approaches. 2.2. UCL-model After further reading and several visits to foreign institutions both in Europe (Delft, Maastricht, Aalborg) and in the U.S.A.(Delaware), our preference went to active, self-directed, self-assessed, small group, partially tutored project and problem-based learning – P2BL - which is our own concretization of the principle of “learning by doing” in small groups. This model fits very nicely into the learning theory we adhere to, socio-constructivism: problems and projects are situated in realistic professional contexts, and we systematically incite our students to build upon existing knowledge to acquire new knowledge, while interacting with other learners. The new two-year curriculum is based on 6 11-week trimesters, followed by 3 weeks of final examinations. Each trimester relies on a multidisciplinary project and includes about 10 single discipline problems. It is worth pointing out that a typical student week now contains between 15 and 18 hours of scheduled contact hours (including 4 to 6 hours of lectures) compared to 22 to 24 hours in the previous curriculum (including 12 to 14 hours of lectures). The student groups (6 or 8 students in the case of our first year) are constituted randomly at the onset of each trimester. We do believe that our mix of projects and problems is quite unique. Many institutions have opted more decisively either for problem-based or for project-based learning. We felt that both models exhibit strong qualities, but that their conjunction would yield even better results in an engineering curriculum. We use projects mostly to develop interdisciplinary and longerterm (11 weeks) approaches, while problems are used mostly within a single discipline and over a shorter time span (1 week). Our hypothesis is that problems allow our students to delve in a more controlled way into disciplinary topics than projects, thereby ensuring that essential topics are not be merely stemmed over.

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3. Methodology The objective being to compare students’ performance with respect to academic content before and after the reform, it was decided to “take a picture” in the middle of the third year, i. e. six months after the end of the two reformed years. The measure was performed by means of a test submitted to four student generations, two of which went through the previous curriculum and two of which went through the new one. The test was designed by thirteen professors, from various subject areas, who were not directly involved in the new curriculum. The questions involved: • writing a summary of a scientific text in English, • understanding and applying definitions of scientific concepts and value estimations, • reasoning on an electro-mechanical system, • Solving differential equations (mathematics). The complete test took 2 hours and was proposed to students who freely volunteered. The questions were of course kept confidential as well as the results. Only the researcher of the Chaire de Pédagogie Universitaire knew the students’ names. Over the four years, 486 students took part, i.e. about one third of all the students. Students’ answers were graded together after the fourth year by two independent graders using specific indicators (which had been designed simultaneously with the questions). The reliability of the graders was assessed in order to avoid bias. None of the graders knew anything about the students who wrote the answers they were grading.

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4. Results 4.1. First comparison The first way to analyse results is to compare answers from students of the previous curriculum and students of the new curriculum for all 76 indicators used by the graders. Table 2 presents a general overview for the 4 questions. It can be seen that more indicators are in favour of students who went through the new curriculum. Table 2. Indicators in favour of one group of students. Number of indicators Number of indicators favourable to previous curriculum Number of indicators favourable to the new curriculum

Q1 16 1

Q2 31 0

Q3 13 0

Q4 16 1

5

8

13

3

4.2. Comparison by criteria However, due to the number and variety of indicators, it is very difficult to establish a clear trend. A set of criteria was therefore defined for each question. Each criterion was graded on a scale from 0 to 1.

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Even with these criteria, it is not easy to identify trends clearly. In fact, it should be noted that even on a scale from 0 to 1 the graders mostly use values from 0.3 to 0.85. This means that a difference of 0.02 should be considered relatively to the maximal interval of 0.55 and not the theoretical maximal interval. The t-Student statistical test, see Howell (1998), was used to compare the means and variances of the two student groups. Another element that should be taken into account is the probability that a result is obtained mostly by chance. For example, it is possible that a result may depend on the fact that a given student did not take part in the test. The probability “p” of each result is evaluated in regard to the number of participants. If p is equal to 0.09 this means that there is a 9% probability that this result is due to chance. Usually, in education science, specialists consider that a value of p lower that 0.05 (less than 5% probability that the result is due to chance) is required for a result to be significant. 4.3. Q1: Writing a summary of a scientific text in English The question is as follows:

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“Read the following article in order to write an abstract. Write a one paragraph abstract in French, 10-line maximum. Before writing, think about the objectives of an abstract and what it should ideally contain.” For this question the 16 indicators were combined into 3 criteria: • Ideas - the summary contains the main ideas of the text • Reasoning - arguments are clearly presented • Language - the summary is well structured and the language is correct Figure 1 presents the results. The following trend can be observed: students who went through the new curriculum: • Give better central ideas in the summary than those from the previous curriculum • Have a reasoning equivalent to others • Have a better language structure than the others. p=0,02 t= -2,34

1,000 0,800 0,600

p=0,07 t= -1,84

0,400

p=0,77 t= 0,28

0,200 0,000 Ideas

Raisoning

Language

before

0,435

0,403

0,855

after

0,458

0,395

0,890

Figure 1. Question 1 (scale 0 to 1). However, only the Ideas and Language criteria can be regarded as relevant

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because they have a low probability of being obtained by chance (p equal to 0.07 and 0.02). 4.4. Q2: Understanding and applying definitions of scientific concepts and value estimations This question is written as follows:

1. Define (as precisely as you can): • The first law of thermodynamics • An eigenvector • A magnetic field 2. Restate the first law of thermodynamics in your own terms and illustrate its application. 3. Give and justify an approximation of the following quantities: • torque applied by a cyclist to the crank gear • power developed by a cyclist • work done by a cyclist after one hour’s cycling • … The 31 indicators were combined into the following criteria: • Definition - definition contains the principal elements (conservation of energyis mentioned, al terms presented in the definition are defined) • Justification - own words explanation is correct and understandable, illustration is good • Approximation - approximations and explanations are correct Results presented in Figure 2 show students from the new curriculum: • Produce a better explanation than other students • Give a more accurate estimation of the quantities. 0,500

p=0,01 t= -6,60 p=0,01 t= -7,25

0,400

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0,300 p=0,01 t= -7,27

0,200 0,100 0,000

Identification

Explanation

Time calculation

before

0,310

0,028

0,093

after

0,440

0,085

0,253

Figure 2. Question 2 (scale: 0 to 1)

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4.5. Q3: Reasoning on an electro-mechanical system This question is written as follows:

The figure shows a device that distinguishes 2€ coins from other coins: Plateau de mesurage

Iin = 0

R = 10 KΩ

Ampli Vo

Vout(t) Co = 16 nF

• • •

Buzzer

C1 = 1 µF

Explain, in your own words, what happens when a 2€ coin is placed on the measuring scale. Give a simplified electrical schematic of the system. Give and justify a choice for the value of Vout and for the amplification factor needed to separate 2 Euros coins from other ones. Estimate the time needed for detection. Give the main steps of your calculation.

The 3 criteria are: • Identification - the key elements are well identified • Explanation - explanations are correct • Time calculation - estimation of the time is correct 0,500

p=0,01 t= -6,60 p=0,01 t= -7,25

0,400 0,300 p=0,01 t= -7,27

0,200

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0,100 0,000

Identification

Explanation

Time calculation

before

0,310

0,028

0,093

after

0,440

0,085

0,253

Figure 3. Question 3 (scale 0 to 1) Results given in Figure 3 show that students from the new curriculum: • Delimit the problem more clearly than other students • Give a better justification of their choice • Produce better time estimations. It should be noted that the probability that these results may be obtained by chance is 0.01. This means that such results are very relevant. Based on the graders comments, it also appears that students from the new curriculum use drawings more adequately.

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4.6. Q4: Solving of differential equations This question is written as follows: A chemical reaction proceeds as follow: A→B→C A, B and C masses are time dependent and are noted a(t), b(t) and c(t). Differential equations describe their evolution: da/dt = – k1 a db/dt = k1 a – k2 b dc/dt = k2 b . The boundary conditions are : a(0)=M, b(0)=c(0)=0 and it assumed that: k2>k1>0. • Prove that there is conservation of the total mass m(t) • Give an approximation of the time evolution of a(t), b(t) and c(t). • Give the solutions a(t), b(t) and c(t) • When is mass b(t) maximum?

The criteria for this question are: • Reasoning: the reasoning is correct • Solving the equations: solutions are correct • Maximum of b(t): the maximum is correctly calculated p=0,48 t=-0,70

0,800 0,700 0,600 0,500 0,400

p=0,02 t=-2,39 p=0,60 t=-0,52

0,300 0,200 0,100 0,000

Reasoning

Solving the equation

Maximum of b(t)

before

0,343

0,660

0,105

after

0,395

0,670

0,120

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Figure 4. Question 4 (scale 0 to 1) Results given in table 4 show that student from the new curriculum: • Solve equation better than other students • Give as good approximation of the masses the other students 5. Discussion A close look at the results year by year shows the following: • Students’ performance increases gradually each year. The most credible explanation of this fact is that the introduction of new teaching practices is progressive. Some professors took time to move to the new approach whereas others anticipated the reform and made experiments with students from the previous curriculum (see for instance Wertz 2000). • Students who went through the new curriculum obtained better results than the other students for all 4 questions. The difference is highly identifiable for question 3 (problem solving).

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6. Conclusions In the introduction we cautiously reformulated the question “What can really be expected from active learning?” by “Can we be assured that student performance will not be worse than was the case in traditional approaches?” (Primum non noscere…). In fact, the study does not show that students suddenly became more competent thanks to the new curriculum. However, it does show a certain number of positive effects, especially when students are confronted with complex problem-solving tasks. Our study reinforces results obtained by Dochy (2003) in his meta-analysis: • The impact of PBL is negative or nil in the short term for knowledge itself, but positive in the long run. • The impact of PBL is positive in the short and long term when applying

knowledge.

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It should be mentioned that some authors argue that it is difficult to evaluate the impact of a new curriculum in such a short time span (two years). Usually modifications take 3 to 5 years to produce measurable effects, Harris (2001). Finally, it should be pointed out that this study focused on student performance with respect to academic content. The reform has other objectives such as improving communication skills, working in groups, etc. which were not evaluated by this study. Other effects such student as motivation or self-regulation have been investigated in the other studies (student s’ perceptions as to the educational system and Professors’ perceptions as to their teaching tasks and as to the students. Acknowledgements The authors whish to thank all the participants in the study: students who performed the test, and professors who proposed questions and who graded answers: L. Bolle, C. Jacqmot, A. Laloux, E. Milgrom, P. Van Dooren, D. Van Hoenacker, M. Verleysen, F. Thyrion, I. Motte, D. Johnson, T. Pardoen, A. Nève, F. Dupret, M. Sintzoff, O. Masson, D. Vanderburgh, J. Stillemans, C.Bailly, P.Godart, L.Hanet, Ngoc Diep Ho, A.Lenain, E.Milgrom, T.Pardoen, F.Simon, P.Sobieski, C.Trullemans, P.Van Dooren, D.Zastavni, J.G.Simon, D.Vanderbugh. References Aguirre E., Jacqmot C., Milgrom E., Raucent B., Soucisse A. et Vander Borght C. (2001), Meeting the needs of our stakeholders: engineering a new engineering curriculum at UC Louvain, SEFI Conf., Copenhagen, 12-14 Sept 2001. Dochy F., Segers M., Van den Bossche, P. and Gijbels D. (2003),

Effects of problem-based learning: A meta-analysis. Learning and Instruction, 13, 533-568.

Frenay, M., Bourgeois, E., Galand, B., Wouters, P. & Vanderborght, C. (2003, April). Faculty Involvement in Teaching Tasks within a Changing Curriculum Context: Role of Institutional Supportive Context. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, USA.

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Chapter 4 An Evaluation of Elements of Project Based Learning in Civil Engineering Z. Adam KREZEL, Peter LING Swinburne University of Technology, Australia E-mail: [email protected]

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SUMMARY This paper reports on a project-based approach to teaching a first year Civil Engineering subject: Civil Engineering Project (CEP). A range of strategies was used to evaluate two elements of the subject delivery: the individual and group-work system of assessment; and the student support system. This first year subject runs in the second semester. In the first semester, in the Professional Engineering subject, students have the opportunity to discover basic elements of modern civil engineering practice, including principles of engineering design and engineering projects. In the CEP subject, students have the opportunity to consolidate their pre-existing and newly acquired engineering knowledge and apply it in a real world engineering project. Each year students work, concurrently with professional teams, on a design and/or building project in the metropolitan Melbourne area. This paper reports on the 2004 CEP where students were required to analyse the design of the greenest office building in Australia, the new Council House (CH2) for the City of Melbourne and to suggest feasible improvements.A range of evaluation methods was incorporated in the CEP subject, which elicited feedback from internal and external stakeholders at various stages of the project. In this project-based subject, students are heavily involved in the evaluation process. The impact of evaluation on students learning as well as on the progress of the project at hand was examined. The paper reports the findings of the progressive and final evaluations and the actions taken subsequent to the evaluation. 1. Introduction A future model of university might well include such important features as intensive industrial interaction and community service. The industrial interaction with local and regional partners will include both design and delivery of engineering curriculum and the community involvement will include students working on community projects (Evans, 2003). The expectations placed on universities by the society and professional institutions are constantly changing and teaching strategies tend to reflect the need for change and to incorporate current knowledge on how we learn. The features of current innovative and future learning environment include; facilitated learning where knowledge is structured around major concepts; utilisation of learner’s prior knowledge, which is the starting point in

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effective learning; development of self-monitoring learning; development of self-belief of ability to learn which is fuelled by empowerment and encouragement; recognition and accommodation of differences in the way people learn; realization that learning is shaped by the context in which it occurs; and that learning can be strengthen by collaboration (Evans, 2003). The objectives of the CEP subject reflect expectations of the Engineers Australia, a professional association which accredits engineering courses in Australia. The subject aims to develop and enhance a set of skills and attributes that will enable civil engineering graduates to: • Effectively apply knowledge of basic science and engineering fundamentals, • Communicate effectively, not only with engineers but also with the community at large, • Understand problem identification, formulation and solution, • Utilise a systems approach to design and operational performance, • Function effectively as an individual and in multi-disciplinary and multicultural teams, with the capacity to be a leader or manager as well as an effective team member, • Understand the social, cultural, global and environmental responsibilities of the professional engineer, and the need for sustainable development, • Understand principles of sustainable design and development, • Understand professional and ethical responsibilities and commitment to them, and • Understand the need to undertake lifelong learning, and capacity to do so. It seems that project based learning has a potential to best address the societal and professional needs for engineering graduates who are confident, proactive, technically competent and are team players (IEAust, 1996). 2. The learning context The CEP subject, which runs in the second semester, is a part of a foundation year for civil engineering students comprising also of the first semester module, the Professional Engineering subject. Both subjects aim at presenting students with opportunities to realise what generic skills and existing knowledge they posses, and to realise how highly valued and very important those skills are in modern engineering practice. The learning activities in these foundation subjects provide students with opportunities to apply those skills in real life engineering tasks, which are becoming also a part of modern engineering curricula. The CEP subject presents students with opportunity to further develop their communication, research, knowledge-sharing and teamwork skills. Students become a part of a learning community, which allows each and every student to realise their potential and excel as an individual but also to find themselves in a team environment of up to 50 students and support group of up to 15 professionals. In such a learning environment, where students develop a very high level of self-motivation, the use and furthering of written and verbal communication as well as deep understanding of

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principles and conformance to effective teamwork are intrinsic. Adopted organisational structure of students reflects on an integrated nature of the CEP subject, where a team of students (18 to 25) responsible for the whole project is divided into a number of small groups (6 to 9). Each group is responsible for a design of a particular part of the project and is expected to propose a construction method. The suit of groups reflects on most of the sub-disciplines of the civil engineering including traffic engineering, roads, geotechnical, structural, water and environmental engineering. Effective communication between groups, the need for collaboration and information dissemination allow each student to be involved and gain basic knowledge about the whole civil engineering discipline as well as allow students to put in context another concurrently studied or future subjects of civil engineering curriculum. Students also gain a more specialised knowledge in the field of their work, which often reflects their initial interests in civil engineering. 3. The learning theory behind the problem-based approach The underlying theory that informs the approach undertaken here is the ‘constructivist’ notion that students bring to their learning understandings (and mis-understandings), skills and propensities to behave in certain ways, and that they build upon them or modify them in learning situations; constructing new understandings, skills and behaviours. Students learn as they connect new knowledge and skills with what they currently know and can do – or to put it another way, they learn as the material becomes meaningful to them. As a consequence, what students learn and the way in which they integrate what they learn, will be individual. We add to this an understanding that students learn through interaction with their social and physical environment – that is that learning is situated. The environment includes the classroom but can extend beyond this. One facet of ‘situated learning’ theory is that students learn not only what is intended and overtly presented but learn subconsciously as they interact with others and their surroundings. A situated notion of learning suggests devising learning environments rich in potential for building knowledge, skills and attitudes. Starting from these premises, a problem-based approach to structuring learning has appeal. A problem-based approach usually involves group work. It challenges students with a loosely defined, ‘real-world’ problem relevant to the discipline and having the potential to extend student knowledge and skills, as well as to develop appropriate attitudes (Duch, 2001). A problem-based approach sits well with the concept of students constructing knowledge in interaction with their social and physical environment. Problem-based learning is divergent rather than convergent – there is no single correct outcome – and so it also accommodates the concept of individualised understanding. Problem-based learning has the potential, to develop generic skills such as working collaboratively, taking initiative, and honing communication skills as well as developing discipline related skills and understandings. The role of the teacher taking this approach is to select a real-world project

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with potential to challenge students and extend both their discipline-related skills and knowledge, and their generic skills, as well as to enhance their capacity to adopt behaviours appropriate for work in the field for which they are preparing. Thereafter, the teacher structures a presentation of the problem and stages in problem solving, organises support for students, and arranges for the assessment of outcomes. The teacher acts as a facilitator and may act from time to time as a coach or as a mentor. Given the value placed on diversity and on real-world applications, it is appropriate that a range of people have an involvement in assessment of the outcomes, including peers and representatives of the world outside the classroom. The approach taken in the present case reflects this understanding of learning and teaching. 4. Structuring the problem During the first meeting, students are introduced to two main aspects of the project; the engineering perspective and the project management perspective which includes organisational and operational systems adopted. Professionals directly involved in the design and construction of the project at hand, introduce the civil engineering perspective and technical requirements whereas the CEP coordinator introduces the project management aspects, the proposed organisational structure of the project team, proposed operational system and expected outcomes. Immediately after the first meeting, as a part of the skill development aspect of the subject and necessary adaptation to different learning approach, students are invited to negotiate some aspects of the subject with the CEP coordinator including group association, assessment variations and quality of expected outcomes. Following the introduction, negotiations and organizing the next stage of the CEP subject, which spans over four weeks, is devoted to helping students gain full understanding of the engineering aspects of the project as well as to clarify the roles, responsibilities and objectives of individuals, groups and project team. A conclusion to this stage is a mid-project presentation where students in teams and groups communicate their understanding of the project to other project stakeholders. Each team presentation follows with a discussion where students once again have opportunity to clarify their understanding of engineering fundamentals and understanding of the project with professionals directly involved with the project, as well as to confirm further requirements. The following stage allows students to use their curiosity and creativity as well as research skills and requires them to propose a viable alternative to an existing design and construction method, or if such alternative is impossible, to justify and endorse the existing once. Students follow simplified procedures and generate basic calculations to support their designs, which are verified by a group of experts (lecturers of civil engineering faculty) representing various civil engineering sub-disciplines. The final stage includes preparation of the project outcomes and preparation for a presentation of those outcomes to all stakeholders of the project and invited guests. The outcomes consist of a complete design documentation

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(engineering report, a set of specifications, calculations and engineering drawings), a design model and team PowerPoint presentation. 5. Application of a project based approach The 2004 CEP undertaken by the first year civil engineering students was a revolutionary office building in the metropolitan Melbourne. The new Council House (CH2) for the City of Melbourne set new standards in the design and construction of office buildings where sustainability and environmental performance play a dominant role. The Green Building Council of Australia awarded six stars for the design of the 10-storey building, which is now regarded as the world’s leader status in environmentally sustainable design. The CH2 harvests sunlight, cool night air, wind, waste water and rainwater to reduce the dependence on conventional energy and portable city water. The CH2 project comprises of a 10-storey over the ground structure with the ground floor retail space. Below ground level it comprises of a basement accommodating an underground parking that can be converted to offices and a lower basement with a multi-water treatment plant. At a street level it comprises of a redesign of pedestrian and vehicle traffic movement and access as well as pavement reconstruction (Levis, Pierce and Gorman, 2004).

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6. The first year civil engineering students and other stakeholders A total of 36 students undertook the 2004 CEP subject. Vast majority of students were 2003 high school leavers with limited knowledge and experience in engineering and project management. Students worked on a project in two independent teams, each led by a team leader elected at the initial stages of the CEP. Each team was divided into six groups, each group responsible for a distinctive engineering sub-system of an integrated CH2 project. The 2004 CEP was organised, planned and managed by the subject coordinator who negotiated and maintained involvement of various industry partners and the university allies. The industry partners included a superintendent and the project team from the City of Melbourne (CH2 client), representatives of the CH2 designer; the Bonacci Group, the architect; DesignInc and the project manager from Hansen Yuncken. The Swinburne University allies included a team of technical experts (civil engineering lectures), two human resources consultants (3rd year business degree students), visual and verbal communication consultant (3rd year multimedia student) and the faculty technical staff. 7. Assessment scheme An assessment for the CEP subject was closely aligned with expected outcomes and a process that was adopted to help students to achieve those outcomes. The assessment scheme and proposed marks allocation were presented to students at the initial stage for negotiation. The agreed assessment components, which were equally weighted, consisted of:

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•

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Weekly submissions, which provided opportunity for students and the CEP coordinator to assess desired progress, also provide feedback and evaluate learning and teaching as well as provide diagnostic tools to assess strengths, weaknesses and needs of particular groups. This part of the assessment also aimed at motivating students and building on their confidence as competent professionals, Design report, which provided an opportunity to assess students’ ability to synthesise their knowledge and devise competent written communication including a demonstration of the ability to communicate using graphical communication and ability to perform and document basic load and capacity calculations, Design model, which provided opportunity to assess students’ ability to apply their organisational skills, budgeting skills, visualisation skills, knowledge of engineering materials and also an opportunity to demonstrate proposed construction method, Professional presentation, which provided and opportunity to assess students’ visual and verbal communication skills as well as to allow other project stakeholders to assess and evaluate students’ technical competence, and Self assessment, which allowed individual assessment of each student’s contribution to the project group and team efforts, and to the project outcomes as well as to provide evaluation of all the elements of the CEP subject.

8. Student support system The approach adopted in the CEP subject in development and maintenance of the student support system is based on social constructivism principles (reference). The subject coordinator, students and other stakeholders build and maintain a learning community where social interaction mimics a real life professional environment and where there is a great deal of mutual dependency and support. The role of the student support system is to maximise student engagement in the CEP and further enhance their meaningful learning experience. The CEP subject coordinator seems to be ideally placed to play a central and most important role in the student support system. Initially, the CEP coordinator is responsible for the communication to all the CEP stakeholders, the existence and operational details of the support system, and for ensuring that students understand that assistance is available in a range of aspects including studentship matters, technical and human resource management aspects of the project. The CEP coordinator activates and maintains the support system by recognising warning signs, reacting within the capabilities of the system if it has appropriate means or referring students to specialised support if needed. The main elements of the student support system of CEP subject are: • Extensive face to face interaction with the CEP coordinator during the project briefings (equivalent to lectures in traditional teaching), design sessions (equivalent to tutorials), arranged meetings, • Extensive use of information and communication technology such as use

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•

•

• •

•

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of e-mails, on-line subject facilities (eg. Blackboard), Compulsory weekly e-mails in which students, on top of progress update in terms of technical aspects, are requested to inform the subject coordinator if, and how they are coping with the workload, to express any concerns they may have or otherwise to inform that things are running smoothly and according to plan, Additional e-mail communication where students are encouraged to communicate any matters related to the subject. The CEP coordinator may initiate additional communication and ask for reply in situations when particular students seem to be experiencing difficulties with any aspects of the subject, Optional Blackboard discussion forums for each team to communicate between themselves and share information, concerns and/or challenges. The CEP coordinator maintains a membership of each discussion forum, Compulsory students’ project reviews (at least two during semester). Students are asked a serious of questions that aim at detecting any problems, weak aspects, etc., as well as to ascertain the efficacy and effectiveness of the support system. The feedback generated by the review is analysed by the CEP coordinator, and then the analyses is communicated to each team and corrective actions are taken if required, Compulsory end of project review. Students are requested to review and evaluate the CEP subject including review of the student support system and staff and peer support. Based on the feedback, the CEP coordinator takes corrective actions in preparation for the next project, Constant, in-house expertise of Human Resource management students available for the duration of the project. Each team of up to 20 students, has been allocated a third year HR Management student acting as a consultant, councilor and friend with the capabilities to assists students in team and group work, in cooperation between groups and interaction between individuals within teams and groups, On-demand access to an expert in visual and verbal communication with capabilities to help each group in preparation of a PowerPoint presentation, Access to workshops equipped with necessary tools and technicians to allow students to construct the design model. The technicians can also help in supplying or purchasing necessary material to build the model, and Access to a group of experts with an expertise in all technical aspects of civil engineering. Students have access (on demand, arranged by the coordinator) to an expert in each civil engineering sub-discipline.

9. Evaluation methods adopted The frames of reference (Inglis, 2002) for evaluation of this problem-based initiative were: • Evaluation against the objectives of the initiative indicated at the start of the paper, • Evaluation against the theoretical benefits of the educational approach adopted, and

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Comparison of the outcomes against those of traditional approaches. The theoretical benefits of taking an approach such as this are that: Students should find the learning activity both motivating and challenging, • Students should be able to construct both the detail of the problem and solutions to it for themselves in a way that is meaningful to them, and • The process and outcomes of the projects should prepare students to operate in real-world situations. The evaluation can be considered in two phases: progressive evaluation and final evaluation. Contributors to the progressive evaluation were the monitoring of student progress through weekly feedback, and through peer comment and external stakeholder comment on mid-project presentations. Contributors to the final evaluation were the final assessment of the project which included teacher and external stakeholder assessment of project documentation and student presentations, and student self-assessment, which included their evaluation of the subject.

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• • •

10. Progressive evaluation – students and stakeholders feedback It has been assumed that in order to generate desirable outcomes of the highest possible quality, processes adopted in the CEP had to provide for effective communication between all project stakeholders and for meaningful feedback. All stakeholders assumed responsibility for providing feedback, which was generated in a variety of ways including formal, informal, individual, group, externally and internally offered. Students provided formal feedback on their progress in gaining technical knowledge each week via weekly submission (to the CEP coordinator) and at weekly design sessions (to the CEP coordinator and peers in the team). The feedback on cooperation within groups was communicated mainly at and after the design sessions with HR consultants. Another form of gaining students’ feedback on their understanding of the project, as well as their development alongside the project, was in a form of formal project reviews during the project briefing sessions. Besides formal feedback, students shared their observations with the CEP coordinator at arranged or ad-hoc discussions. Constant, and in most cases, immediate feedback was used to evaluate all elements of the CEP subject, which also included student support system and formal assessment, and to allow students to assess their performance. An example of a learning activity that provided valuable feedback to almost all stakeholders was mid-project presentations where both teams presented their understanding of the current design and construction method. Students in each team could perceive how their technical expertise fits into the whole project and how important role each individual plays in groups and in the team. Each team had the first opportunity to compare their progress and learn from each other. A discussion, which followed the presentations, provided immediate feedback from the City of Melbourne representative on the technical aspects of the CH2 project, and allowed students to clarify any ambiguities. The HR and visual-verbal communication consultants also provided on-the-spot feedback to students.

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11. Progressive and final evaluation of student support system In regards to the CEP students support system, the key aspects determining the success were that all stakeholders had be well informed about the system and how it operates, that all stakeholders have known and communicated with each other the understanding of the benefits adhering to and maintaining as well as on the agreement that everyone is engaged, receptive and acts promptly. The effectiveness of the student support system which is part of the CEP subject, is mainly attributed to its ability to identify those learners who need assistance (in other than PBL subject it is more difficult to spot those who do not know how to ask for help or are shy), then to high responsiveness of the system and high degree of internal resources (technical assistance, specialised knowledge, counselling, etc). According to students’ progressive and final evaluation, the most effective elements of the student support system were; an ease of communication with each other within the team and with other stakeholders; on-the-spot feedback on most of the occasions (despite enormous amount of feedback provided, students felt that more formal feedback could be offered); high responsiveness to their needs such as providing additional information, requesting technical drawings or specifications, arranging meetings, etc; additional consultations with experts and consultants: and that it was in a system form easy to follow and requesting their collaboration. According to the remaining stakeholders, the effectiveness of the student support system was manifested by high participation, unobtrusive and straightforward integration with other elements of CEP subject and outstanding outcomes. 12. Progressive and final evaluation of assessment scheme Most of the assessment elements of the CEP subject could be seen as summative (final), because they were submitted or delivered at the last day of the project. The only one element, the weekly submissions, could be regarded as formative (progressive) assessment as it provided feedback to both students and the CEP coordinator on students’ improvement. However, constant involvement of other stakeholders in the project as well as in the process of preparing the report, building model and preparation for presentation, provided opportunities for effective communication of the assessment objectives and a two-way feedback on students’ progress and improvement. In evaluating assessment scheme for a subject, the criteria of validity, fairness, usefulness, practicality and reliability were taken into account. According to students’ evaluation, the progressive assessment (weekly submissions) was a very useful way of measuring performance against set requirements and criteria. Weekly submissions were very useful in preparation of design report (another element of assessment) as it practically required compilation and some editing. The progressive assessment and associated with it weekly presentations at the design sessions along with generated feedback were very useful in preparation of

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the final presentation. Students highly valued the opportunity to voice their progressive improvements and the opportunity to further develop their verbal communication skills. In terms of design model, despite perceiving it as a valid and useful assessment element, students evaluated this part of assessment less favourably because of a clash associated with their manual skills and the self-set high esthetical standards for the model. Students’ evaluation of the self-assessment, which was the only individual component of the assessment in the CEP subject, was perceived most favourably. Students appreciated the opportunity to evaluate their own performance and their contribution to the other four project outcomes (weekly submissions, report, presentation and model) which were produced and assessed as a group effort. Students valued the opportunity to give a professional account on other group members’ contribution. Each student self and peer evaluation were taken into account by the CEP coordinator, combined with the evaluation offered by other stakeholders, and used in the overall assessment of individual students. This system of mark allocation was agreed upon with students at the initial stages of the project and was considered fair as assessing group work has proven to be difficult. 13. Discussion: reflections against objectives and expectations Ashcroft and Palacio, (1996) states that evaluation is a process by which the effectiveness of educational interventions can be assessed. In terms of the CEP subject, the evaluation process is an integral part of the subject which aims at assessing effectiveness of all the elements of the subject. It has been demonstrated that in the project based learning the evaluation process can easily be integrated and it has potential to provide not only an effective way of communication between all stakeholders, but most of all, necessary feedback to maximise the learning outcomes including learners’ satisfaction. Involvement of all stakeholders (students, facilitating educators, industry partners and university allies) of the project in the evaluation of project based learning, not only provides with opportunity to apply ever increasing improvements of professional standards and innovations into engineering education but also allows for valuable contribution of the engineering profession into education of engineering students. It has been observed that involvement of students in progressive evaluation in all of the CEP elements has contributed to improvements in their learning performance, improvements in the level of motivation and growth of their confidence and progressive shift of the project (learning) ownership towards students. The student evaluation has also contributed to appraisal of the effectiveness and consequent improvements to the students’ support system as well as a formulation of relevant assessment system of the subject. Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank the management of the former School of Engineering and Science for providing suitable environment to practice active learning in engineering and project based learning. The CEP

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coordinator would like to thank Rob Lewis and Kate Gorman from the City of Melbourne and other industry partners including DesignInc, the Bonacci Group and Hansen Yuncken for their support and encouragement offered to the students. The CEP coordinator would like to thank all the students involved in the 2004 project for their hard work, dedication and enthusiasm. References D.L. Evans and S.M. Goodnick, 2003, ECE Curriculum in 2013 and Beyond: Vision for a Metropolitan Public Research University, IEEE Transactions on Education, vol.46, no.4, pp. 420-8. IEAust, Institution of Engineers Australia, (1996), Changing the Culture: Engineering Education into the Future. Barton, ACT, Institution of Engineers Australia. R. Lewis, M. Pearce, and K. Gorman, (2004), City of Melbourne, personal communication. K. Ashcroft and D. Palacio, (1996), Researching into assessment and evaluation in colleges and universities, London, U.K. B. Duch, S. Gron, and D. Allen, 2001, The Power of Problem-Based

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Learning, A Practical “How To” for Teaching Undergraduate Courses in Any Discipline. Sterling, Virginia, Stylus Publishing. A. Inglis, P. Ling, and V. Joosten, 2002, Delivering digitally: Managing the transition to the knowledge media (2nd ed.). London, Kogan Page.

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Chapter 5 The Effect Of Online User-Driven Formative Assessment Mariëlle den Hengst, Marie José Verkroost Delft University of Technology Email: [email protected]; [email protected] SUMMARY The internet enables online delivery of formative assessments. There is yet little evidence regarding the impact of online user-driven formative assessment tools. This study provides results on the effect of such tools. We developed a formative assessment tool for a course that students can use individually. Usage of the tool is not obligatory. The tool is structured as a multiple choice assessment. The tool provides feedback to each answer given by the student. The tool contains 19 questions, increasing in difficulty. We collected information on the usage of the tool, on the score of the students on the exams and on the perceptions of the students on the tool and the other course material. In total 106 students participated in the course. The tool was used by only 17 students for several reasons. The results of the exam do not show a significant difference between students who did use the tool and students who did not. Although the tool scores equally to the traditional course material and lectures, it can not replace it according to the students.

KEYWORDS

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formative assessment, online assessment, instructor dependence 1. Introduction The use of internet to provide access to course materials has become common practice for undergraduate and graduate courses. The ability to provide assessment tools related to course objectives through the internet is increasingly being used as well (Buchanan 1998). Online delivery of formative assessment enables each student to learn at his own pace and in his own style (Clariana 1997). Furthermore, online delivery of formative assessment allows large numbers of students to gain personal feedback, which would be very time consuming by instructors’ effort (Buchanan 1998). There is yet little evidence regarding the impact of online user-driven formative assessment tools (Cassady, Budenz-Anders et al. 2001). This study provides results on the effect of online user-driven formative assessment. The paper is structured as follows. In the background section we present background information on formative assessment. This information guided the design of a formative assessment tool developed for an undergraduate course at Delft University of Technology., described in the third section. The

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formative assessment tool has been used and evaluated to investigate the effect of online user-driven formative assessment. The method we used for data collection is presented in the fourth section. The results are then presented in the fifth section. Conclusions on online formative assessment end this paper. 2. Background Formative assessment is used either to provide the instructor with an accurate estimation of student ability at a particular point in the course, or to provide the student with an identification of his/her strengths and weaknesses. Formative assessment is a diagnostic form of assessment to provide feedback to instructors and students over the course of instruction. It provides significant learning gains as measured by analyzing the average improvements in the test scores (Black and William 1998). Formative assessment is in contrast to summative assessment which generally takes place after a period of instructions and results in a grade for the assessment.

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Formative assessment is typically used to provide instructors with information on the student ability to make necessary instructional adjustments. However, students can also play an important role in formative assessment through self-evaluation. Students who understand the learning objectives and assessment criteria and have opportunities to reflect on their work show greater improvement than those who do not (Fontana and Fernandes 1994; Boston 2002). Feedback as part of formative assessments helps students become aware of any gaps in their current knowledge, understanding or skills and guides them through actions necessary to obtain the goal (Ramaprasad 1983; Sadler 1989). In literature several guidelines for formative assessment can be found. Many of these guidelines focus on formative assessment for the purpose of providing feedback to the instructor, see for example Black and Wiliam (Black and William 1998). In this study we focus on online user-driven formative assessment for the purpose of providing direct feedback to the students, without the direct effort of the instructor. Taking this as a starting point, several guidelines remain valuable. These guidelines are summarized below: • Ask thoughtful, reflective questions rather than simple, factual ones , • Frequent short tests are better than infrequent long ones. • New learning should be tested within about a week of first exposure. Formative assessment on the evening of the final exam is useless, since it is too late to do anything about it. • The most helpful type of feedback provides specific comments about errors and specific suggestions for improvement and encourages students to focus their attention thoughtfully on the task rather than on simply getting the right answer • Feedback should follow the strategy of immediate post-performance reporting, as this is best suited for recalling effortful decisions of the

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students while they are fresh in mind. Computer-based teaching systems that provide instructional feedback to students during their performances should be adapted to the nature of the learning task and designed consistent with theory on feedback. Three aspects determine the success of online user-driven formative assessment: the content, the interactive nature and the timing of feedback. Multiple choice tests provide an excellent opportunity to offer feedback in an efficient form. (Black and William 1998, Brown and Knight 1994, Elawar and Corno 1985; Bangert-Drowns, Kulick et al. 1991; Buchanan 1998, King and Behnke 1999, Johnson and Johnson 1993, Smith and Ragan 1993).

3. Formative assessment tool In investigating the effect of online formative assessment we developed a formative assessment tool that students can use individually. The formative assessment tool is designed according to the guidelines presented in the previous section. The tool is structured as a multiple choice assessment. The tool provides feedback to each answer given by the student. The feedback on correct answers gives an explanation of why this is the correct answer. The feedback on incorrect answers explains why this answer is incorrect, but does not provide the correct answer. This is to stimulate the student to be actively involved in the learning material. The tool contains 19 multiple choice questions, see also Figure 1 for an example in Dutch. The questions increase in difficulty. The first questions test the knowledge of the students on the subject. These questions are followed by questions in which the students are asked to apply the knowledge to a case description. The tool has been realized using Etude. Etude is a system for online assessment. Etude has been developed at the Delft University of Technology to provide teachers and students with a modern, flexible, user friendly and generally relevant educational assessment tool (http://www_en.icto. tudelft.nl/ index.php?id=411).

Figure 1: One out of many, drawing

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The formative assessment tool has been evaluated prior to usage by six students Some minor details and errors were adjusted in the formative assessment tool, but overall the tool was evaluated positively. 4.Method 4.1 Context The formative assessment tool has been designed for use in the Business Systems Analysis course taught at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands to undergraduate students. In the Business Systems Analysis course students are taught several techniques to analyze business systems. Examples of techniques are Work Centred Analysis, Structured Analysis and Design Technique, and Semantic modelling. Each technique is introduced in a lecture and trained during a class in which students work in smaller groups with the technique introduced. All lectures and classes are voluntary. For this study, we replaced the training class around SADT with the formative assessment tool. Usage of the tool was not made obligatory. The formative assessment tool was continuously available to the students between the start of the course and the last evaluation.

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The students are evaluated at two moments. The first evaluation takes place subsequently to the course and is not obligatory. Students who pass the first evaluation do not have to take part in the second evaluation. The second evaluation takes place six weeks after the closure of the course. All evaluations are in-class, closed-book exams. 4.2 Participants The participants of this study are all Dutch undergraduate students, most of whom are in their first semester. In total 105 students participated in the course, see also Table 1. 54 students took part in the first evaluation, 10 of which passed the first evaluation (19%). 93 students took part in the second evaluation, 34 of which passed the evaluation (37%). The scores are lower than usual (60%). Reasons for this, as indicated by the students, are that many students gave priority to other courses. This year, in contrast to other years, students have more courses to follow in parallel. Table 1: Number of participants First Second evaluation evaluation First 10 44 evaluation Second 49 evaluation 4.3 Data collection To investigate the effect of formative assessment we collected several data during the winter 2004-2005. We collected information on the usage of the tool: when did the students use the tool and for how long did the students

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use the tool. Etude provides an automatic logging function for this. Furthermore, we collected information on the score of the students on SADT in the first and second evaluation. And, we collected data by asking students several questions related to their perception of the tool and other course material. The questionnaire was handed out to the students subsequently to the second evaluation and before they knew their score on the evaluation. The answers to the questionnaire were treated anonymously. The questionnaire consists of three parts. The first part of the questionnaire asks for the time spent on learning the different techniques. The second part (only for those students who used the formative assessment tool) focused on the qualities of the formative assessment tool The third part focuses on the lectures, training classes and course material. Questions focused to the degree in which these support learning SADT. 5. Results The tool was used by only 17 students (16% of the students). Four reasons were mentioned for this by the students who filled in the questionnaire (80 students). First, students did not have time to practice with the tool (29% of the students).

The results of the first evaluation show no difference in effect of the use of the tool, see Figure 2. Students who did use the tool score 5.9 on a tenpoint scale on average. Students who did not use the tool score 5.3 on average. The lowest score is from students who did not use the tool. According to the Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic the results indicate normality (Sig. = 0.200) According to the independent-samples t-test, the difference in the mean scores is not significant (Sig. = 0.302). However, Figure 2 shows a small difference in favour for students who have used the tool. 100% 90% 80% 70% 60%

without tool n=45

50%

with tool n=9

40% 30% 20% 10%

9, 0

10 ,0

8, 0

7, 0

6, 0

5, 0

4, 0

3, 0

1, 0

2, 0

0% 0, 0

% Students

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Due to a very busy semester, some students did not put much effort in the course. Second, students were not aware of the availability of the tool (14% of the students). The tool was introduced during one of the lectures and pointed at in the course material. Third, students were unable to use the tool from their home computer (21% of the students). By changing some settings in the home computer, this could have been overcome. Only one student contacted the helpdesk about this problem. And fourth, students preferred to use the other course material available (16% of the students).

Results first evaluation

Figure 2

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The results of the second evaluation show the contrary, see Figure 3. Students who did not use the tool score 5.4 on average on a ten-point scale. Students who did use the tool have a lower average score of 4.6. Although the Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic suggest a violation of the assumption of normality (Sig = 0.047), the scores are reasonable normal distributed. According to the independent-samples t-test the difference in mean scores is not significant (Sig. = 0.294). According to the Mann-Whitney U Test, the difference in mean scores is even more significant (Sig. = 0.220). Students have spent on average 5 hours on studying Figure 3: Results second evaluation – tool use SADT. When we compare time spent with the score (Figure 4), we see that students who spent between 5 and 10 hours have the highest average score (6 on a ten-point scale)), followed by students who spend more than 10 hours (5.5 on average). Students who spend less than 5 hours score 4.9 on average. According to one-way between-groups ANOVA these differences in mean scores are not significant (Sig. = 0.439). 100% 90% 80%

% Students

70% 60% without tool n=80

50%

with tool n=13

40% 30% 20% 10%

9, 0

10 ,0

8, 0

7, 0

6, 0

4, 0

5, 0

3, 0

1, 0

0, 0

2, 0

0%

results second evaluation

To evaluate the tool on several aspects of formative assessment we have asked the students for their reaction on a number of propositions. The students could choose on a five point scale (Likert-5). The results are presented in the tables below. 120% 100% 2 hours or less n=40 80% % Students

between 2 and 5 hours n=24

60%

between 5 and 10 hours n=17

40%

more than 10 hours n=12

20%

10 ,0

8, 0

9, 0

6, 0

7, 0

5, 0

3, 0

4, 0

2, 0

0, 0

0% 1, 0

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Figure 3: Results second evaluation - tool use

results second evaluation

Figure 4: Results second evaluation- time spent The chi-square test shows that there is a significant difference for the independence with Sig. = 0.035 (it enabled me to study SADT modelling on

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my own). The tool does not convincingly enable students to study on their own, while the lectures and course materials do. On all other aspects there is not a significant difference between the tool, and the lectures and course material. Although the tool scores equally to the traditional course material and lectures on certain aspects, it can not replace it. The students who have used the tool and answered the questionnaire do not think that the tool can replace the training classes. Most important reason for this is the fact that in the training class students get specific feedback on their questions, while in the tool the student receives feedback on the answer given by the student. Table 2: Results of questionnaire on the tool Students with tool (n=11) Formative assessment aspect

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It gives me insight into the degree in which I understand SADT modeling. It supports me in determining my study approach for SADT modeling. It is a useful way to prepare for SADT modeling on the final evaluation. It gives me insight into what is expected of me with regard to SADT modeling. It motivates me to actively study SADT modeling. It enabled me to study SADT modeling on my own. The tool can replace the training class. Course material on SADT modeling is sufficiently available

Students without tool (n=71) DisNeuAgree agree tral

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

9%

27%

64%

10%

49%

41%

18%

55%

27%

17%

51%

32%

18%

27%

55%

11%

37%

52%

18%

36%

46%

17%

42%

41%

27%

55%

18%

27%

58%

15%

18%

55%

27%

10%

22%

68%

55%

9%

36% 11%

64%

25%

6. Discussion and conclusion This study provides results on the effects of online user-driven formative assessment. Through the use of the internet, it becomes possible to develop formative assessment tools that can be used online by the students and which provide feedback to the students without the direct intervention of the instructor. For this study an online formative assessment tool has been developed. The tool is structured as a multiple choice assessment and provides feedback to each answer given by the student. The tool contains 19 questions which increase in difficulty. The formative assessment tool has been used for the Business Systems Analysis course at Delft University of Technology. The tool has been used by relatively few students. Several reasons for this exist, besides the technological one that the tool did not automatically run

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from a location outside the university. First of all, an abundance amount of information and training material was available on the topic covered by the formative assessment tool. Students could prepare the course without using the tool. Furthermore, the formative assessment tool supports only a part of the topics covered in the course. For other topics, students have to rely on the more traditional material and lectures. This, again, does not encourage students to use the tool. The overall score of the tool is positive. It, however, can not replace training classes in which direct feedback with the instructor is possible. One of the reasons for this could be that students are searching for feedback from the instructor to get a feeling of the way of grading of the instructor for the final exam. The tool does not make the student independent of the instructor, but we do believe that the degree of dependence diminishes. Students can rely on the tool for some of the feedback. For other kinds of feedback, students can rely on the instructor, but this will always be less than without tool.

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Further research into the effect of online user-driven formative assessment can take several directions. This study restricted itself to just one part of a course. Further research is required to see whether the same conclusions hold for different courses. Furthermore, the tool has been applied to only a part of the course material. Further research is required to see whether the results are different for situations in which the entire course is offered through an online formative assessment tool and in which no other training material is available. References Bangert-Drowns, R. L., J. A. Kulick, et al. (1991). “The instructional effect of feedback in test-like events.” Review of Educational Research 61(2): 213-238. Black, P. and D. William (1998). “Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessent.” Phi Delta Kappan 80(2): 139-148. Boston, C. (2002). “The concept of formative assessment.” ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation. Brown, S. and P. Knight (1994). “Assessing learners in higher education” Kogan Page. Buchanan, T. (1998). “Using the world wide web for formative assessment.” Journal of Educational Technology Systems 27(1): 71-79. Cassady, J. C., J. Budenz-Anders, et al. (2001). The effects of internet-

based formative and summatice assessment on test anxiety, perceptions of threat, and achievement. Annual Meeting of the American Educational

Research Association, Seattle, WA. Clariana, R. (1997). “Pace in mastery-based computer assisted learning.” British Journal of Educational Technology 28: 135-137. Elawar, M. C. and L. Corno (1985). “A factorial experiment in teachers’

written feedback on student homework: Changing teacher behavior a little rather than a lot.” Journal of Educational Psychology 64(3): 407-417. Fontana, D. and M. Fernandes (1994). “Improvements in mathematics performance as a consequence of self-assessment in Portuguese primary

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school pupils.” British Journal of Educational Psychology 64(3): 407-417. Johnson, D. W. and R. T. Johnson (1993). Cooperative learning and .

feedback in technology-based instruction. Interactive instruction and feedback. J. V. Dempsey and G. C. Sales. Englewood Cliffs, Educational

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Technology Publications: 133-157. King, P. E. and R. R. Behnke (1999). “Technology-based instructional feedback intervention.” Educational Technology 39(5): 43-49. Ramaprasad, A. (1983). “On the definition of feedback.” Behavioral Science 28(1): 4-13. Ramsden, p. (1992). Learning to teach in higher education. London, Routledge. Sadler, D. R. (1989). “Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems.” Instructional Science 18(2): 119-144. Smith, P. L. and T. J. Ragan (1993). Designing instructional feedback for different learning outcomes. Interactive instruction and feedback. J. V. Dempsey and G. C. Sales. Englewood Cliff, Educational Technology Publications: 75-103.

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Chapter 6 Active Learning in Engineering: Examples At Tecnológico De Monterrey in México Darinka Ramírez-Hernández & Noel León-Rovira ITESM campus Monterrey, México E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] SUMMARY This paper presents two cases, one from the third semester of the chemical engineering curricula: IQ-00831 Material Balances and, the second one from master program on manufacturing engineering: M99-201 Computer Aided Engineering. In both cases, the active learning method used is Problem Based Learning (PBL). The benefits of PBL are that it provides the scenario that motivates and engages the student in the problem, and at the same time confront them with real professional life situations. The main objective of this paper is to describe mainly the process of teaching with PBL, the experiences and role of the teacher and the response of the students in Engineering courses. KEYWORDS

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Active Learning in Engineering, Students perception, learning, motivation, creativity, PBL

1. Introduction The expected final result of an engineering program is not only the acquisition of technical knowledge and skills of the students, but also the enhancement of their communications skills, creative and critical thinking and ethical behaviour. The ability of creative thinking and innovation skills is being enforced in the last years because of the increased competition in the global market. However these new models, strategies and educational programs need to be evaluated, and also it is needed to do research on them in order to identify opportunities and to improve the process (Locke, Silverman & Spirduso, 1998; Mason, 1997) This century has been characterized by many changes across the world, mainly about technology, and in terms of education in the implementation of new educational models (Martin, 2002). This change in education implies itself the integration of knowledge, skills and attitudes and has changed drastically the ways of teaching and learning. “The learning process requires more than just information; it requires the ability to get involved with the practice” (Brown & Dugüid, 2000, p.117), at the same time, “the teaching of the future must educate more in abilities than in contents, must prepare for working by teams” (Bonal, 1998, p.177). Therefore, as a natural consequence of global competition, at Tecnológico of

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Monterrey in México it has been implemented a new educational model since 1995, where one of the main strategies is PBL.

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This paper presents two cases where the researchers are trying to identify what is happening in active learning in engineering courses that uses PBL. One from the third semester of the chemical engineering curricula: IQ-00831 Material Balances and, the second one from the master program on manufacturing engineering: M99-201 Computer Aided Engineering. In both cases, the active learning method used is Problem Based Learning (PBL). The benefits of PBL are that it provides the scenario that motivates and engages the student in the problem, and at the same time confront them with real professional life situations. Although the students have to work harder than with conventional methods, they show interest and motivation. At the same time this attitude of the students motivates the teacher. The didactic method mainly consists in confronting the students with engineering problems derived from our own professional practice, which the students have to analyze for defining a process of solution and achieving an acceptable solution. At some stages the students have to go to the laboratory and the library or use computer software. A special web communication tool, the Blackboard Academic Suite™ is used, which is based on commercial browsers and facilitates placing the information of the course and of the problems’ descriptions to the students. The use of a web tool facilitates also the communication between students and instructors. Thus, the main objective of this paper is to describe mainly the process of teaching with PBL, the experiences and role of the teacher and the response of the students in Engineering classes. 2. Description of the teaching process with PBL Problem Based Learning can be characterized as a collection of problems, especially designed by the teacher, which are presented to a small group of students. At the same time the students have to work on the problem by teams in a collaborative way in order to find the solution (Schmidt, 1995). Another characteristic of this strategy is that the teachers present the problem to the students and this is the starting point for the students to learn the concepts, through the process of solving the problem. Therefore the idea of using PBL as a general strategy in engineering courses is to encourage students to analyze and learn from real life situations right from the beginning of their studies (Windschitl,1999), helping them to develop personal and social skills that last forever, in addition to a significant learning. The expected final result is that students develop, in addition to acquiring knowledge, communications skills, critical thinking and several other related skills. In the Material Balances class the student’s have to learn de basics of Engineering, mainly how to solve a problem. They start reading a practical problem in the class while working by teams they try to find a solution. The teacher works as a facilitator during the class. These are typically groups of

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40 undergraduate students per class, 3 hours of classes per week, third semester out of nine. In the class M-99-201 Computer Aided Engineering, the students have to learn different commercial CAE software packages. These tools are first presented to the students as self learning tutorials, which they have to accomplish in order to be able of using them for the problem solving process. The problems are presented to the students in an order that they may use the learned tools for solving those problems. At the beginning of the course the software WorkingModel2D is used. A typical problem at this beginning is the design of a folding chair as the 2D simulation software is suited for the required analysis and decisions. After the second course week the students start with the tutorials of ADAMS view, which is a 3D Multibody Simulation package. Several examples of solutions given by the students are presented in order to illustrate the type groups of 20 or more graduate students per class, 3 hours classes per week. At the end the results of a blind survey posted to the students is presented. Here the perceptions of the students regarding their learning experience and their attitude and feelings about the active learning process are presented. Also the teacher’s experience with handling the active learning processes during the whole semester is presented. 3. Methodology to analyze the student perception The methodology to analyze the student’s perception of their PBL class compared to a traditional one was applying a survey with 10 questions (Figure 1). This survey was made with some original ideas from “Basadur Creative Problem Solving Inventory” ideas (Basadur, Green & Wakayabashi, 1990) and how to evaluate being a creative person in solving problems Implementation (Woods, 1998). The first 8 questions of the survey can help to investigate how they feel about motivation and learning with PBL compared to a normal class (traditional). This questions where plotted in a bar graphic to show the differences. Both groups were analyzed using the same method. In the class of Material balances the author also ran a statistical procedure with SPSS (Statistical Program for Social Sciences), because the number (40 students is representative with statistical power to do this). The null hypothesis was: “the student’s perception of a PBL and a traditional class is the same”. In the graduate class it was not possible to run a statistical program because of the number of the students. The last two questions of the survey refer to what the students like best of PBL and what they do not like about it. The procedure here was to find out what they like best and what they do not. 4. Results Case 1: Material balances class (undergraduate students) 1) The null hypothesis is rejected; this means the true hypothesis is accepted in most of the questions. Therefore: “the student’s perception of a

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PBL and a traditional class is different”. 2) In 85% of the answers the student’s perception of their learning process and motivation with PBL is significant compared with a traditional class. 3) The students think that they “realize better of what they are able to do when they must solve a problem in a PBL class, that listening to the professor”. 4) The students think that they “are more entertained when in class they can participate solving a problem in team with my companions”. 5) The students think they “do not become more organized in learning when solving problems in a PBL course”. 6) What the students like best from PBL is: real problems (35%), team work, self-learning and active learning. What the do not like from PBL is: self-learning (19%), complicated problems, teamwork and less explanation from the teacher. 7) What students liked in a traditional class: self-learning (20%), simplicity and more explanations. What students do not like in a traditional class is: To be bored (42%), not to be active in class, few problems. Please answer to the following questions. PBL = Problem Based Learning

Write your evaluation from 1 to 7 for the class with PBL and for the traditional class 1. I agree completely 7. I do not agree PBL

Traditional

I am more motivated when I learn in a class where we solve real problems of the professional life and not typical problems of the text book.

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I am more entertained when in class I can participate solving a problem in team with my companions It pleases me more a class in which I can participate (going to the blackboard, to solve a problem, giving a presentation or explanation) than a class where I must be seated, listening to what the professor says and taking notes. I feel better when I solve a problem that is very difficult, whether I alone or with my classmates without the professor has given the answer or has helped us completely. In a PBL class it is easier becoming aware of my errors and how much I am learning, as well as how much the other classmates learn than in a traditional class in which I become aware of how much I learned until the day when I get the results of my examination.

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PBL

Traditional

I realize better of what I am able to do when I must solve a problem in a PBL class, that listening to the professor. I have become more organized in learning when solving problems in a PBL course I realize what a creative person I am when I achieve the solution of problems. What is what you have liked more of the course? What is what you dislike of the class? Figure 1 student’s perception of their classes. Graphic 1 "PBL vs Traditional class perception" Undergraduate students 4

PBL TRA 3.5

A v e ra g e v a lu e

3

2.5

2

1.5

1

0.5

0 P1

P2

P3

P4

P5

P6

P7

P8

Question number

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Figure 2 difference between PBL and traditional student’s undergraduate perception (Material Balances class) Case 2: M-99-201 Computer Aided Engineering class (graduate students) 1) The students think that they “are more motivated when they learn in a class by solving real problems of the professional life and not typical problems of the text book” (with statistical difference). 2) The students think that they “are more entertained when in class they can participate solving a problem in team with my companions” (with statistical difference). 3) It pleases me more to the students a class in which “they can participate (going to the blackboard, solving a problem, giving a presentation or explanation) than in a class where they must just listening to what the professor says and the only activity they do is taking notes”. 4) The students think they “do not become more organized in learning when solving problems in a PBL course” (with statistical difference). 5) The students think that “they do not feel better when they solve a problem that is very difficult, without the professor’s help”. 6. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK The results show that there is a significant difference between the perception of the students towards a PBL class and a traditional class, at least in most of the answers. And this perception is positive.

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What the students like best from PBL is: real problems and software applications (78 %). What the do not like from PBL is: absence of time and learning how to use the software (65%). Graphic 2 "PBL vs Traditional Class stdent´s perception" Graduate students 4 PBL Noel TRA Noel 3.5

A v e r a g e v a lu e

3 2.5 2

1.5 1 0.5 0 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Question number

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Figure 3: This graphic shows the difference between PBL and traditional students’ graduate perception. The general perception is that they agree more that they do like and are more motivated with real problems, when in class they can participate solving a problem in team with their companions and, that they realize more of what they are able to do when they must solve a problem in a PBL class than just listening to the professor in a traditional class. However it is interesting how they do appreciate more this learning process with real problems when they are graduate students (See Figure 3 compared to Figure 2). Probably because they already know how the real professional life is. Some of these students have been already working. On the other hand the undergraduate students feel more that they need the teacher and the exact procedure to solve a problem. Another conclusion is that in general the student’s perception is that PBL is the best way for them to develop abilities and skills. They feel happy with PBL, although but the traditional educational system has been in a way of telling students what to do step by step. Although we all have grown up with that, now we are living in a time of big changes and we have to teach the students not only with different strategies more suitable for the skills they need, but also we have to teach them how to adapt and to value the new learning processes. In both cases what the students did not like about the PBL classes is they do not feel they become more organized in learning when solving problems in a PBL course (Question number 7 in the survey). This is probably due to how the process of learning with PBL has been implemented. As it implies active learning at every time. It seems at the class time that the student is moving and thinking all the time. Also they go to the lab, they stand up and participate and they work in teams. But, anyway they feel more motivated and develop more creative solution working like this, and also they do perceive the difference. The teacher’s perceptions of working with a PBL class are that they do enjoy more the activities and that the students of engineering classes develop

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more creative solutions. However there is a need to do more research in the future and to develop instruments to measure the skills and abilities learned. Acknowledgements This paper has been funded by the Research Program Creativity, Inventiveness and Innovation in Engineering Education from Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Monterrey.

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References Basadur, M, G. Graen, and M. Wakabayashi, 1990. Identifying individual differences in creative problem solving style (Versión electrónica) Journal of Creative Behavior, 24(2), 111-131. Bonal, X. 1998 Sociología de la Educación: Una aproximación crítica de las corrientes contemporáneas, 37. Barcelona. Paidós. Brown, J. S., J. S. & P. Dugüid, 2000. “The Social Life of Information”, Boston: Harvard Business Press. F Locke, S Silverman, and W Spirduso,1998. “Reading and understanding Research”, SAGE Publication. Martin, M. 2002. El Modelo Educativo del Tecnológico de Monterrey ITESM Technical Report Mason, E., W, Bramble, 1997. “Research in Education and the Behavioral Sciences”: Concepts and Methods, Brown & Benchmark Publishers. Ramírez, D. and N. Leon, 2004. “Measuring Problem Based Learning (PBL) as Strategy to develop thinking skills in Engineering Students using a QFD Matrix”, QFD International Congress, Monterrey, México Schmidt, H. G. 1995. „Problem Based Learning: An Introduction“ (Versión electrónica) Instructional Science, 22, 247-250. Windshtschitl, M. 1999. “A vision educators can put into practice: portraying the constructivism classroom as a cultural system” (Versión electrónica). School Science and Mathematics, Bowling Green, 189-196. Woods, D. 1998. MPS 7 Creativity © copyright ht, 1998, The MPS Program: The McMaster Problem Solving Program.

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Chapter 7 Enhanced Learning Abilities from A POL (Project Oriented Learning) Greenhouse Production Course Compared To Traditional POL Courses. Eleazar Reyes Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, México. E-mail: [email protected] SUMMARY POL (Project oriented learning) among other active learning methods, has represented a challenge to implant for teachers at ITESM (Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey) a university of higher education in Mexico located in the northern part of Mexico. Designing and implementing POL courses has been tested with some variants among teachers at this institution. We implement POL in an engineer course on Greenhouse Production. POL was compared with their own traditional courses not taken under POL by a survey. Among the most important benefits students derived from POL designed course in Greenhouse Production was a higher level of responsibility, freedom to choose their own work and its focus, high level of self learning and a high level of intensity from the work. On the other hand POL needed to have significant changes compared to more traditional POL courses due to institutional policies or course administration. However, in spite of the differences of circumstances we encounter in how POL was implemented, it is still a powerful tool that we should promote among students which will develop a sense of discipline and responsibility. POL methodology represents a change in teaching styles favouring students’ active learning at ITESM.

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KEYWORDS

Project Oriented Learning, skills and abilities, protected agriculture, horticulture teaching methods, ITESM. 1. Introduction Teaching agricultural engineering courses represents a chance to enhance student’s abilities by implementing active learning technologies such as Project Oriented Learning (POL). Active learning is not a new tool in agriculture courses. However, for areas such as the Northern part of Mexico it represent a challenge due to the adoption of technologies well known in other countries whose climate and weather conditions demand the technologies necessary to protect crops from the environment. POL provides students with a way to understand how interaction around horticulture business might be handled or administrated. Managing the environment is as important as understanding economy, project planning and marketing.

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The agricultural industry demands educators to develop in future professional the ability to become solving problems persons, critical thinkers and more analytical. The changing environment and globalizations demands from students a better ability to understand this complexity. Implementing POL in our course ‘Greenhouse Management and Production’ represented an excellent opportunity to test this method and to understand what is implied if we want this method to be successful. We have limited experience and our educational systems might be different from other universities having long time experience in using POL. Implementing POL is characterized by a thorough analytical process that tests the creativity in each step of the implementation. Students not familiar with this process find each step very confusing and challenging, however, at the end, when presenting their results by means of a report and oral presentation in front of faculty members, the result is that students acquire a greater level of competency. 2. Rationale Working on projects is not only supposed to be a way to reach a solution but also a way to organize the learning process. However, experience has shown that if solutions are provided to any problem being encountered, little progress in enhancing creativity and learning is produced since challenging the analysis process is blocked by a paternalistic approach. Traditional education has seen teachers as information providers and students as passive receptors of the teacher’s knowledge. As a result, when students encounter real life problems, they experience a feeling of insecurity because less effort was done to help them deal with those problems, since no perfect solution is found to each problem. Comparing POL with other pedagogical methodologies we found that students are forced to use what they know and use many other resources to provide them with a sound solution. Problems taken from real life have the advantage of creating more challenging situations that result in a motivation to solve and implement those solutions. During the process of solving the problem reflection takes an important part of enhancing abilities, since it helps students to measure themselves in relation to their own abilities and experience. According to Kolmos (1996), learning by means of POL poses students with a definite process that start from the initiation problem, delimitation, analysis, and implementation. Students add their points of view, use their knowledge and there is always the obligation of providing a result. At the extent to which the project raises its complexity, more skills and understanding will be required. By adding different members to the group, it is possible to assure that the load of a project solution is distributed among the students, and help received form teachers is simply a guide that clarifies certain aspects. (Enemark, 2000). Peschges and Reidel (1999) state that the teaching staff implementing POL face new demands in conducting projects because of several reasons; for example, some students who are not well familiar with some basic skills required by this methodology, such as team work, personality differences, or differing social and economical aspects create obstacles in creating

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solutions. Successful Universities that implement POL have created the physical and organizational structure that assures a successful pedagogical implementation. Differences between students and reaching a solution that works might represent a challenge for the teaching personnel. The Fachhochschule Mannheim-Univerisaty of Applied Sciences bases its POL on seven steps beginning with the analysis of a problem and ending with the presentation of results. The grading system combines the teacher and student’s assessment. Aalborg University bases its entire educational approach on this methodology. The concept is focused on “learning by doing”. Lectures are combined with a work project which is carried out in small groups. For the Aalborg model, projects should represent the real challenges new professionals are going to face, and students are making contributions to real problems. As a result, the academic program has to be continually adjusted to reflect the evolution process of new developments within society and technology. (Enemark, 2000). Monterrey Tech (ITESM) is a university that has moved towards active learning focusing on how student can learn and enhance their abilities to meet the university learning objectives as stated in it’s mission for 2015 (www.itesm.mx). However, the way some universities in Europe have envisioned POL might be different from the way courses at ITESM use it while being taught provided the university policies and curriculum development. Therefore the objective of this paper is to examine the experience of implementing a course taught under the POL methodology, in the Engineer Division of Campus Monterrey, Mexico. The course chosen was Greenhouse Management and Production 3. Course implementation Eleven students coming from agriculture, agribusiness and industrial engineering careers were enrolled in the course offered during the spring semester. What made the course participants in some way homogeneous is the fact that they wanted to learn about the subject. Some of them were related in some way by greenhouse activities. In recent years the interest in greenhouse production has grown because of the higher yields obtained in a protected environment. Producers in Mexico found this production system very attractive due to the opportunity to export quality product to the USA while national farmers are limited due to the hard winter season. This has created much interest among students coming from those production areas. On the other hand, limited experience and a just beginning supplying chain are among the factors attracting students to take this type of courses. Groups in the course were formed by students from each area. The problem presented, from which they would have to develop their project, was around the need to establish a greenhouse facility in the northeast state of Nuevo Leon, where ITESM is located. Students were tutored by the same instructor. No assistants were appointed to provide guidance. Each week students met with the instructor in a session were questions and suggestions were discussed and each team presented its progress. Several formats were provided to students in order to record new

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progress and to facilitate their progress report. In addition to these sessions, students were exposed to all the steps around the greenhouse production process through lecture. The university facilitated a small greenhouse were each team had to practice and follow up on how a greenhouse crops is managed. Those sessions were mandatory in order to help students understand the theoretical concepts of the course. During the spring semester, tomato was the suitable crop to follow and students were involved in all steps of greenhouse management. In addition to that, their understanding of the subject was complemented with visits to greenhouse facilities located in other producing areas. Each POL team was allowed to define its own problem in accordance to the general theme. Each team was committed to organize and define its own working system as long as they were fulfilling their obligation to present their progress. At the end of the semester their results were evaluated by tree different faculty members coming from within the Agribusiness department whose responsibility was to determine the level of competencies they developed during the course and if they had fulfilled the course’s general outcome. At the end of the course, a survey was given to students in order to evaluate their perception of the POL method as well as a way to see how to improve the use of this methodology. 4. Results of implementing POL The problem’s situation presented to students in the course ‘Greenhouse Management and Production’ (which was the need to establish a greenhouse facility in the northeast state of Nuevo Leon, Mexico) was challenging enough to motivate the student’s creativity. Each team viewed the problem from three different perspectives. A team focused on the possible market, so they wanted to know what to produce. Another grasped the problem from the site selection in order to produce tomato. The third group assumed the two variables (perspective market and the site) were adequate and focused on not the conventional crop (tomato) but green pepper. The fact that they were able to select the research subject, limiting it and providing a reasonable answer rather than feeling the instructor impose his own view as to what the problem was, gave them some sense of originality in their work. Delimiting the problem constituted the most challenging step in completing the project. Some aspects considered by the students were the large number of subjects to cover and the limited amount of time and resources. They were able to see how complex a problem could be and why to limit the scope to what can reasonably be accomplished. The ITESM system sets a semester curriculum with fixed schedules that created time conflicts within member of each group when having to meet to evaluate any progress. The only time where they could meet without problems was the course’s weekly schedule. Since only three hours per week are provided for class discussion, students hade to manage their time after school in order to meet their academic responsibilities.

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Table 1: Differences between POL implementation styles. Area Curriculum

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Staff

Traditional POL (Aalborg) Organized in general subjects covering a semester. Each semester has a basic structure of lecture and project work. Team work is supported by a group of assistance

Resources

Higher relation with industry

Facilities

Students have spaces available for meetings and working sessions

POL implemented in a Greenhouse Course Organized by semesters in which each course is administered according to department policies. Instructor plays the role of teacher and assistance when meeting with working teams. Limited to resources available each semester Limited to class room space provided at the beginning of each semester

Table 1 summarizes some differences when adapting the course ‘Greenhouse Management and Production’ to POL format. The main difference is in the way the curriculum in organized taking as comparison Aalborg University. In this experience, it is more difficult to integrate a whole curriculum because of the independence among agricultural courses. Some courses have succeeded in developing an integrated curriculum (Molina and Morin, 2002). Ideally courses using POL should give space to integrate other courses, such as marketing, financial analysis, greenhouse production, and so on. Applying this methodology to only one course might create some sort of isolation from related subjects. Regularly each professor has a different approach when teaching his subject. This will create difficulty when the student tries to tie concepts learned in the particular course with those learned in related general subjects. On the other hand, teaching agricultural subjects face seasonal constrictions which are a major issue when implement successfully the POL approach because many crops have definite growing seasons and reproduction times. Universities were POL constitutes the teaching strategy for the whole academic curriculum, are provided with a system that provides a way to manage and to control any sort of administration which might delay the implementation of this pedagogical strategy. We were able to implement the external examination system which gave to the student a valid process to demonstrate their new competencies. Through out the course, several subjects were evaluated through traditional examination. However, the project evaluation was granted to external evaluators which proved to be a helpful tool to certify the students’ competencies. For teachers involved in this process, that was something new, since all of them were not related to the examined teams. 5. How POL benefited students besides limitations In despite of the limitations discussed above, still the POL methodology proved to be a powerful mean to enhance the students’ abilities. Even though in ITESM situations are in many respects different to European universities implementing POL, still students can benefit from this pedagogical approach that promotes active learning.

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5.1 Differences perceived between POL and traditional methods. Compared to a traditional teaching methodology, students indicated that supporting any information demanded more research and valid sources of information. Learning was enhanced due to continuous feedback, research and search for more sources of information. 5.2 What favoured most the student’s learning Students favoured team work as one of main features that contributed to their learning as well as the ability to trace their own plan. The responsibility placed upon their shoulder is something teachers must consider when promoting active learning. It seems that motivation plays an important role when they are responsible for their own progress. 5.3 What was the greatest difficulty when implementing POL. What we can learn from this experience is that each student perceives different difficulties. However as a group personal obstacles are not shown. For example, some of them found it difficult to delimit their working problem and the analysis problem. On the other hand, resource availability represents another problem for students. As indicated in table 2, students found that POL has many advantages compared to traditional teaching systems. Table 2. Students perception of POL characteristics.

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Criteria Main differences between POL and traditional teaching methods

What favored the most learning What was the most complicated aspect dealing with POL

Students perception 1. High Team work and collaborative work 2. High individual learning and higher difficulties to solve a problem 3. High level of learning due to personal research 4. Higher difficult to support data 5. Higher feedback, research, search for information when solving the problem. 6. More interaction and understanding within each team. 7. Freedom to choose a project. 1. Team work 2. Establishing their own working plan 3. Being responsible for the project 4. Leadership 5. Working with a tutor (instructor) 1. to fit each member schedule 2. How to identify the problem and to limit it. 3. The general analysis of the project 4. lack of resources and time to apply what was learned. 5. Time devoted to the project. A quality project demands more time. 6. Following up activities without someone pressing to get results.

6. Conclusions 1. POL promoted active learning by placing higher level of responsibility upon students. The freedom to choose their own working plan and team work were the driving forces of student’s learning. 2. Space limitations and experience was not a limitation to implement POL

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methodology to enhance students solving problem abilities. However, is highly desirable to keep integrating POL courses into a different problem situation taken from greenhouse facilities and solve the problems there. 3. Course administration was not a limitation to implement POL. However, students get into conflicts to fit their schedules and teachers might spend more time to meet their teaching responsibilities. 4. If more courses are going to be implemented, more adaptations have to be considered in order to derived full benefit from POL at ITESM which is committed to excellence. Therefore is expected that more resources and organizational changes will take place at the extent more and more courses adopt active learning methodologies. References Kolmos, A. (1996). Reflection on Project Work and Problem-based learning. European Journal of Engineering Education. 21:141-148. Enemark, S. (2002). Creating a quality culture. Article published in “Towards best practices”. Nordic Council of ministers. Copenhagen, 2000. Molina, L., and M.E. Marín. 2002. Proyecto IEC-POL. Proceso de

implantación integral de la estrategia POL en la carrera de IEC del Campus Monterrey. Memorias de la Reunión de Intercambio de Experiencia en

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Educación 2002. http://www.mty.itesm.mx/rectoria/dda/rieee/html/2003.htm Pescheges, K., and E. Reindel. 1999. How to Structure and Mark ProjectOriented studies. Global J. of Eng. Educ. 203-207

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Part 2: Curriculum Development

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Chapter 8 Active Learning and the Process of Science: Beyond Information Skills Maurits Ertsen, Jan Kooistra, Rudi Stouffs Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands Email: [email protected] [email protected]; [email protected] SUMMARY Information is produced, communicated and validated within peer networks. It is important for engineering students and universities to (learn to) develop and work within these peer-driven, information-based networks. The pragmatic consequence of the use of ICT in education within these communities is that students become correspondents. One of the most difficult issues is how to develop a strategic didactic scenario with which the traditional handling of scientific material could be shaped and interconnected with the objectives of education and research as these are expressed in the curricula of the faculties, given the considerable differences that can exist between curricula and student populations of different universities. KEYWORDS

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E-platform, information skills, didactic scenario, peer networks

1. Introduction Modern scientists and engineers need to process huge amounts of information. This information is produced, communicated and validated within peer networks. It is important for engineering students and universities to (learn to) develop and work within these peer-driven, information-based networks already during the study period, to continue them after graduation and to involve other experts. The introduction of Eplatforms in higher education offers opportunities to develop new interactive systems to search, communicate, distribute, create and save information. Working with an E-platform, which accommodates new ways of dealing with information causes noise in the academic educational system. Common sentiments expressed by faculty members are “Why introduce such a complicated system when you can go to the library and borrow a book?” “Dealing with electronic scientific information takes a lot of time, it is an attack on our course”. Also at the level of the library itself, working with new ICT tools raises a lot of discussion. “How to guarantee quality?” “Who pays for the information?” All these sentiments and statements deserve serious attention. Nevertheless, with the advent of ICT, possibilities to communicate within scientific networks about information have changed drastically and inevitably the communities will take over some of the tasks that in the past were taken up by the libraries. The position of the librarian was that of selecting, acquiring,

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ordering, indexing and making available data. Now these tasks are split into

three parts, which are not necessarily the sole responsibility of the librarian: typifying and selecting (compare quality-based selection); acquiring and making available (compare information logistics); and ordering, opening-up and guaranteeing (compare information mediation). The pragmatic consequence of the use of ICT in education is that students become correspondents. Students move up to the former position of the librarian. The use of ICT flattens the hierarchy between librarian, faculty and student. Students become librarians as they were at the beginning of the era of modern science. Thus students are learning that all these books, articles and readers they have to stow away, actually are meant to be disassembled into their references and that these books release much of their information through this activity. Libraries are like freezers. They keep the information that is assembled into books deeply frozen till their moment of consumption - or till the moment their storage life is over. Use of ICT means speeding up knowledge and reducing the need of the kind of packing and the type of storage that we hold to be normal and to be necessary to be a library. In this paper we discuss both backgrounds and examples of educational modules, in which this general idea is applied. In terms of education we are trying to employ the model of correspondence about references according to academic manners in our education. Education centres on the scientific correspondence within the boundaries/ conditions set by an E-platform in which simultaneously the processes of seeking, communicating, distributing and validating on/of electronic scientific material occur. Circulation speed, the extent of robustness, management and exercising authority over the knowledge, everything follows suddenly pragmatically the laws of ICT. Here the most important difference between the concept behind information skills or dealing with scientific material becomes apparent. The knowledge really takes a run, accelerates and sings interactively around in the circle of them who formerly could be defined as readers, but now suddenly have become the network that exercises the authority over the very same knowledge by itself. Dealing with information has always been one of the central learning goals of academic education. With the strong rise of electronic learning environments, one is forced to make a move from focusing on basic information skills to deal with digital scientific material. ‘Deal with’ implies more than ‘possess skills’. It concerns (learning how) to work according to the rules and manners that determine the exchange of scientific knowledge. The goal is no longer to understand the library system or even use it, but to know ones way with scientific material as it presents itself through the Eplatform. We would maintain, however, that using an E-platform does not change the nature of the scientific process/business as usual. Academic manners are as old as science itself and independent of paper or electronics. The business of science means to develop active correspondence about references in networks. In this tradition, libraries have arisen as the reservoirs/depots in which these correspondences were kept. Through metadata the (f)actual correspondence is enabled. Opening and re-ensuring traceability of scientific material through the use of metadata therefore

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shapes scientific communication. Yet, the use of E-platforms as informationrich environments can be considered at the same time as revolutionary. Our assumption therefore can also be considered as a paradox. 2. First experiences in Utrecht In 1998 the library of Utrecht University started to develop an interactive program for the search and exchange of information called Ommat (Omgaan met Wetenschappelijk Materiaal; Dealing with scientific material), with two versions, a training version and a support version. The training version was introduced in 1999 together with the introduction of the E-platform Blackboard. It was integrated in the courses of 5 disciplines at the Faculty of Social Sciences. At the moment about 2000 students at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Utrecht University use Ommat, in psychology, sociology, general social sciences, anthropology and education science. What these (undergraduate) students have in common is that they have to perform the same kind of assignment: a design of a research project on a topic and writing a paper. The students are working together in subgroups (4-5 persons) on their topic but have to accomplish an individual paper (sometimes in pairs). The time required to complete the program within a course varies from 20 to 60 hours, this is between 10% and 30% of the total course size. In the case of an investment of 60 hours the students learn to provide their paper with a series of correct references by using the support version of the program, they learn to review the paper of a colleague student paying attention to the use of references and they learn to share information on the topic that they choose together. Sharing happens by building a collective database on the (subgroup) discussion board of the E-platform. In the case of a 20-hour investment, the training stresses the use of the support version and the processes of validating the information found by the students. In this case the students perform the so-called network exercise. In 2001, Delft University of Technology joined the Ommat program, with particular emphasis on the development of a portal version of the program. The extras offered by the portal version consist of technical and social procedures to transfer student products from the E-platform environment (Blackboard) into open Internet environments supported by the library, Virtual Knowledge Centres. In Delft the Ommat program is named DelftSpecial: Delft Student Personal Education Coach for Information Alerting and Learning. It has been in use since 2001 at undergraduate and graduate level at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and at the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management at undergraduate level. 3. Civil Engineering in Delft A first pilot trial took place at Civil Engineering in the period March - April 2002 and was completed with a follow-up study in September 2002 – June 2003. The pilot tested the concept of a portal, the technology and the didactics of a shared digital information-rich environment. The pilot trial course was a graduate project within the civil engineering curriculum on Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM) in the context of the European

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Water Framework Directive 2000/-60/-EC. The WFD establishes a framework for water management in Europe and complements the many water directives that already exist. Its key objective is to achieve ‘good water status’ for all European waters by 2015. Twenty-three students, divided into three teams, had to formulate a river basin management plan for a sub-basin in the Netherlands. The plan had to cover both water quantity and quality issues. This assignment followed directly from the WFD and Dutch water policy. Groups were encouraged to use (material from) reference situations. The students worked on the portal during the period assigned to the project (seven full weeks). The work on the project was managed by means of the didactic system of the program, which focused on the provision of instruction and the organization of the exchange of information between the sub-projects. The customary projectteam setting (discussed in Ertsen 2000) remained intact during the course of the project. The project groups discussed the benefits of a river basin management plan and which elements should be present. This assignment followed from the experimental set-up of the project educational environment, especially the input from the library. Participating students were supported at three levels: (1) interactions and exchange between team members on a face-to-face basis and within Blackboard; (2) direct contact on a weekly basis with a tutoring staff member of the Faculty; and (3) discussions and exchange within Blackboard between teams (see the box for a typical set-up). Within the DUT digital learning environment Blackboard, a shared site was available. Each separate project group used its own sub-site within the shared environment. Documents made, discussions held, links found and material collected, were placed in the respective group environments. Such a work process not only results in a product in the shape of a report, but also potentially supports the development of river basin management in the Netherlands. Issues of perception of users involved in collaboration in an information-rich digital work environment were investigated by means of two surveys employing two scales. The surveys were carried out prior and subsequent to the IRBM project. The measurements were made using the Subjective Computer Experience Scale (SCES) (Smith et al 2000) and the Subjective Eplatform Experience Scale (SEES) (Kooistra et al 2003). Results of these surveys are reported elsewhere (Ertsen et al 2003). These considerations and the promising results of the pilot were reason enough to continue activities to promote the use of the E-platform within education and research within Civil Engineering, in particular the ‘wet’ groups (water management and hydraulic engineering). A second project education pilot on IRBM was conducted in the period of March – June 2003. Although due to external reasons the number of participants was unfortunately low (5 participants), this allowed for a stronger focus on the possibilities for information exchange between users of an E-platform through the establishment of a database. Such a database is likely to become one of the key factors in establishing successful communities of practice, being it students or professionals. In a third year course, the (individual) BSc-graduation project, two elements of the pilots connected to

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correspondence are integrated: (1) developing a database with relevant information (including applying this information in the design) and (2) peer reviews of student reports by fellow students. The integration in other courses is under development. 4. Architecture in Delft At the Faculty of Architecture, the metadata system KeySet serves to provide each student work or design product (e.g., model, image, text, picture, animation) with a unique key consisting of four or more keywords (Stouffs et al 2004). KeySet defines four dimensions corresponding to which keywords are assigned as metadata to data. These dimensions constitute the qualities that the data possess at different levels. In KeySet, assigning keywords to data is considered a form of claiming. The four dimensions form as it were the space in which claiming the data takes place. These claims concern: • the constructive qualities of the data, that is, the idea one tries to represent in the design; • the objective qualities of the data, that is, the (f)actual elements that one uses to express this idea; • the relational qualities of the data, that is, the influence the design has on the user and, vice versa, the influence of the user on the design; • the subjective qualities of the data, that is, the emotion that the design elicits. Technically, KeySet encompasses an entry form, used to compose the key, and a search tool that can retrieve all entered keywords and combinations of keywords in different ways for adaptation or reuse. Didactically, KeySet pushes students to deal with the paradox that a database is losing informative quality when it is cleared into a neat one. They learn that a certain measure of chaos lubricates the exchange of information and that, to be informative, a database has to cherish the differences that arise from the same assignment students get. Strategically, KeySet encourages students to learn from one another and work together as young professionals by providing them the opportunity to compare their work and design solutions directly. The development of KeySet forms part of an educational project to develop a learning environment to support group work and discourse, named InfoBase. The goal of the InfoBase project is to provide students with and teach them how to utilise a digital environment in which they can store, exchange and manage the information they collect and generate, individually and in group, and at their own initiative. The focus in the InfoBase environment is on multimedia information, including texts, images, audio, video, drawings, 3D models, etc. The InfoBase environment currently supports two interface modules. The StudentWork module (including KeySet) is the main interface module of the environment and contains a student work submission section and a public section in which student work can be searched and viewed (next to an administrative instructor section in which submission deadlines can be set and grades can be assigned to the work). A second interface module, named MediatedDiscourse, enables

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students to collectively build an information structure in support of and to represent a discourse. It includes the following functionality: to relate a newly submitted contribution to existing contributions in the information structure, to develop a semantic structure of keywords and to assign keywords to contributions, to mark contributions according to a number of characteristics, and to comment on contributions as well as respond to others’ comments. The MediatedDiscourse interface module is used in a number of educational experiments in order to gain insight into the manner in which these functionalities (can) contribute to supporting communication and group processes (Akar et al 2003). In both interface modules, overviews with thumbnails offer the user quick insight into the content of the results of a search query. Images in JPEG, GIF and PNG format are automatically provided with a thumbnail. Other formats can be supplemented with an image by the author (which is often required). Otherwise, the environment does not impose any restrictions on the format of the content or contributions. Browser plug-ins provide assistance in visualising the different formats. In September 2003, KeySet was introduced in the first semester of the BSc Architecture curriculum. Specifically, students were introduced to the use of metadata when submitting course work in a computer modelling workshop (Kooistra et al 2004). For each image they submitted they had to specify four claims corresponding to the four quality dimensions. For each dimension, a small set of keywords was provided from which the student had to choose one. A search tool provided access to the resulting collections. Students appreciated the formation of a cooperative database composed of their submissions, encoded using metadata and searchable accordingly. Students used the search tool to search either collection using one of the sets of claims they used to encode their own submissions. Last year, the use of KeySet and the InfoBase environment was evaluated using the SCES and SEES scales. Surveys were carried out before and after a second semester computer modelling workshop, in which KeySet was linked to the submission of student work. About 300 students took part in the workshop in which they needed to model a constructive detail of an existing building. The submission requirements for this model were three elevation and two perspective view images. Students assigned metadata to each image. For each dimension, a short list of keywords was specified from which the student could make a selection. Only for the relational quality dimension, a fixed claim “reference detail for architects and building specialists” was selected for all images. The correlations found between the SEES ICT and KeySet factors and the variance analysis conducted clarified the strategy that we think that needs to be followed (Kooistra et al 2005): Make students more familiar with dealing with metadata (KeySet) and they will find it worthwhile and also rather fun. The latter not only depends on whether the instrument is profiled appropriately but also on the courses or workshops in which it is included. As such, it also depends on a stimulating policy of the Faculty.

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5. Final remarks Our experiences with using E-platforms enabled with integrated procedures and facilities for the processes of seeking, communicating, distributing and validating on / of electronic scientific material de facto centre on developing so-called virtual knowledge centres. Despite the work that we have invested in building websites with training modules, portals and support systems, the most difficult task has really been developing a strategic didactic scenario with which the traditional handling of scientific material could be shaped and interconnected with the objectives of education and research as these are expressed in the curricula of the faculties. One of the main problems of educational systems is their ambiguity when it comes to sharing information. On the one hand the student has to learn to share information openly. Science is open correspondence about references. On the other hand, most educational systems are set up to isolate and individualize students in the end for the sake of testing their knowledge. Another issue is the evident and considerable difference between student populations of Utrecht and Delft. The Utrecht population (social science students) is in search of theoretical material that may help to understand phenomena and test or develop (new) theories. Delft engineering students (and many staff members for that matter) are primarily interested in material they need to design solutions (solve ‘problems’), such as figures, constructions and reports. In Delft, the didactic scenario and hence ICT support was adapted to the technological academic culture. Within Delft, however, there is considerable difference between design within the Faculties of Architecture and Civil Engineering & Geosciences. In the Architecture curriculum, the main focus is on the individual student sharing his/her contributions and the perceptions of both him/herself and the others. Another main focus of Architecture is on the use of images. For the curriculum of Civil Engineering, focus is on exchanges within and between teams (Ertsen 2002b, Ertsen 2000). The changing position of civil engineers within society, and their need to link the engineering aspects much more explicitly to broader issues in society, calls for education and training these concepts into account (Ertsen 2002a). Information validation and sharing appears as a key issue. A main focus of validation in both practice and education is on validating design assumptions and requirements for civil engineering projects. References Akar, E., B. Tunçer, J. Attema and R. Stouffs, 2003. evaluation of a collaborative virtual space: InfoBase. In: B. Ozsariyildiz and S. Sariyildiz (eds) E-Activities in Design Education. Europia, Paris, pp. 3-12. Ertsen, M.W., J. Kooistra and E. Mostert, 2003. Digital

Design and

Tunçer, S.S. and Design

informationbased learning environments in civil engineering education at Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. International Meeting in Civil

Engineering Education, Cuidad Real, Spain Ertsen, M.W. 2002a. The technical and the social in engineering education.

In: J. Frascara (ed) Design and the social sciences. Making connections.

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Taylor and Francis, London, UK (ISBN 0-415-27376-5) Ertsen, M.W. 2002b. Learning processes in group designing. 7th International design conference, Dubrovnik, Croatia, May 14-17 2002 Ertsen, M.W. 2000. Integrated learning in engineering studies. The potential role of project education. Sixth Interamerican Conference on Engineering and Technology Education, Cincinatti, Ohio, USA, 14-16 June 2000 Kooistra, J. and C.W.J.Hopstaken, 2002 Ommat dealing with electronic scientific information. In: P. Brophy (ed) Libraries Without Walls 4; the delivery of library services to distant users. London (Facet) (ISBN 1-85604436-X) Kooistra, J., C.W.J. Hopstaken, M.W. Ertsen, B. Lander and N. Lagerweij, 2003. Virtual knowledge centers: the support of live-long information-based networks in higher education. Paper for the EUNIS Conference, July 2-4 2003, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Kooistra, J., R. Stouffs and B. Tunçer, 2004. Metadata as means for improving the quality of design. In: R. Trappl (ed) Cybernetics and Systems 2004. Vienna, Austrian Society for Cybernetic Studies, vol. 1, pp. 108-113. Kooistra, J., C.W.J. Hopstaken, R. Stouffs, B. Tunçer, E. Janssen Groesbeek and E. Sjoer, (forthcoming). Keyset: conceptual, technical, didactic and strategic qualities of a ‘discourse browser’. Paper for the 3rd International Conference on Innovation in Architecture, Engineering and Construction, June 15-17, Rotterdam. Smith, B., P. Caputi and P. Rawstorne, 2000. Differentiating computer experience and attitudes toward computers: an empirical investigation. In: Computers in Human Behavior, 16, p.59-81 (Pergamon) Stouffs, R., B. Tunçer, E. Janssen Groesbeek and J. Kooistra, 2004.

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Keyset: The Use of Metadata as a means to improve the quality of design,

In: A. Dikbas (ed) Third International Workshop on Construction Information Technology in Education ITU Press, Istanbul, Turkey, pp. 79-94. Zhang, D. and J.F. Nunamaker, 2003. Powering E-Learning In the New Millennium An Overview of E-Learning and Enabling Technology. In: Information systems frontiers, 5, 2, p. 207 – 218 (Kluwer) Blackboard Utrecht: studion.fss.uu.nl Blackboard Delft: blackboard.tudelft.nl Ommat: ommat.library.uu.nl DelftSpecial:www.library.tudelft.nl/ctkc/ned/Informatievaardigheden/ DelftSpecial/delftspecial.html Infobase: infobase.bk.tudelft.nl

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Chapter 9 Integral Test as a Crowbar for Curriculum Design and Professional Development Rinus HUISMAN, Wim BLOK, Alex KEMPS INHOLLAND University, School of Agriculture & Technology E-mail: [email protected]

SUMMARY The educational programme Naval Architecture of INHOLLAND University Delft wants to redesign its programme. The attention will be focused on competence learning. But how can the change from education in which study is at the centre be made? The first challenge lies in the new design of the first year programme. The challenge is to focus all educational activities in order to be able to provide a stable and activating educational environment. With the introduction of three integral tests the importance of the integral approach is explicitly brought to attention. The nominating of performance indicators are a guidance for the assessment of students. By way of an iterative process, more experience can arise in the working with broad tests and the application of performance indicators. For the students, these tests are the first integral tests of his professional development. KEYWORDS

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Integral test, project based learning, competence learning, performance indicators.

1. Introduction In its education, the educational programme Naval Architecture of INHOLLAND University Delft wants to aim explicitly at the competence development of students. The major change intended is the emphasis on an integral approach of growth and development of students in the expertise field of the Naval Architecture and, resulting from this, the increasing importance of performance by students in their learning and assessing. In this way, learning and acting will become nearer towards each other. The educational programme already has years of experience with forms of project-based learning in which students work on practice-oriented assignments and compare projects. The challenge in this is especially to realize more coherence in educational activities. Naval Architecture wants to realize this by organizing some clear integrative test moments in which the student is assessed on his broad development to Naval Architect. Because with this approach, students will be confronted with the same education criteria at several moments in all stages of the education, at various levels of control, they will develop a good idea of the education profile and of their personal profile. This is essential for students because during their study they are expected to more and more direct their own study activities

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2. Project based learning as a touchstone for the design of competence based education The Naval Architecture programme in Delft was recently created from the naval architecture programmes in Haarlem and Rotterdam. From this background, two teams of tutors have each contributed their own specific educational experience. Now, this merged education wants to redesign the programme. There, the attention will be focused on competence learning within a new programme structure of major and minors. How can the change from education in which study is at the centre be made? The first challenge lies in the new design of the first year’s programme.

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In the existing programme project based learning is already being used. Here, topics such as stability and buoyancy are discussed. PBL works motivating for the first-year students here. By comparing the project results with each other, which may give exciting highlights for instance in the field of the resistance of ship’s models, a kind of competition is created, especially stimulating students. These projects already have an integral focus on the profession and here, competence development gets ample opportunity. In this way, these form a stable point of departure for the new curriculum. The challenge is to focus all educational activities in order to be able to provide a stable and activating educational environment. The existing project at the end of the new first year’s programme seems to offer adequate opportunities for that (see table 1). 3. Programme design with an increasing complexity The new educational programme is styled in smaller programmes for foundation course, major and minors. With these, naval architecture is brought up in increasing complexity in foundation course, major and minor respectively. In this way the first year has a constructive approach in which the standard of the various educational units is comparable. This set-up enables the integral testing with the project ‘Integral design’. In that, the focus is on a simple shape, a pontoon-like craft in which all aspects of designing are involved in the assignment. In this way, the student can prove that he can apply all aspects of designing in this rather simple design. The new programme is styled in 12 themes, three per 10-week periods. In these topics knowledge development is given prominent attention. Knowledge disciplines can be identified in organisation and testing and in the link to the tutors. In this way each topic contributes separately to the development of students as naval architects. But what is the contribution of these individual topics and in what way do these various contributions relate? Eventually the student is expected to be able to act as a naval architect and to apply his knowledge effectively. With the introduction of three integral tests the importance of the integral approach is explicitly brought to attention.

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Table 1 Naval Architecture, first year’s programme 2005 – 2006 Subjects / Educational Units propaedeutic ( 5 ects each) Unit 1

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Unit 2

Applied mathematics/ Mechanics 1 Mathematics Mechanics (statics) Integral assignments

Orientation Shipbuilding 1 Orientation Shipbuilding Types of ship Communication English Study coaching

Applied mathematics/ Mechanics 2 Mathematics Mechanics (statics) Integral assignments

Orientation Shipbuilding 2 Project type of ships Workshop engineering Communication English Study coaching / ASSESSMENT Materials materials workshop engineering applied mechanics

Unit 3

Hydromechanics 1 Hydrostatics Fluid dynamics

Unit 4

Hydromechanics 2 Hydrostatics Fluid dynamics

Ships Installations Mathematics Maritime mechanical engineering electro Maritime mechanical engineering

Construction and Installations Ships’ structures Maritime mechanical engineering (basic) Workshop drawing /Autocad Design and Construction Design Workshop lines plan (Macsurf ) Ships’ constructions

Design PROJECT SHIP TESTING Computer Science Communication English Study coaching Integral design INTEGRAL PROJECT CASE TEST Communication English Study coaching

4. Three integral tests Two educational assumptions form the basis of the design of the integral tests of the first year of study: • the education of the student to naval architect, • the choice to deal with all items of the programme at a “rather uncomplicated” level. In conversations, tutors specify the education of the student to naval architect as the ability to: • quickly and adequately assess ships models, • quickly make broad assessments for constructions, • adequately check calculations, • quickly list realistic solutions for specific questions regarding designs of and adjustments to ships, • quickly assess in what way marine engineering problems can be effectively handled. It can be summarized as taking smart, quick and effective action. To be able to explicitly bring the assessment to attention during the programme, the university introduces an assessment in which the students are confronted with models or real ships, on which they are asked to give an opinion or

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asked to comment on an opinion of a fellow-student. This assessment is being introduced as a formative test within the scope of study coaching halfway through the first year of study. Besides, the integral project will take place at the end of the first year of study. A project during which students in groups assess a simple construction on all marine engineering and naval architectural aspects. During this project the students are supervised and evaluated on a collective presentation. To be able to also assess the individual student besides that on this competence, a case test will take place simultaneously to the integral project, in which all students can demonstrate whether they can integrally judge a ship design. This case test is done by written questions. 5. Competence profile as a guideline for development The basis of the new curriculum design is a competence profile indicating what a student must control, demonstrably, to be certified as a naval architect. Besides, the team has indicated how they expect the competence development to take place: intermediate levels have been put in. One of the intermediate levels is a competence profile on which students have to be tested to be able to finish the foundation course (the first-year programme). In table 2 performance indicators are indicated for the determination of the pre-graduate level. Table 2: Performance indicators foundation course Naval Architecture 2005 – 2006 and its application with the three integral tests in the first year of study: the study coaching-assessment after six months and the integral project and the case test at the end of the first year. Unit

Unit 2

Unit 4

Unit 4

Integrative test

Assess ment

Integral project

Case test

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Competences and performance indicators, level 1 Technical competences Drawing up a programme of requirements - processes information and interprets materials in own terms - describes clear specifications and results Performing a feasibility study - performs analyses - presents results and formulates conclusions Drawing up technical specifications - transcribes functional specifications into technical specifications - draws up schedules based on given milestones - formulates clear reports Making a conceptual design - gives a broad insight into design factors - substantiates a design qualitatively Making a detail design - substantiates a design quantitatively using calculations

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- attends to technical documentation - presents Realizing a product - designating and substantiating of a number of production methods Optimizing a product - makes one good proposal - provides a qualitative substantiation, supported by calculations based on rules of thumb Managing and maintaining a product - sorts out information and processes technical documentation - reports in broad outline General competences Drawing up a project plan - defines a problem and project target, describes products to be delivered - defines working packages and draws up a time schedule Commercial thinking and acting and contact management - estimates how a client can realize profit with a product - draws up a quotation for a principal with a concrete problem - draws up a summary of contacts with name, subject, date et cetera - draws up a review of chances and threats to the company Managing - gets others enthusiastic about picking up new activities - takes care of an allocation of tasks and work - is approachable and accessible for employees - comes across as sincere and reliable - shows a positive aura through self-confidence and self-assurance - gives others room to develop own initiatives - chairs meetings in accordance with a fixed agenda and formulates conclusions and agreements - distinguishes main and side issues during discussions Self steering - formulates the own learning requirement - works towards a marked out learning target and discusses the learning strategy; discusses the results in relation to the marked out learning target and learning strategy - is accountable on delivered work; discusses own performance with colleagues - doesn’t shy away from problems - checks if he purposively works according to protocol - compares own acting with the working environment; discusses working experiences with colleagues

The team has chosen to explicitly set up three broad integral foundation course-tests. With this, a consensus is obtained about the point of departure for the further curriculum design that can help tutors to more aim this educational programme at the development of the student. To achieve this,

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a further crystallizing of these tests is necessary. A first step is the nominating of performance indicators that are guiding for the assessment of students. It is obvious to, for this purpose, use the indicators that are derived from the competence profile: see figure 2. However, tutors are not yet used to working with these indicators. On the other hand it is also a fact that these indicators have not yet been tested in the practice of higher education. Therefore, on the introduction of the integral tests, it is an obvious choice to make a deliberate consideration of those performance indicators that are used in the assessment and to evaluate the experience on their application. In this way, by way of an iterative process, more experience can arise in the working with a broad test and the application of performance indicators. This will lead to a development during which the competence development of the student and the tests of same on the one hand and the education programme that should facilitate this development on the other hand, grow closer to one another.

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6. Integral testing as a touchstone of students’ professional development For the student, the assessment and project, forming a good reflection of the required first-year’s level, are the first integral tests of his professional development. Furthermore, he gets an idea of his performance in the field of profession-oriented competences and, derived from that, of his general and personal competences and of his applied knowledge and skills. For the student, this will form an overture for a growth in independence with the steering of his study activities. In our presentation we want to illustrate how these first integral tests will be designed so they will help the student in his personal and professional development and will support the development towards a competence-based curriculum.

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Chapter 10 INTEGRATED TRAINING TROUGH PROJECTS: EXAMPLE IN ENGINEERING THERMODYNAMICS Bernard Lemoult EMNantes School of Engineering, France E-mail: [email protected] SUMMARY In this article, the author will try to answer the following question : how does one create the terms and conditions that allow students to learn how to acquire, mobilize and combine their resources (knowledge, know-how, context) to be able to react skilfully in a given situation ? If this question seems a bit general, and it is, it nevertheless applies to the teaching of applied thermodynamics as it does to many other fields. The goal consists in providing an integrated response insofar as the resources put in play in most work situations (whether they are for training or professional purposes) act at various levels : scientific or methodological knowledge, operational, methodological, or relational know-how, and contextual resources (database, network, etc…). What initially was a scientific course of study allowing one to acquire almost exclusively scientific knowledge, constitutes today an integrator forum with several resources available similar to the one the future professional will have to create once in the job market.

KEYWORDS

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learning by project, assessment, thermodynamics, team work, competency 1. Introduction The Ecole des Mines de Nantes School of Engineering trains engineers through projects in the field of complex industrial systems, covering sectors of activity such as automobiles, aeronautics, energy systems, computer science, banking, etc… The goal of this training is to allow the future professional to learn to act skilfully in various work situations that he will have encountered and that he will encounter in his numerous professional situations. This main focus given to the skills approach truly constitutes the cement in a training course which, given the ever-increasing pressure on internationalising one’s course of study, is more and more modular and segmented. Before going more explicitly into the course of study which is the subject of this paper, it is important to show the skills model that the school has adopted, a model which gives meaning to the modules which make up the training course. “Acting skilfully in a work situation consists in acquiring, mobilizing, and combining resources to give a response which is pertinent and being seen as such. These resources can be individual

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(knowledge, know-how, personal characteristics) and contextual (networks for individuals, databases, material, …)”. 3. The pertinence of this course RESOURCES INDIVIDUAL RESOURCES general procedurale Knowledge prof. context operational methodological relational Personal characteristics : ethical qualities, character, tastes, thought processes, … Know-how

MISSION

EXPERIENCE

Activité 1 Activité 2 Activité 3 ...

Professional practices

CONTEXTUAL RESOURCES Experts’ informal networks, Data banks, material, budget, …

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Figure 1: Skill model of EMNantes An engineer working in the field of energy or the environment will use basic concepts in so-called industrial as well as other types of thermodynamics. Whether one is trying to determine the size of a boiler or the technicaleconomic performances of a complete energy system, the professional will have to formulate hypotheses, write assessment equations (of mass, of energy), calculate thermodynamic characteristics (enthalpy, temperature, …) in a gaseous mixture, simplify a complex problem, etc… Beyond this operational know-how, an engineer will have to observe, understand, analyze, and often reformulate a customer’s needs. Lastly, he will work in teams and in networks, both within his company and outside it (suppliers) in order to give a full and pertinent answer to his customer. This course in « Engineering Thermodynamics » has been designed to meet the needs expressed in terms of activities (ex : carry out a study on the state-of-the-art of a given technology) and resources such as those defined in the skills model. It therefore constitutes one of the building blocks to train engineers in energy or environmental systems. The level of study this course is aimed at is the equivalent of a US Bachelor’s degree (4 years after the French high school graduation. There are 30 hours of instruction in French for about 40 students in our general engineering program and the same instruction in English to about 10 students in the Master’s program entitled “Project Management in Environmental and Energy Engineering. As for all training programs, this one is defined mainly by: • Objectives in terms of capacity for action (be capable of …) and for acquiring resources • prerequisite conditions, especially in terms of the required resources • pedagogical conditions, the training situations (mobilize and combine), the program (content), the means and criteria for assessment, the success factors.

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3. Defining the objectives Teaching the discipline of thermodynamics has always been considered « difficult » (non-linear laws, understanding the phenomena, etc …), for both teachers and students. Nowadays, we know the limits of a consistently linear approach starting with the teaching of the theoretical notions (1st and 2nd principles, exergy, mixing gases, etc …) and then applying them in theoretical exercises (perfect gas, simple hypotheses, etc …) or even in the micro or mini applied projects which are just as theoretical. Within the context of an ever-decreasing number of teaching hours, the teacher has to decide how he can convey all the essential theories that he considers indispensable to the student’s training and apply them in such a way as to be able to assess what the student has learned ? Besides the disciplinary factors involved, the question of how to integrate the other aspects present in the working world must be considered : understanding the needs of customers, analysing and reformulating, teamwork, formalizing and communicating, … Must the teacher concentrate on his expertise within the discipline, or must he integrate all these other aspects that, first of all, he may not be fully competent in (he hasn’t specifically been trained) and which, if not, will necessarily lead to a reduction in the discipline’s “traditional” content ? There is no one answer to this question, and therefore a discussion among the pedagogical decision-makers and those in charge of the overall teaching program is necessary. Regarding the knowledge and know-how to be mobilized and combined in the working world, the teacher is forced to ask questions about the course’s ultimate aim, content, and methods : • why, what and how to teach ? • why, what and how to assess one’s attainment of these objectives ? • In the present case, we will identify two types of objectives : • an objective which is operational concerning the knowledge and knowhow to be acquired, combined, and mobilized, including the previouslymentioned aspects other than disciplinary ones (such as relational knowhow). • an objective which is cognitive relating to learning how to learn, learning to act skilfully, learning to take a step back so to better apply what has been learned to other situations. The expected disciplinary acquisition can be summed up as being mainly: • know and be able to apply the energy equation to all energy equipment • be able to calculate thermodynamic characteristics (enthalpy, entropy, pressure, temperature) of a gaseous mixture being transformed (compression, expansion, combustion) • be able to formulate hypotheses and discuss them pertinently depending on the situation encountered Compared to practices in the past, the content of this course has been reduced so as to put more emphasis on the development of the capacity to learn how to learn rather than the capacity to regurgitate theoretical knowledge during an exam. It is for this reason that the notions of exergy and free enthalpy as well as fugacity, … are no longer included.

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4. The training involved This course is based on training through projects. There are two or three of them and they are taken from real orders and the corresponding installations have been put in place. The initial orders are expressed exactly as they were in reality (needs assessed but not exhaustively, redundant or incomplete information, …) which demands the skills of understanding, analysis, questioning, and (re)formulation. No economic calculations are expected. The students choose a subject (often due to general interest in the topic) and the teacher divides them into teams of 4-5. Lastly, each team chooses its project manager. The teams then compete against one another on the same project. The activities in the overall project are the following: • In the first session, the teacher explains the course objectives, presents the projects and organizes the teams. • During the following two weeks, each team tries to clarify its subject, conceive of a diagram of principles based on a systems approach, and identify the theoretical needs, … • During one or two sessions, the teacher introduces and explains in detail the energy equation. He illustrates the theory using an example emphasizing the associated hypotheses (steady state, negligible influence of kinetic energy, adiabatic process, …). The teacher gives to a certain degree the basic tools which will allow the team to build the plant. • Using the basic tools, each team can now really start to carry out its project. The students will have to acquire other resources such as knowledge, either by using suggested references (library books, websites, audio PowerPoint presentations from the teacher) or by other means offered to them by the teacher (getting more explicit detail about the order, making an appointment with him, exchanges on the forum for the benefit of the entire group). This step lasts about ten sessions. • A formal meeting on progress made thus far is then organized between the teams and the teacher. The aspects that result in terms of method are examined, and a considerable amount of time is spent, based on the questions asked by the students, on the qualitative explanations given to better understand the phenomena involved in using the systems, on professional practices, etc… This meeting often provides the occasion to readjust certain aspects of the project and to get each team to write up a report on its progress made thus far. • Several sessions are devoted to finalizing the project • An individual test (half session) is then given to the students mainly in the form of open questions on their understanding of the physical phenomena and the basic knowledge necessary for the project. This activity allows the team, before the test, to share information and the results obtained on any and all aspects of the project. • Each team is asked to write a summary of their work. In addition to the layout and the organization of their presentation, a consistently wellargued methodology and their results must be included. • Each team is asked to do a 20-minute oral presentation followed by a 10-minute exchange in front of a panel who is unfamiliar with their

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subject and who have not read their summary beforehand. The panel is made up of two teachers and one of the student project managers from a project with a different subject. This oral presentation must allow the panel to assess the capacity of each team to present a concise and convincing account of their work. All of the students attend these presentations. • Lastly, a session devoted to a « project review » between the teacher and each team is organized. This assessment time must allow the students to take another look at themselves, within the context of the project, in terms of subject-matter acquired (knowledge, operational, methodological, and relational know-how) based on their initial objectives, the results obtained and on the manner in which they obtained them. Each team’s project is then taken out of its context and analyzed. The following is a diagram of the whole process: Situation

Quantitative assessment

Teacher – All students Team alone Teacher - Team Student alone Project review

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Figure 2 : Learning process 4. Assessing and feedback In terms of assessment, we will distinguish here the quantitative (or standard) assessment from the purely training (or qualitative) assessment also called “project review” in this situation. The quantitative assessment takes into account several elements: • the way in which the project has been managed : meeting deadlines, handing in reports, organization of teacher-student relations, creating a project dynamic, mobilization and combination of resources, … • the individual student test • the written project report, the summaries of meetings held • the oral presentation Concretely, the assessments are based on supports used in all project situations (as well as other situations) in the general training program for engineers. These supports are partially based on the capacity “to act skilfully” and partially on the capacity to “formalize and communicate both in written form and orally” in a given situation; The use of such supports allows the student not only to have a picture of a given situation and of the criteria assessed therein but also to put together a film which provides his progress made throughout his training. And what is true for the student is also valid for the general training program. The result of the individual student test can play a role in « fine-tuning » the final assessment not only for a student within a team (allowing others to do the work for him is not acceptable) but also for the team itself. It is, in fact, the team’s and notably the student project manager’s responsibility to make

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sure that everyone contributes to the advancement of each project. The « project review » is carried out on the basis of the same elements as the quantitative assessment. Besides the qualitative remarks made on the written reports and on the global assessment sheets, the project review, during the last session, also serves as a basis for exchanges on the work done and on the perceived and real attainments during the course. 6. Overall assessment and perspectives Based on the overall assessment carried out both at the end of the project and several months afterwards, we can say that most of the students : • are very motivated by this type of activity as it is judged to be virtually what they will encounter in their professional careers. The subjects and the results are concrete. • appreciate the autonomy which is granted to them throughout the project, and particularly in the responsibilities they have been given. The same students emphasize the difficulty they have in choosing which direction to take, in anticipating certain problems, in checking data, in looking for and choosing pertinent information, etc … This training either in its difficulty or its failures (only momentary if possible) for certain teams, attains in this way its objectives (but should the teacher identify and include these aspects in his pedagogical strategy ?) on the condition that the experience allows the students to bounce back positively afterwards. Do the students want to be assisted or guided more in the various problems they must overcome ? . • remember, even months afterwards, what they learned and applied. Beyond its scientific and technical dimensions, they notice a reinforcement in their relational know-how, their project management, their teamwork, and their written and oral formalization and communication. In terms of possible improvements, the students would like more activities, simulators, and self-study with the help of complementary visual and audio supports. At the moment, we are thinking about how we can broaden the project, in terms of scientific and technical topics, to include other academic subjects such as our course in combustion and our course in thermal transfer. References Le Boterf, G. Ingénierie et évaluation des compétences, Editions d’Organisation, (2002). Perrenoud, P. Construire un référentiel de compétences pour guider une formation professionnelle, Université de Genève, Faculté de psychologie et des sciences de l’éducation, (2001). Bellier, S. Compétence comportementale : appellation non contrôlée, Entretiens de la Villette, (1999). Aguirre, E., G. Campion, G. Dutry, B. Raucent, Du cours au projet et du projet au cours, une intégration constructive, CIFA, (2001). Aguirre, E., B. Raucent, L’apprentissage par projet … vous avez dit projet ? Non, par projet !, 19ème colloque de l’AIPU, (2002).

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Chapter 11 TOWARDS A NEW WAY OF APPLYING PROBLEM BASED LEARNING IN AN UNDERGRADUATE CALCULUS COURSE: THE CASE OF REDESIGNING AN ENGINEERING BUILDING Pilar Gonzalez, Antonio Serrano Technologic of Monterrey, Campus Chihuahua, Mexico E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] SUMMARY The objective of this paper is to present a revised problem-based learning model in an undergraduate calculus course. It shows the way students followed up a well-structured planning process and finds a good proposal for building it up and implement it as part of the maths didactics. The new model adds operating stages and check-up points to help students improve their learning processes in abstract sciences. The central process in the redesign is based on three core contributions: 1) critical points, 2) operating points, and 3) check-up points to make mathematics teaching a more significant process for mathematics students. An empirical analysis was carried out using a scenario given to the students with a limited information and data as their main task to complete as part of the experiment. Also a survey in two different groups was applied in order to collect statistical evidence about the results of the technique. KEYWORDS

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problem based learning, abstract sciences, learning techniques. 1. The need for this research Engineering courses such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computer science, represent the basis to acquire the necessary concepts that are going to be applied in further courses in curricular plans. However, it is not only the acquisition of knowledge what really matters, but also the attitudes, values and tools allowing the students to progress with a better disposition towards the application of creativity and learning-based situations. Due to this fact, it is expected that the entrepreneurial capacity of our students would increase and would be more prone to apply this knowledge in real situations. This idea goes beyond the traditional limit of implementing the solution with taking into account the feasibility of the solution. This is a typical problem in calculus, economics and mathematics courses because in some cases the solutions are optimal but not feasible. Year 2001 saw the beginning of the implementation of learning techniques in the Engineering School of Technologic of Monterrey, (multicampus educational system) Campus Chihuahua. The original goal seemed clear, to root in the students learning tools more appropriated to present times. In this way, the collaborative work, problem based learning and project

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oriented learning were the original learning techniques used at the university. Many difficulties arose since the beginning. On one hand a change was required in the professor’s educational paradigm, from an education centred on him, to an education centred on the student; and on the other hand, a change was needed in the student in order to play a more active role. Finally, the competitive advantage will be the capacity to learn. A common problem a student faces when he is solving a Problem Based Learning (PBL) case is knowing how to identify the problem and begin solving it. Compared with the information technology field, solving a PBL case without a technique is like wanting to encode something without understanding what the problem is to be solved. For this reason, part of the success of developing PBL scenarios is related to the learning sequence that is given to the student. The real-situation-based problems are full of uncertainty, sometimes the situations are not concise. For all this, it is important to let the student know that the organization and selection of information is like assembling the pieces of a very big jigsaw puzzle. The efforts should be aimed at assembling small piece sections that fit together so that the final result can be progressively visualized. Also, the development of a PBL scenario must follow a well-structured planning process that allows the information to be identified and classified in order to create a conceptual model that fits the situation to be solved. The use of a strategy entails an imminent risk. How can we not become dependent of a specific strategy? The answer to this is related to the “freedom” we give the students to improvise if necessary, according to the PBL technique’s stages. Here, the most important thing is to notice that the learning sequence produces good outcomes, and even though we keep trying to improve, we should try not to omit any of the PBL process stages. Instead of hindering the solving of the case, this was a tool that helped students explore different identification, analysis, evaluation, and problemsolving alternatives. The overall goal is an irrefutable need: to make mathematics teaching a more significant process for mathematics students. This paper shows, in the first part, the theoretical framework related to the advantages when using active learning in mathematics courses. The problem based learning process redesigned (central contribution of this paper) is described and the results generated for the students. The second part aims at showing the conclusions and implications for further research. 2. Theoretical framework The Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (2000) point to a need for mathematics in a changing world. The standards state that the need to use and understand mathematics in everyday life, especially the workplace, has never been greater. Examples of this need include mathematics in everyday decision making, as part of humanity’s cultural heritage, for the workplace, and for the scientific and technical community. A major goal of the standards is for students to learn math with understanding. This means going beyond computation to develop conceptual understanding. Conceptual understandings allow students to think flexibly and to transfer learning from one situation to another. Bransford, Brown and Cocking

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(1999) suggest students integrate factual knowledge, procedural proficiency, and conceptual understanding in order to deal with novel problems and situations. Another goal in the standards is for students to become autonomous learners. When students learn with understanding, autonomy is enhanced. They find ownership when they identify their own learning needs, develop their own strategies for solving problems, discuss why the strategies work. This student-centred approach allows students to become more proficient and confident in their ability to tackle difficult problems (NCTM, 2000). Inquiry-based environments provide students opportunities to generate and revise their thinking in interdisciplinary contexts. Doing this takes a great deal of time, but allows students to learn in depth. To be of use, information needs to be associated with prior knowledge and then integrated into larger knowledge structures. Such structures require students to do more than follow the established sets of rules; they need to participate in the development of their own knowledge. Knowledge structures that relate to previous and new knowledge evolve slowly, but they are fundamental to understanding. (Pallrand, 1996). Seltzer, Hilbert, Maceli, and Robinson (1996) discuss the use of PBL in calculus instruction. Like others, they found that students were learning techniques, but few could apply these in subsequent learning tasks. They changed their classroom environment to one in which students were more active. Students worked from concrete examples to more abstract, exercising problem-solving skills, and developing a deeper awareness of important concepts. The projects allowed students to view calculus as more than “nuts and bolts” calculations, but part of a larger problem-solving process. The authors state that “students gain an appreciation for the value of mathematics - its universality and power - while also beginning to see mathematics as a creative discipline based on their work on the projects. Realistic project and activities convince the student that calculus has relevance beyond the classroom” (p. 88). 3. A revised PBL model applied in abstract sciences After the previous literature review it is possible to identify the possibility of contributing in this area by proposing a revised PBL model. This design is intended for the student to go through the PBL process stages more systematically. The design includes two critical checking points that are essential for a good scenario development. The first one is intended to guarantee an adequate problematic situation description, and the second one to corroborate that the suggested model solves the problem situation. According to the outcomes, and after two years of using PBL (four academic semesters), a new design is suggested to implement this technique in mathematics courses (and to other subjects such as economics, physics, chemistry and computer science). Figure 1 shows the revised PBL model. Conceptual Map: It refers to the stage of the process that will allow obtaining ideas from a main topic. These ideas will be presented in a diagram with as many branches and themes as needed. Debate: It represents a key stage of the process that will encourage deep discussions over a certain action or decision to be taken, in order to proceed

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Selection & Hierarchy

Reading of NonStructured Problem

1

Debate

2

Problem Statement (Structured Problem)

What is the problem? (Getting involved)

Conceptual Map 2

Discussions with the Team

List what is

Brainstorming

Task Assignment List what you know and what you don’t

Information Gathering

Conceptual Map 1

Information

2

Does the information search fit the problem statement?

1 Comparing

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Debating Changes

Build and Prove the Model

Legenda Critical Points

Does the model solve the problem

Operating points

It is feasible?

Practical Contrib. (Taking ActionPromoting - Improve)

Theoretic Contrib.

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with the next step. Depending on the degree of effectiveness that was achieved during the sixth stage, it will indicate the level of emphasis to be used while repeating the process. Likewise, it is proposed that the discussions be carried out inside the space assigned for the course (discussion board), in order to guarantee collaborative work. 3.1 Contributions The traditional seven steps model had some difficulties to be interpreted by the students, especially to establish a problem statement. Additional to this, it was necessary to include an organizer of ideas (conceptual maps), that developed the capacity of synthesis of the information available of the problem. The model contribution is the inclusion of cycles of revision (2 critical points of the process and one point of feasibility for the created model) that allow to the students to reflect about the quality of the information and the relation with the original problem. In the same way, to “run” a simulation test that allows to evaluate the feasibility of the implementation in the solution of the scenario. The following paragraph shows some student’s comments: “We can state that this learning method is very useful and effective, due to the fact that it is based in a process that has a logical and ordered sequence. It allows us to have a clearer vision of each problem stage and we can be able to isolate and deal with each one at a time. By separating tasks we can achieve greater progress and, at the same time, effective teamwork”. Another contribution is the fact that the instructions of the diagram are more clear and the process is more systemic for professors. The implementation of the model implies 3 important issues: 1. The characteristics of the professor: to take and approve the use of the technique, to have a preparation (or major) in the area of the abstract sciences and to have a good attitude that allows to implement a new didactic technique. 2. The characteristics of the students: To be an undergraduate student with high applicability of mathematics and willing to take a redesigned subject. 3. Characteristics of the scenario to be applied: To have multiples solutions and link previous knowledge. 5. Results and discussions 5.1 Results of applying the revised PBL model The scenario was motivated based on the delay time that the Engineering Building took to be constructed and the high costs that this represented. It shows in addition the non-structured problematic situation and the general process that students followed up in agreement with the PBL diagram that they received. It was noticed that the students were very enthusiastic about addressing real situations from a mathematical point of view. The non-structured problematic situation was: In the year 2002 began the construction of the engineering building. The forecast was that the building would be finished in a year or a year an a

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half; nevertheless, it was not like that, and at this day the building is not finish yet, even when the mechatronics, electronics and industrial engineering labs has begun to operate. We know that the cost has been very high, because of the innovate design, an that the space designated to build it was the only one allowed. Students followed up the stages of the revised PBL model. In general, they: 1. Gathered information of the architectonic maps of the building. 2. Obtained the volume using class concepts (see the following link): http://profesores.chi.itesm.mx/.L00468736/others/Appendix.doc 3. Designed conceptual maps to organize and synthesize the ideas. 4. Used tools of other courses such as computer design to visualize new models. 5. Presented the benefits of the new model with the goal of reducing maintenance costs in the long term. Student’s problem statement was: using the same volume of the Engineering Building, obtained through doubles and triples integrals, creates a new innovative building with the goal of reducing maintenance costs in the long term. The first conceptual map is shown as Appendix C at: http://profesores.chi.itesm.mx/.L00468736/others/Appendix.doc

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Students not only applied the concepts of doubles and triples integrals, but the tools of the computer design course such as AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor. These software facilitated the visualization of the models. Figure 2 shows the actual building and the new proposal.

Figure 2. Actual building (b) and New Proposal (a) Students found that the new building will reduces costs of maintenance in the long term because: 1. The design of the windows and the type of glass would favour the illumination. 2. To build solar panels would save energy, and the use of archipanel, instead of glass and steel for the construction of the labsreduces costs. 3. Two interconnected buildings would save time in the construction . One building would be the administrative area and professor’s office, and the other part would be the labs, meeting rooms auditorium and studies areas. This would maintain the work environment separated of administrative activities. Therefore, a building would not be affected

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with the other in the use of electricity. 5.2 Results of a survey A survey was carried out in order to find relations between the student’s perceptions and the applicability of the revised PBL model. Table 1 at the end of the document shows the current survey. Two surveys were applied in two different groups: Group 1 and Group 2. Group 1 with 26 students and group 2 with 25. The sample included only students taking a differential equations course during this academic term. From the total, 90% of the students took Mathematics III (calculus of two or more variables) with the new approach to the technique. Average in Group 1 is 86, average in Group 2 is 83 (from 10 to 100). Gender division and schedule are as follows: Group 1.: Males 18 Females 8 Schedule: 10:30 AM Group 2.: Males 19 Females 6 Schedule: 12:30 AM The survey was applied in only one exhibition including all the members of the group and there were not differences in the questionnaire. SPSS was the statistical software that was used to process the data.

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Table 2. Cross table between questions Q5 and Q6 in group 2. Q6 Total 0 1 Q5 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 3 2 5 7 4 2 7 9 5 6 6 Total 6 19 25 The table above explains the correlation between people arguing that the technique helps to gasp new knowledge and the use of the new technique in further courses or even in those not related to maths. We can appreciate that the number of students topping the scores in the positive part of the scale (4=Good, 5=Very Good, and Yes=1) are 13 which corresponds to more than 50% of the total students. This implies a positive correlation between willingness to apply this strategy or tool in other courses. Table 3. Cross table between questions analysis and synthesis) in group 2. Q1 2.0 3.0 Q6 0 1 1 5 Total 1 5

Q6 and Q1 (related to the skills of Total 4.0 5 8 13

5.0 6 6

6 19 25

This table exhibits the relationship between those people arguing they will

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use the technique in further course and those who claim that the technique is useful for analyzing and synthesizing information. More than 50% of the students perceive the benefits of applying the strategy. Table 4. Cross table between questions Q5 and Q6 in group 1. Q6 Total 0 1 1 1 1 Q5 2 1 1 3 3 3 4 2 13 15 5 6 6 3 23 26 Total The previous table shows the traditional behavioral pattern related to groups with high averages. This kind of groups tends to accept more easily new tools of learning. We can appreciate an increase of numbers in the positive part of the scale. Table 5. Cross table between questions Q6 and Q1 (related to the skills of analysis and synthesis) in group 1. Q1 Total 1.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 Q6 0 1 2 3 1 1 4 10 8 23 Total 1 4 11 10 26

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In this case we can see a trend towards the positive part of the scale where most of the students say that using the technique is good to develop the appropriate skills of analysis and synthesis. This is a very important finding because the improved PBL model is more attractive and becomes a tool than can be adopted by the students. 6. Conclusions and implications for further research The revised PBL model works and makes easier the learning process for students that are in an active learning environment. Students are willing to adopt the new tool under specific circumstances. For instance, when synthesis and analyzing information is central to the task they do not hesitate to use it. Even though in some cases it was perceived that students who arguing that they wouldn’t use it, they sustain that they would apply it to specific projects where research is involved. Statistical evidence suggested that the model is feasible to be applicable in abstract sciences when the lecturer is trained in the PBL technique and the students are presented with the benefits of using it. The survey provided evidence about the specific aspects of the improved model that the students find applicable even in other subjects in a further part of the progress in their degree. For instance, they claimed that they

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would take advantage of the redesigned model in courses where research is at the core of the activity. This finding is important in two ways: firstly, the students already took the tool to the next level, interiorizing it. Secondly, for the lecturers it means a better way to structure the maths course around a more tangible explanation of abstract concepts. In this way, any single approach improving college mathematics teaching will be free of hardships. An external analysis, clinical interviews, inference results in further courses, and a more direct involvement in didactic situations obtained as a result of implementing Interactive Learning Techniques will be needed. PBL has a place in university settings. It places the responsibility for learning clearly on the student. It also allows the instructor to support students as they wrestle with challenging problems. Some may think that the role for the instructor is lessened when students define their own learning needs then conduct their own research. In fact, the role of the instructor is even more important in PBL classrooms. The instructor has to maintain a continuous balancing act as to whether or not to intervene. It is important to ask questions that will prompt students to dig even deeper. Now students can learn in depth and they will remember the lessons learned long after the class is over. Best of all, they will be better prepared to participate in and contribute to society. Problem solution, which in many cases has been reduced to a simple parameter variation, is no longer and must not be the main point in school mathematics. Mathematics must be oriented to enable the student not only to solve a specific problem, but also to acquire evaluation, synthesis and analysis abilities that allow him/her to do mathematical modeling. References Barrows, H. 1988. The tutorial process. (Revised ed.) Springfield, IL: Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. Bransford, J. A. Brown and R. Cocking, Eds. 1999, 2000. How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. Online at: http://www.nap.edu/html/howpeople1/ Gallagher, S., W. Stepien and H. Rosenthal, 1992. The effects of problem-based learning on problem solving. Gifted Child Quarterly. 36(4), 195-200. Higa, T., M. Lindberg, A. Anderson, G. Feletti and P. Brandon, 1995.

A longitudinal study of the cognitive behavior of students enrolled in a problem-based learning medical program. Paper presented at the annual

meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA. NCTM, 2000. Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, National Council of Professors of Mathematics., Reston, VA. Norman, G. and H. Schmidt, 1992. The psychological basis of problembased learning: A review of the evidence. Academic Medicine, 67(9), pp. 557-565. Seltzer, S., S. Hilbert, J. Maceli, E. Robinson and D. Schwartz, 1996.

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An active approach to calculus. In B. J. Duch, S. E. Groh, and D. E. Allen (Eds.), The Power of Problem-Based Learning. Sterling, VA: Stylus. Table 1. Survey of opinion on the applicability of the PBL technique. Mark with an X the option that better corresponds with your answer 1. How far have you applied the PBL technique you learned in mathematics III course in other courses? Very little * Little * Regular * Much * Pretty Much 2. Which of the following skills do you think you have developed the most during the PBL process? Very little * Littlle * Regular * Much * Pretty Much Writing Redacting Comprehensive reading Data analysis and Synthesis Data interpretation Evaluation Judgment Collaborative work 3. How much do you think collaborative work helped on solving the scenario? Very little * Little * Regular * Much * Pretty Much 4. Do you think the knowledge acquisition is improved with this technique? Very little * Little * Regular * Much * Pretty Much 5. Do you think that the concepts acquired by the resolution of the scenario are better understood and kept that if the professor had exposed them? Very little Little

Regular

Much Pretty Much

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6. If you had to face new problems in another course World you use the PBL technique to solve them?

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Chapter 12 INTRODUCING ACTIVE LEARNING ACTIVITIES IN AN INTRODUCTORY PHYSICS COURSE AT THE UNIVERSIDADE DE CAXIAS DO SUL Valquíria VILLAS-BOAS, Osvaldo BALEN, Helena LIBARDI and Véra Lúcia da FONSECA MOSSMANN Universidade de Caxias do Sul Centro de Ciências Exatas e Tecnologia – Departamento de Física e Química E-mail : [email protected]

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SUMMARY The Universidade de Caxias do Sul (UCS) is a community university in the southermost Brazilian state and the city of Caxias do Sul is the second metalurgical center in the country. This combination leads to a population of students that is mostly composed of people employed in the industries of the region and seeking engineering degrees. In order to increase the students´ motivation, to help the students to have a better performance and to contribute to the formation of more creative engineers, we are introducing a series of active learning activities in our introductory physics course on electricity and magnetism. In this paper we will report some of these activities and the partial results we are obtaining.. 1. Introduction There is a world-wide consensus that a good education for the professional of the future begins with a solid basic education. Improving the basic education of its engineers is one of the primordial goals in all engineering schools. Physics, chemistry and mathematics, given in the engineering courses, constitute the foundation of the basic education of the engineer and it is on this basis that all professional knowledge of the future engineer will rest. The 21st century needs a new kind of engineer. Not the kind which seeks more elaborate technical solutions, but engineers who are capable of adapting and anticipating the necessities of industry. Industry needs creative engineers. Within the context of globalization, new forms of cooperation are demanded. Industries in the globalized world need engineers who are flexible, cooperative and trained to work in groups. Moreover, they need to have ability to communicate both verbally and in writing, and have familiarity with modern techniques of computer science. However, in the majority of educational institutions the education of engineers occurs mainly through the discussion of content in traditional theoretical lectures. In this text, traditional lecture instruction can be understood as classes centred on the instructor’s exposition of the subject, with very little or no active participation of the students. In order to develop the different abilities mentioned above it is not enough to expose the students to a certain amount of knowledge. In fact, to develop these abilities more appropriate methodologies of education and learning must be used in the teaching-learning process.

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The Universidade de Caxias do Sul (UCS) is a community university in the southermost Brazilian state and the city of Caxias do Sul is the second metalurgical center in the country. This combination leads to a population of students that is mostly composed of people employed in the industries of the region and seeking engineering degrees. UCS offers degrees in mechanical, chemical, materials, industrial, environmental and food engineering, Most of the students at UCS come to class in the evening after a long day at work, many of them unmotivated and incapable of paying attention to a traditional class. It is well known that traditional lecture instruction is not working for many students in the introductory physics course (Halloun and D. Hestenes, 1985; D. Hestenes et al., 1992; Mazur, 1997; McDermott, 1991). In this context, in an introductory course on electricity and magnetism at UCS, both theory and laboratory, many different resources such as demonstrations, videos and computer resources were introduced in order to make the classes more attractive. Despite all the technological resources and the demonstrations used in these classes, after two semesters teaching this introductory physics course on electricity and magnetism, the behavior of the students in class and the final grades attained in these courses showed that some of the methodology applied should be changed. This semester, in order to increase the students´ motivation, to help the students improve their performance and to contribute to the formation of more creative engineers, a series of active learning activities is being introduced in an introductory physics course on electricity and magnetism. In this paper some of these activities and the partial results that were obtained are reported. 2. Introductory physics courses: the joy and sorrows When college students begin most of their courses they know little or nothing about a certain number of subjects. For example, in an introductory course on biochemistry, the instructor can help the students to sow fresh knowledge upon the “virgin fields” of their minds. The situation in an introductory physics course is quite different. Although the students would be shocked to hear you say it, students arrive in their first physics course with a set of physical beliefs and pre-concepts that they have tested and refined over years of repeated experimentation (Clement, 1982; Hammer, 1994). How can this be? The reason is that students have spent some eighteen years (and in some cases much more) exploring mechanical phenomena by walking, running, throwing pebbles in the water, throwing and catching balls, kicking soccerballs and riding in accelerating vehicles. They have also some experience with electrical phenomena, due to the use of electric circuits and electric device about the behavior of light, lenses, and mirrors. Based on their observations, students have pieced together a set of “common sense” beliefs and/or pre-concepts about how the physical universe works. Unfortunately, research carried out by physicists has shown these “common sense” ideas are in the main incompatible with correct physics. Sometimes these beliefs are robust and difficult to dislodge from students’ minds, in

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large measure because these ideas are not addressed by conventional physics instruction. Besides that there is also the fact that the dynamics of the teaching-learning process in an introductory physics course varies a lot depending on the subject matter covered. The more abstract the concept, the less likely is the chance of having a successful result in the teachinglearning process. For example, the concepts in mechanics are much less abstract than those in electricity and magnetism. The students are much more familiar with mechanical concepts than with electromagnetic concepts, despite the fact that most of the electromagnetic phenomena can be experienced through their technological applications and through some macroscopic electromagnetic phenomena in nature. Last, but not least, besides the fact that the concepts are more abstract, a more sophisticated knowledge of mathematics is required to go through an introductory course on electricity and magnetism. In order for the course to really be at the college level, it is necessary to use trigonometry, vector algebra, derivatives, series expansions and surface and volume integrals. Even if the most difficult problems of a textbook are not considered during the course, still this knowledge is required. If the students do not have the required knowledge of mathematics they will have more trouble going through an introductory physics course. 3. Methodology According to Prado (Prado and Hamburger, 1998), “in Brazil the physics teaching process has been excessively descriptive, sometimes demonstrative and rarely active, in the sense of involving the students in the activities of the course or in the search for knowledge”. Students, who have never experienced a process where they play the main role, tend to believe that the instructor is not working if the class is based on hands-on activities and/or peer education. Most of the engineering students come to class in the evening after a long day at work, many of them unmotivated and incapable of paying attention to a traditional class. Besides that, in many cases, the classes are three to four and half hours long. These long classes meet once a week due to the fact that some students come from neighbouring cities (i.e., one to two and a half hours away). Having three or four class meetings a week of the same subject would be impractical. All these local factors and the fact that students, in general, when attending a traditional class, have an attention span of 20 minutes or less (McGrew, 2000), were the starting point for introducing different educational methods in order to make the classes more attractive and as a consequence to keep the students motivated and participating in the whole process. In a first attempt to change the scenario described above, many different resources such as demonstrations, videos and computer resources were introduced in order to make the classes more attractive. These resources were used in an introductory course on electricity and magnetism, both theory and laboratory, whose classes are three and one and half hours long respectively. The two classes are given on the same day, one following the other, with the laboratory class preceding the theory class. Despite all the

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technological resources and the demonstrations used in the theory classes, after two semesters teaching this introductory physics course on Electricity and Magnetism, the behaviour of the students in class and the final grades attained in these courses showed that some of the methodology applied should be changed. This semester, in order to increase the students’ motivation, to help the students to have a better performance, to contribute to the education of more creative engineers and to solve the problems mentioned above, it is being introduced a series of active learning activities in an introductory physics course on electricity and magnetism. 3.1. The active learning activities in use What are the active learning activities that are being introduced at the introductory physics course for engineers at UCS? 1. The students are being asked to read the material in the textbook before coming to class. The reasons are the following: (i) the students start to take responsibility in the teaching-learning process; (ii) the students need to assume that reading the textbook is necessary and can give them an idea of the subject that is going to be developed and its degree of complexity; (iii) different activities can be developed during class (for example, peer discussion, peer resolution of conceptual question and problems; etc...) when the expositive class is shorter; (iv) the verbatim repetition on the blackboard of the textbook is neither useful nor productive, besides being boring and an excellent inducement to sleep in class. 2. The students are being exposed to live demonstrations, computer demonstrations and video demonstrations. Our department has a collection of videos called “The Video Encyclopedia of Physics Demonstrations” (http://www.physicsdemos.com) with more than 600 demonstrations in physics. These videos are never longer than 10 minutes, which guarantees that the students are not going to sleep. The students are asked to repeat some of the live demonstrations and they are induced to formulate a concept by discussing with their peers and the instructor. We believe that the more the students do the more they learn. As Confucius said: “I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I learn”. In terms of infrastructure, a large number of simple experiments are being set up in order to be used in class demonstrations with the students’ participation. One example is the set up built to illustrate the concepts of constant electric field and electric flux shown in figure 1. This set up was built with a piece of wood and lots of barbecue sticks. The piece of wood has no physical meaning. The barbecue sticks represent the electric field lines. The idea was to represent different regions of constant electric field, one more intense than the other. The set up with red barbecue sticks show a region of more intense electric field than the green one, since there are more red electric field lines per area than green lines.

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Figure 1 - Set up built to illustrate the concepts of constant electric field and electric flux Using a plastic ring to simulate the boundaries of a surface, students can experience that when the surface enclosed by the ring is perpendicular to the electric field lines, more lines cross the surface than when the surface is inclined or parallel to them, i.e., they can measure qualitatively the electric flux through a certain surface (figure 2). This simple live demonstration is very important to help developing the concepts of electric flux that it is going to be the basis to the development of Gauss’s Law.

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Figure 2 – Students measuring qualitatively the electric flux through a certain surface. 3. For the laboratory classes, special material is being developed for each subject to be covered in an experiment. This material is very different from a “cookbook recipe” experiment guide (i.e., the traditional kind of guide for experiments). It is, in fact, a very interactive type of guide, where the students need at the same time do things, think about what they are doing and discuss what they are experiencing. These guides are based on the material developed by the Physics Education Group of the University of Washington (McDermott, 1996), but modified to take into account the needs of the UCS students, the context of the courses and the infrastructure of the physics laboratories at UCS. This material has the main purpose of helping the student develop the concepts by themselves. These concepts are the basis for the resolution of problems that are proposed in a subsequent step. Material on electric charges (triboelectricity, determination of and measurement of electric charges), electric field, electric flux and electric potential has already been developed and applied to the students. This kind of material requires an intense peer activity that transforms the class into a very enjoyable, alive environment. For the theory classes, special texts are also being developed for each subject covered every time the students need extra support.

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4. In general, the last part of the class is being reserved for the resolution of problems in small groups of two or three students. This period is a very important part of the class. Besides learning physics through intense discussion and interaction with peers and their instructor, our future engineers are also learning how to improve their relationship with their peers and with their instructor. 4. Preliminary results and final remarks The preliminary results that can be observed after the introduction of these active learning activities are mainly based upon the students’ reactions and behaviour in class and the feedback they are giving verbally. It is clear that the classes are much more exciting and less tiring than the traditional ones. By the end of the third week of classes all the students had interacted with their peers and everyone knew each other by name. This more relaxed environment gives the students more confidence so that they ask questions and participate in discussions more frequently. At the very beginning of every class, students and instructor are evaluating the last class and pointing out the high and low points. This feedback from the students is helping to improve even more our experience with active learning activities. Although these activities are just beginning at UCS, they have already begun to enrich our physics and engineering learning environment.

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Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank FINEP and UCS for financial support, Julio Cesar Alves de Souza and Rodrigo Zardo for technical assistance, and Frank P. Missell and Francisco Catelli for revisions of the manuscript. References Clement, J., 1982. Students’ preconceptions in introductory mechanics, The American Journal of Physics 50 (1), 66-71. Halloun, I. A. and D. Hestenes, 1985. The initial knowledge state of students, The American Journal of Physics 53 (11), 1043-1055. Hammer, D., 1994. Students’ beliefs about conceptual knowledge in introductory physics, International Journal of Science Education 16, 385-403. Hestenes, D., M. Wells, and G. Swackhamer, 1992. Force concept inventory, The Physics Teacher 30, 141-158. Mazur, E., 1997. Peer Instruction: A Users Manual (Prentice Hall, New Jersey). McDermott, L. C., 1991. Millikan Lecture 1990: What we teach and what is learned—Closing the gap, The American Journal of Physics 59 (4), 301-315. McDermott, L. C., 1996. Physics by inquiry (Wiley, New York). McGrew, R. J. Saul and C. Teague, 2000. Instructor´s manual to accompany Physics for Scientists and Engineers 5th edition, Serway & Beichner (Harcourt, New York). Prado, F. D. and E. W. Hamburger, 1998. Pesquisas em ensino de Física – Capítulo 2: Estudos sobre o curso de Física da USP em São Paulo – Escrituras Editora: São Paulo, Brazil.

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Chapter 13 PREPARING FOR THE WORKPLACE, PRACTICE AND CONSIDERATIONS Gerard Oosterloo Amsterdam School of Technology (HvA) Faculty: Business Engineering E-mail: [email protected]

SUMMARY The professional preparation project (pp-project) enables our students to prepare for their internships. They work on an authentic case for an organization collaboration with an external consultant. The project takes ten weeks in which the students are very closely observed. The ten weeks of the project are roughly split into four parts. (Introduction, assignment, executing and finalizing). In the end the results and performance are the issues for feed-back. Experiences about the problems that the students encountered during their internships, and the competence requirements of the future work field, inspired us to develop this pp-project. The objective for the students is to show growth in their professional competencies. The competence issues we mostly focus on deal with communication, reasoning, project management and structuring information. Since we run this project, the performance of the students in internships improved. The main point for successfully running this pp-project is a good relationship between consultancy firm and our institute. The consultants need different skills in order to work with second year students than with other professionals. On the other hand the institute (and clearly the students) should realize that the consultants deal with real customers. Mutual trust and good preparation are therefore essential.

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KEYWORDS

Professional competences, Internships, Consultancy firm, Double loop learning, Business assignment 1. Introduction During their education at the Amsterdam School of Technology to become a technical manager, all students are engaged in two internships of six months each. The expectation usually is that students will apply the ‘inside the school’ learning to the workplace and, mutatis mutandis, confront the workplace experiences to the learning at school. Generally though, systematic learning in internship does not occur by itself. Rather, the confrontations with practice provides students the challenge to apply professional skills. Students however tend to rely on their ‘in school’ experience at the beginning of their internships. This quite often results in time loss for students. Nearly always the loss of time is due to the fact that the students have to

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find out about professional behaviour. Since internships last only six months, it is very costly to accommodate a false start. Their performance during the internship is a key factor for overall success. Realizing that, we started to develop a project enabling the students to develop these basic professional skills. The goal of this paper is to introduce the reader to an active learning project that showed great positive impact on students new to internships. First the project we developed will be described. The organization of the project and the timing in the curriculum will be explained. The parties involved and the relations between them are discussed in the following parts. The paper ends with a view on how to manage the project and a list of important issues for successfully running the project. 2. The PP-project The professional preparation project (pp-project) is an authentic project for students. The students get an assignment from a business owner, which they have to execute themselves. The pp-project is situated in time, short before the students start their internships. Up to the moment they start the pp-project, the students got project assignments based on virtual cases. The focus in the different projects, in the curriculum, shifts from technical detail to a conceptual overview. Although in these projects students sometimes are expected to get information from outside the institute, they are, in the end, virtual. Being virtual means that the students do not experience the possibilities and challenges an authentic situation offers. Especially when running the last couple of the six projects, students feel blocked when they can not dispute the concepts of the presented project. Eventually this situation will discourage the students. In the preparation project students will work in teams of three, on an authentic and business related problem. In doing so they will develop start competencies needed in their internships. Although closely observed and supported, students still have to deal with the problem themselves. They are asked to take responsibility for the results while optimizing the communication with all parties involved. The project takes place during ten weeks. Part of the time, students also follow classes, not related to the preparation project. The project is divided in four phases: One week time for introduction and preparation for the student. Two weeks to explore the assignment and to plan the ways to handle this Five weeks for following up on their own planning Two weeks for finalizing and delivering the results. For overall planning the students are offered a schedule to follow. However, they are free to develop their own schedule. There are only two strategically fixed milestones that students will have to adhere to. The first is the presentation of their interpretation of the problem at hand, the goals they have set in order to solve this properly and their planning. The second is the final presentation. The complexity of the project lies in the fact that five parties are involved, including the students themselves.

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(See figure 1). In a common situation only two parties are involved, the problem owner (client) and the consultant. Thus the problem solving by the pp-project group is not a straightforward activity. Rather it will continuously be influenced by the powers at work along the line. Students thus experience the art of problem solving while pushes and pulls around them play an active role and may interfere in their activities. Moreover the students will continuously be expected to communicate with not only the problem owner but also with other parties involved. This will be explained in the paragraph dealing with the relation between the parties involved.

3. The parties involved 3.1 The students They are in their second year of a four year curriculum. Until the moment they take part in the pp-project they have run about six school based projects. After six projects they understand the process of cooperating in teams. They have found their ways of communicating and sharing the workload. The biggest challenge is to get the result accepted by the teachers. However after four projects the greater part of the student population is not really interested anymore in why they have to do or learn certain things, but only in how getting their results accepted. This growing lack of intrinsic motivation can be explained by the limitations of the predefined virtual projects which they feel more and more. Because they are not able to change concepts it is difficult to answer to the need of double loop learning hence communication becomes less interesting. On top of this it is almost predictable what lecturers, they know, will say. To communicate with a teacher playing the role of manager is quite different from communicating with a real business manager. 3.2 The institute (HvA) The goal of the institute for second year students is to have them ready for internships. This means that they can work by themselves in a new environment at a high conceptual level. Besides technical skills the students need to be able to think at a conceptual level and have professional competences. The future work field expects the students to be a leading

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partner in solving problems. Knowing that, the Amsterdam School for Technology, wants to enable the students to develop these necessary competences as much as possible. Whereas the technical knowledge is mostly an ‘in school’ matter, developing professional competences is effectively only possible in authentic situations. For the institute the assigned problem in the pp-project is nothing more than a tool in order to work on the professional competences of the students. It is evident that the students are expected to deliver a good result but that is only part of what is expected from the students. The institute focuses on the way the students structure the information, communicate (orally and in writing), deal with project management and how they reason and argument. At the same time the institute is acting as knowledge base.

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3.3 The consultancy firm The consultancy firm can have many reasons to participate in a pp-like project. Working with students gives the consultancy firm the opportunity to work on smaller problems they normally can not afford. On the other hand they can take up assignments with sub assignments for students. Further more they get the possibility to find and select students they can present to their clients for internships. The requested number of projects and the specific timing is one of the most difficult steps in the preparation. ( The HVA requested the last couple of years 32 projects, all starting at the start of January). The knowledge and experience of the consultancy firm is expected to be available for the students. 3.4 The problem owner The problem owner is a client of the consultancy firm. They have contacted them because they have a problem but more often a question they want to be taken care of. The seize of the companies are mainly rather small. Mostly they have good ideas they want to commercialize. Some times they have business problems after a start-up period. Other problems deal with specific technical support they need. Here we find assignments to get a picture of information flows or process design. In general, the issues are limited in difficulty and can be done within the available ten week. Because the many clients get enthusiastic by getting so much attention they see an opportunity and tend to over ask become demanding. Asking too much also happens when the problem owner it not clear about what is wanted. It is quite often the case that the problem owner knows only vaguely what is wanted. This enables the students to develop skills in getting a clear problem definition. However, students do not oversee the workload they get confronted with and find it difficult to say no. If this happens a problem arises for all parties involved. Although it clearly is a perfect learning experience for the students to be confronted with the obligation to finish an accepted job, they get into trouble because their study goes on as well. 3.5 The external jury The external jury is formed by people with jobs in the future work field of

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the students. Being only sideways involved in the project it is not a main party. They are the body to which the students have to present the project plan and final results before addressing the problem owner.

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4. Relation between parties involved and their main responsibilities The problem owner is a client of the consultancy firm. The consultancy firm in its turn is the client of the students. This means that the student gets an assignment from the consultancy firm. In that way the students are that way responsible for a good result as far as the consultancy firm concerns. (see figure 2)

The problem owner has direct contact with the students when the start working on the assignment. Therefore, the problem owner needs to be available for questions and decision making. They should realize that they have to react quickly when questions are asked. The consultancy firm is responsible for the final result presented to the problem owner. In assigning it to the students (as a whole or only a part of it) they should realize that they deal with second year students for the first time active in a real setting. They should also agree with the problem owner that students will work on the assignment. Furthermore, it is important that the consultancy firm stays in contact with the institute regarding the progress of the students on the different assignments. They do have direct contact with the problem owner so they should know exactly how the students are performing. They also need to be available to the students in order to prevent communication delays. The students are responsible for a good result of their assignment and a professional attitude. They should keep all main parties constantly informed about the status of the project. (see figure 3) They have to make the project plan which needs acceptance from all main parties before a certain deadline. This project plan is challenged by an external jury for which they need to present it first. Here the salesmanship skills of the students are tested. The institute acts in the background. The teachers provide reassurance for the problem owner that the assignment from the consultancy firm will be completed. The problem owner and the institute only meet twice during the project. It is important for the institute to reassure the problem owner that they will get a acceptable result. Towards the students the institute has the obligation to prevent them from accepting an assignment which is either too heavy or too low, or one that is not clear. During the project the institute

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and the problem owner know of each others existence but never contact each other. In case of trouble the communication goes through the consultancy firm. An other responsibility of the institute deals with the students and what they should learn. The institute should give concurrent feed back to enable students to improve during the process. The external jury has the responsibility to challenge the teams on both presentations. They are expected to give a comprehensive feed back in order to enable the students to improve on the result.

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5. MANAGEMENT OF THE PP-PROJECT Both the institute and the consultancy firm assign a contact-person . These persons stay in contact throughout the period project runs, including the preparation and the aftermath. On a weekly basis they discus the general situation of all projects. This information is passed on to the lecturers involved in the project. The teachers use this information as well as all email traffic and created results in the obligatory feed back to the student teams. The Institute requests the consultancy firm to commit itself for a certain number of assignments. The consultancy firm selects the assignments that fit in the time schedule and the competencies of the students. Every assignment is linked with a consultant who will make the pre-assignment sheet. On this sheet all available information can be found. The student teams are grouped by seven and assigned to a teacher. All student teams will get on the kick-off the pre-assignment sheet. At the same time they get a project hand-out. Now the student teams can start preparing the first meeting. The consultant sets-up the first meeting with the problem owner and the team. In this meeting the lecturer and the consultant sit in. 6. Main points of attention for successfully running a PP-project • Clear assignment in first week • As soon as the assignment is clear the students know what they have to deliver and can start on producing the project plan. Both the school as the consultancy firm should take care that the requested result is quickly defined. • The consultancy firm should guide the problem owner the school should coach the students. • Communication between students and problem owner • Quite often both the students and the problem owner get excited. The problem owner starts asking extra things to include to which the students agree too easily. If they do not communicate with the other parties involved they both might get into trouble. • Capabilities of students • The students can be over or underestimated both by the problem owner as the consultant. This must me watched by the school. • Role of parties involved • Every party involved should realize its place. It should not happen that parties make decisions they are not responsible for. Because all parties do have expertise in different fields this can easily happen.

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• • • • •

Relationship between institute and consultancy firm This relationship is based on trust. The consultancy firm takes a calculated risk to work with students they can not select. The institute takes a risk that students start working on so called “non”-projects Weekly feed back Do not skip one weekly feedback sessions. Time is short and a team on the wrong turn will lose a lot of time in a week. Coaching Institute an consultancy firm can interfere if they do not stick to their separate roles

7. Conclusion The pp- project is a complicated project but worthwhile the effort. Since it has never been measured it is impossible to underpin our positive feeling with data. However we experienced many problems with students that did nut run the pp-project. The faculty of Business Engineering of the Amsterdam School of Therefore all students engage in the pp-project before their internships.

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References Kempen, P.M. and J.A. Keizer. 2000 Advieskunde voor praktijkstages, organisatieverandering als leerproces, Wolters-Noordhoff, Groningen. Moust, J. e.a. 2001. Problem-based learning, “student guide”, WoltersNoordhoff, Groningen. Buchanan, D. and A. Huczynski. 2004. Organizational Behavior, an introductory text, 5th edition Financial Times/Prentice Hall, Essex. Mintzberg, H. 2004. ‘Managers, not MBAs’, Berret-Koehler Publishers Inc, USA Kallenberg A. e.a 2005. Leren en Doceren, Lemma Utrecht Zuylen J. 1999. “Professionalisering van docenten” PhD Katholieke Universiteit Tilburg, Mesoconsult, Tilburg

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Chapter 14 TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE ENGINEERING EDUCATION AND PRACTICE IN NIGERIA

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A. I. Olorunfemi, B. I. O. Dahunsi E-mail: [email protected] SUMMARY Engineering education and training in Nigeria, have been on the downward slide in the last two decades. This has posed problems of acceptability and recognition by employers within and by institutions abroad assuming a very worrisome level in the past fifteen years. This paper identified major problems of engineering education and self-reliance to include underfunding of faculties of engineering, leading to inadequate facilities and infrastructures, outdated syllabi, inadequate number of quality lecturers and instructors and lack of opportunities for students and practitioners in continued engineering activities and training. The paper proposed substantial increase in Government funding for education in line with UNESCO guidelines, inclusion of further mathematics for admission into engineering programmes, proper funding and effective policy implementation of the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) and the Supervised Industrial Training Scheme In Engineering (SITSIE), evolving curriculum in engineering institutions towards self-reliance and selfemployment and exploiting the enormous benefits of ICT and globalisation. Government is invited to develop and maintain database of available engineering manpower in the country for utilization, encourage formation of engineering and multi-disciplinary consortia in consultancy, construction and research; to also encourage and support indigenous engineers to develop capabilities for aggressive bidding in international business competitions, promote sustainable national technology development, foster and facilitate entrepreneurial development in engineering practice. The paper also discussed the necessity of interaction and involvement of the private sector (industries) in engineering education and practice whilst networking with institutions and relevant organizations abroad. The necessity of management teams of institutions to be proactive, entrepreneurial and private sector focused is emphasised. KEYWORDS

Engineering Education, Self-reliance, SIWES & SITSIE, Sustainability, ICT & Globalisation, Entrepreneurial Development 1. Introduction The relationship between economic power and level of advancement in Engineering and Technology has long been recognized. This is evident from the fact that the technologically advanced nations wield both economic and

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military power. It has been suggested that the fundamental cause of the backwardness of developing nations is their low level of technological development (Mafe, 2002). The technological break-through by the developed countries was not achieved by accident but by careful planning and execution of developmental programmes. Education plays a prominent role in achieving such break-through. The level of economic development of any nation depends on its level of human resources development, particularly in science and technology (Isoun, 2002). The level of technological advancement achieved by any nation has been found to be a function of the quality of its engineering education and not just the quantity of its natural resources (Ajayi, 2002). Japan, one the most advanced nations in terms of technology is known to have little natural resources. It has been reported that the difference between a developed, rich and prosperous country and an undeveloped, poor and wretched country is the difference in their levels of scientific, engineering and technological advancement (COREN, 1997). Advances and progress of modern society are ‘technology – driven’, while the skills and attitude required of engineers are constantly changing since they have to match developments, which take place at an ever increasing rate. Hence, there is a societal demand for a more flexible, inter-disciplinarily-shaped and innovation-oriented kind of engineer (Borri, 2003). Every system of education is based on some philosophy or outlook of life and every educational system reflects the dominant characteristics of the people who produce it (Lasisi, 1998). The educational system of a nation would therefore be expected to have relevance to the developmental needs of such society. In recent times the society has been critical of the Nigerian engineers for failing to bring about the type of technology turn-around that have been witnessed in the so called Asian tigers. It is felt that engineering training in the country has not been made relevant to societal developmental needs, especially in developing appropriate technology solutions. A lot questions have also been raised on the quality of engineering graduates produced by the nation’s higher institutions, especially in the past fifteen years during which the university system had been plagued by various problems including under funding, students riots and industrial actions by staff members that have often led to long closures. A widening gap has also been noticed between engineering education and practice in Nigeria (Oyegoke, 2002; Momoh, 2002). An appraisal of existing curricula becomes necessary; in order to align the requirements of the country’s industries with the educational training of the nations engineers. The engineering profession is very dynamic, it changes in response to advances in science and as a result of changes in society. This rapid progress in engineering requires that the engineers become continuous learners (Oyegoke, 2002). Engineering practice in any nation cannot advance properly without a proper marriage of the studies and training being undertaken in the higher institutions of learning and the day to day production, construction and manufacturing work being undertaken by the nation’s industries. In view of rapid growth of knowledge in science and mathematics and especially in Information Technology and Computer usage

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and applications, the level of responsibility upon statutory organisations to ensure that engineering curriculum keep pace with changing demands of industry and general practice is enormous (Momoh, 2002). There is a low level of interaction between the industry academia and other stakeholders (end users and policy formulation) in Nigeria. One of the major criticisms of African Engineers is that, though they are academically equal to their counterparts in Europe and America, they have failed to bring about significant progress in indigenous technology. Disciplinary limitation has been recognized as a problem in traditional education, it is critical that tertiary institutions provide a curriculum and research program unconstrained by disciplines. 2. Expectations on the contribution of engineering education and practice to national development With recent developments in information and communication technology and the shrinking of knowledge barrier through globalisation, the societal expectations of the contributions of the Nigerian engineer to national development is relatively high. The current global competition is technologically driven; hence the Nigerian engineer must be well armed with the necessary skills to remain relevant and competitive. The ability of any nation to realise its developmental goals depends to a large extent on the availability of high quality local manpower. Educational institutions are thus expected to produce products with skills relevant to industrial and societal needs. Such products must not only be capable of coping with stress, and working long hours. They must be capable of taking rational decisions, even when under pressure (Anthonio & Massaquoi, 2001). Those involved in the education and training of engineers should therefore evaluate the processes of producing the graduates, identify the shortcomings in the system and proffer feasible solutions to them (Akanbi & Oke, 2003). The nation’s national development should focus on the production of the basic needs of the people while striving for innovation and creativity compatible with local conditions in order to ward off all manipulations by developed countries. Various machineries of quality assurance have been set up; these include regulating, monitoring and evaluation agencies (Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, COREN and National Universities Commission, NUC). Training programmes have been developed, such as the Students Industrial Work Experience (SIWES) and the Supervised Industrial Training Scheme in Engineering (SITSIE). Professional bodies have also been put in place to encourage professional development. This paper therefore evaluates Nigeria’s Engineering education, its relevance to national development and societal expectation. The contribution of the practice of engineering to improving the nation’s living standard was also assessed. 3. Approach & methodology This project was carried out through personal Interviews and the use of structured questionnaires, administered to major stakeholders in engineering education and practice in Nigeria. Included are engineering trainers and instructors, employers and also students. Members of the public were also

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interviewed to get their perception of the Nigerian engineer. A total of 650 questionnaires were distributed. 150 were administered in 12 educational institutions to students and staff members. The questionnaires were also distributed to 100 employers of engineers, 200 practicing engineers and 200 non-engineers in 6 geo-political zones within the country. 582 of the questionnaires were answered and returned, representing 89.5% response rate. 4. Results and conclusions There was a general believe that the Nigerian engineer has more theoretical knowledge than practical abilities and applications. Engineering training was also said to have been considerably weakened by instability in academic activities due mainly to strike action by lecturers and also student riots. The academic content of the curricula were described as comparable to those of better-developed countries although need for making them relevant to societal needs were recorded. Emphasis should be placed on developing the entrepreneurial skills of students to ensure self-reliance and selfemployment while exploiting the enormous benefits of ICT and globalization. From a more programmatic viewpoint, the university should plan its strategic positioning facing the needs of society, which include rapid and unforeseeable changes in the structure of the employment market, and the need to furnish its graduates with new skills beyond purely technical ones, in particular, the learning ability towards a sustainable societal development (Balogun, 2002). Engineering instructors are expected to interact closely with the industries in development of research works. They are also advised to spend a considerable part of their sabbatical leaves in the industry in order to improve industry/university relationship and to have a better understanding of industrial needs and expectations. The private sector, as a major end-user of engineering graduates is expected to participate in training in terms of funding and provision industrial attachment placing for students and staff members. They are also expected to fund research activities and equipment. The problems facing engineering education were identified to include under-funding, inadequate number of quality lecturers and instructors and also the obsolete facilities being used in training. It was suggested that entry requirements for prospective engineering students should include further mathematics. The need to strengthen regulatory and monitoring bodies to perform their constitutional roles was emphasised. The role of the government in empowering the Nigeria engineer to perform optimally was also mentioned. The government was expected to patronise locally available engineering manpower, since foreigners have never been known to develop any country. Training programmes such as SITSIE and SIWES should be properly funded and implemented. The need for massive investment in ICT was found to be necessary. The development and maintenance of database of engineering manpower in the country by the government is expected to assist Nigerian engineers in taking advantage of globalisation and be able to compete internationally. Practitioners mentioned lack of reliable information required for planning, design and execution of engineering projects as a major constraint. The low capital base of

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indigenous engineering companies and high bank interest rates is a factor limiting their participation in major contracts. The need for the formation of consortia by local contractor to pull resources together and bid for bigger jobs was acknowledged. For engineering education and practice to be sustainable, the tripartite cooperation between the government, academia and industry to produce engineering graduates equipped with tools of modernity while still relevant to their immediate society and also the provision of an enabling environment for engineering practice and national development is sine qua non. Awareness should be provided not only through the traditional functions of teaching and research in tertiary institutions, but also from the creation of living environments that facilitate the ability to learn by experiencing sustainable societal conditions. Sustainability is about community and interconnectedness at the core. If the students and the knowledge that tertiary institutions produce are to be primary force towards sustainability, then, tertiary institutions must itself be a microcosm of sustainable thinking, norms and practices that are taken away by the students as they leave for their life-long pursuits (Conceicao et al, 2000). References Mafe, O. A.T., 2002, Refocusing Engineering Curricula in Developing

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countries for Endogenous Technology Development and Entrepreneurship.

Proc. African Regional Conference on Engineering Education and Sub – Regional Workshop on New Engineering curriculum, University of Lagos in partnership with UNESCO, 23 – 25 September 2002. Lagos, Nigeria, pp 327 –340. Isoun, T. T., 2002, University / Industry co-operation for Advancement of Engineering Education and Technology Transfer. Proc. Pp 1- 8 Ajayi, T., 2002, Academic – Government – Industry Relations: A case for the Engineering Discipline in Nigeria. Proc. Pp 209 – 220 Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), 1997 Submission to the Committee on “Future of higher Education in Nigeria” set up by the Federal Government of Nigeria, January 1997. Borri, C., 2003, Reshaping the Engineer in the 3rd Millennium. European Journal of Engineering Education, Vol 28(2), Pp 132-138. Lasisi, F., 1998, Meeting the Challenges of Technology Education in Nigeria in the Next Millennium: the Roles of Academia and industry, a lecture delivered to mark the 50th Anniversary celebrations of the University of Ibadan, Ibadan 29 October 1998. 7pp Oyegoke, S. O., 2002, Self – Reliance and Service as a Better Basis for Engineering Education Administration in Nigeria. Proc. National Engineering Conference and Annual General meeting, Nigerian Society of Engineers, 7 – 12 December 2002, Kaduna, Nigeria, pp 67 – 74. Momoh, O.A., 2002, Improving Engineering Education in Nigeria Through Academic/Practicing Engineers interaction. Proc. National Engineering Conference and Annual General meeting, Nigerian Society of Engineers, 7 – 12 December, 2002, Kaduna, Nigeria, pp 81 – 89. Anthonio, J. and J.G. M. Massaquoi 2001 Revitalizing continuing

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Engineering Education in Africa. The Way Forward. Report of the Expert

Group meeting on Revitalizing continuing Engineering Education in Africa, 27 – 28, 2001, Nairobi, Kenya, Pp 6. Akanbi E. O. and S. A. Oke, 2003, assessment of Engineers in Developing Countries – Nigeria A case study, proc. National Engineering Conference And Annual General Meeting, Nigerian society of Engineers 8 - 12 December, 2003, Ibadan, Nigeria pp 56 – 66 Balogun S. A., 2002, Major factors in Engineering Graduates Quality Assurance, Proc. National Engineering Conference and Annual General Meeting, Nigeria Society of Engineers 7 – 12 December 2002, Kaduna, Nigeria, 21 – 28. Conceicao, P; Ehrenfeld J; Heitor, M; and Vieira, P., 2000, Towards

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Sustainable Universities, Challenges for Engineering Education in the Learning Economy. in3.dem.ist.vtl.pt/publications/papers/challenges.pdf

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Chapter 15 CREATING INNOVATIVE PRODUCTS TEACHING LEARNING APPROACH Norma F. Roffe ITESM-Campus Monterrey, Computer Science Department E-mail: [email protected] SUMMARY Engineering education and higher education in general face the challenge of developing creativity in students. This article presents a teaching/learning approach that requires students to work on the creation of innovative products. Besides, the approach includes a methodology for fostering creativity for this purpose. Both, the approach and the methodology have been applied in a VHDL (VHSIC Hardware Description Language, VHSIC = Very High Speed Integrated Circuit) course to stimulate the development of creativity in designing electronic devices. VHDL is a powerful tool to describe, simulate and implement electronic circuits. As VHDL simplifies the implementation of an electronic device, the course has been oriented to make the students face the necessity to create problems instead of solving the ones designed by professors. Innovative devices have been the product of this endeavour. KEYWORDS

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Engineering Education, Self-reliance, SIWES & SITSIE, Sustainability, ICT & Globalisation, Entrepreneurial Development 1. Introduction At ITESM (Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey) a large multi-campus university system in México, the institutional mission has two parts: academic objectives that look for delineating characteristics in the student profile, and by more general objectives. The academic objectives demand educating creative, innovator, entrepreneur and competitive students which have critical thinking, are able to express their ideas clearly and have an international vision, among other characteristics. The general objectives as an institution refer to have a contribution to the development of the country. Global strategies were designed to implement ITESM’s mission. One of them, the higher in cost, faculty time and effort, was the redesign of the teaching learning process. Two factors make that the product of the redesign of the instructional process represent a new educational model: a)The incorporation of technology in the teaching/learning process, including Internet platforms to make the courses accessible through this media b)The inclusion of some didactic technique in the teaching-learning process.

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The Internet platforms used are: Learning Space, Blackboard and local software developments as Webtec. Institutional programs that include agreements with some Universities in the USA and the Netherlands are concentrated to help faculty to use the following didactic techniques in their courses: Project Oriented Learning, Problem Based Learning, Case Method and Collaborative Learning (as a general approach for students’ participation in the study sessions). As stated in the documents that describe ITESM’s educational model, the main arguments that justify the massive incorporation of these techniques are: • Motivation to change the role of students from a passive receptor of knowledge to an active actor of the construction of knowledge. • Motivate students to assume the responsibility of learning. • Allow the students to learn participating in active experiences that allows them to interact with other students. A summary of this information is presented in Figure 1 (ITESM, 2000). In the experience of the author, the importance of using a didactic technique in a course is that learning becomes meaningful when knowledge, either abstract or concrete, is related with a real application

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2. Creating Innovative Products Teaching Learning Approach As explained in the beginning of this document, planned activities inside and outside the classroom are required to contribute to the development of the country as well as to establish the academic objectives of educating entrepreneur, creative and competitive graduates. Orienting adequate courses to the creation of innovate technological products could have an impact on the two levels of objectives. The Creating Innovative Products, Teaching Learning Approach (CIP-TLA) that is presented in the following sections encourages activities that lead to a coordinated effort to learn to acquire knowledge and apply it to create new applications of this knowledge. 2.1 Approach Considerations The development of creativity in general has inherent difficulties when it is established as an academic objective in an engineering course because it does not directly depend on the knowledge possessed either by the professor or the student. Creativity for devising new products is an ability that is independent of problem solving. A student could be very good in solving creative problems by correctly applying the knowledge acquired in a course and not be able to imagine new problems. Two facts come up: creativity is hard to evaluate and lack of creativity is an issue difficult to punish, if it is evaluated in a course with a syllabus concerning knowledge.

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Figure 1. ITESM Educational Model 2.2 Assumptions In higher education, long term observations lead to better conclusions than short term experiments. This is because in higher education is difficult to isolate and control the great number of variables that emerge in a classroom. For example, the professor’s and students’ attitude may not be constant. The following propositions are based on the first assumption and as a result of the author’s observations during several years of both, students and the result of the processes: • Creativity could be developed by purpose; the constant and deliberate demand of creativity makes the skill emerge. • Demand for creativity should be dosed during the curriculum, to expose students to this demand as much as possible, to make creativity emerge to its maximum extent. Summarizing, this approach consists on the following aspects: a)To introduce theoretical concepts, the professor will show how to solve problems related with the course theory following a learning by example model (teaching/learning).

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b)Students will feel motivated to learn theoretical concepts of the syllabus by asking them, in open statements, to solve problems for specific situations in which the field of study is related. Efficiency and creativity may be part of the evaluation rubric. Adding functionality to some known product could be a good introduction for product invention. c)Once the theoretical concepts are assimilated, a methodology could be used to stimulate inventive and imagine a new product under some broad context related with theory. A prototype of the product should be implemented. d)By alternating the three previous steps theory assimilation and creativity development are combined. Advanced courses in which design tools are studied are the perfect context for this approach. The number of products depends on the time required for the implementation.

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2.3 Evaluation Academically, it is hard to evaluate an invention because the design may be very complex and its use poor, or the design may be simple and have a great commercial potential. What can be done is to verify the design and, together with the student, plan the schedule for implementation. The professor should be very open in the number of inventions that each student develops, depending on the complexity of their implementation. Good inventions could deserve extra bonus and lack of creativity could be replaced by projects already defined. Inventions could be evaluated as a small percentage of the course and may be negotiated depending on how well they are developed. 3. A methodology for fostering creativity Brainstorming or TRIZ could be good methods for stimulate creativity. (see the references for relevant Web sites). However, a more specific method has been developed by the author to be used under this approach. The methodology consists of a series of steps that empower the way in which the environment is observed. The idea behind the methodology is that a student that observes the world with the scientific method in mind allows clarity of detail that is not typically available to others. Furthermore, once the methodology of creativeness is assimilated, objects and events are seen under a different perspective. The methodology consists of the following steps: 1.When observing the world, relate attributes to objects, events, facts, etc. (in order to generalize, the term object will be used). These attributes may be requirements, capabilities, characteristics, possible uses, etc. Objects could be concrete or abstract. 2. Establish relationships between different objects and between their attributes (this leads to observe the world as a relational database). 3. Make “queries” (as the ones made to obtain information from a relational database) to discover what objects may be added to relate two objects or attributes that were not directly related. 4. Analyze if the added objects exist or not. If not, imagine products (or

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applications) that satisfy the characteristics of these objects (if possible). In other words, the idea is to create a relational schema of a subset of the observed world (in the same manner as a relational database schema is created). The premise is that by establishing relationships, a non-existing electronic device will emerge to satisfy any given relationship. Taking into account the General Systems Theory (Von Bertalanffy, 1976) in that “the whole is more that the sum of its parts”, relating elements with ideas has the potential to emerge innovative devices. Events observed on a daily basis should lead to the development of consumer electronic devices, while industrial events should trigger the inception of measurement instruments, electronic devices geared to enhance the quality of any given product, etc. An application of this methodology to a concrete example is shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3.

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Figure 2. Application of the methodology for fostering creativity

Figure 3. Application of the Methodology for fostering creativity. Nowadays the described helper exists, it is a circuit in a tennis shoe, not yet published at the time that this example was drawn. 4. Applying CIP-TLA This approach has been applied in a VHDL (VHSIC Hardware Description Language, VHSIC = Very High Speed Integrated Circuit) course to stimulate the development of creativity, specifically in Digital Electronic design. VHDL is a powerful tool to describe, simulate and implement electronic circuits. As VHDL simplifies the implementation of an electronic device, the course has been oriented to make the students face the necessity to create instead of just practice. The orientation of this course to this teaching learning

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approach leads students to create problems instead of just solving the ones designed and proposed by professors.In Digital Electronics Engineering, an important educational challenge is confronting students to design new applications, because new applications emerge everyday. The idea of developing creativity and innovation skills in students aroused on the assumption that exposing them to problems related with devising specific circuits forces them to react by reinforcing or emerging their capacity to imagine new electronic applications. With respect to the application of the methodology for fostering creativity, an assumption on which the approach is based is to consider that digital electronics has no limits. In today’s market, it is possible to find transducers and sensors that convert almost every kind of signal into an electronic one. Also, there is a broad spectrum of actuators that allow circuits to interact with the world. Therefore, assuming that any kind of signal could be measured and produced makes any constraints on digital electronic processing disappear. Besides, experience has taught us that when the world is observed under the perspective shown in the methodology, this becomes the natural way of doing it. The opportunity for the arousal of creative ideas is related to the degree of interiorization of this type of observation. The author considers that creative mentality is as important as scientific thinking in higher education. 5. Conclusion The course in which the methodology is used takes place in the classroom and the lab. Theory related to circuits design using VHDL is taught in the classroom. In the lab, students must complete several projects. The first ones consist in the design of circuits for commonly used devices, requiring students to innovate functionality. In this way, students are required to develop their creativity by observing a determined universe. In the final project, students are imposed no restrictions and must create an electronic device from scratch. This maximizes and reinforces their creative potential. In the last year the methodology was used with 133 students, 90% of the final projects worked properly, vs. 30% when the project was very specific. This fact has to do with the students’ motivation to construct devices which are product of their own ideas. This semester it is being applied to other 27 and ambitious results are expected. With respect to education, assessment is the hardest part because it is difficult to determine the degree of potential of use of a new device. Besides, the complexity of a circuit is not necessarily related with its creativeness. Some innovative devices that have been developed include: a robot with a circuit that protects him against falling down from an elevated surface (with application in instruments for the handicapped), a device for tuning musical instruments, videogames and so on. These students will be followed up to observe if they continue creating in some other projects of their academic curriculum. The expectation is to observe creative behaviour in their careers.

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Acknowledgments Thanks to David Said, laboratory instructor that made possible the implementation of this idea, also to the participant students. References Bhasker, J. VHDL Primer. 3rd edn. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle Rivwer, N.J. (1999) Boud, D. and G. Feletti. The challenge of problem-based learning, London, UK: Kogan Page (1997) Duch, B., S. Groh & D. Allen. The power of problem-based learning: A

practical “how to” for teaching undergraduate courses in any discipline,

Sterling, Virginia: Stylus Publishing, LLC (2001) Elmasri, R. and Navathe S. Fundamentals of Database Systems. Addison Weley, USA (1989). Roth, Ch., Digital Systems Design Using VHDL. PWS Publishing Company, Boston Ma (1998) Von Bertalanffy, L. General Systems Theory. George Braziller; Revised edition (1976).

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Some related links: www.pbli.org/pbl/generic_pbl.htm www.credata.com/research/rad.html www.uml.org/ www.trizgroup.com www.cetus-links.org/oo_ooa_ood_methods.html www.innovation-triz.com/papers/ www.sistema.itesm.mx/va/dide/publicaciones/home_publicaciones.htm

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Chapter 16 EARLY EXPLORATION: A PROJECT-BASED APPROACH Mark Somerville and John Geddes Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering E-mail: [email protected] SUMMARY We present a pedagogical approach that pushes students toward a space in which they pose and solve authentic questions. Such an approach does help students develop a conceptual framework, but more importantly engages them in developing key competencies, and gives students ownership of their learning. The approach has connections to design learning research emphasizing the importance of both generative and deep reasoning questioning in the learning process. KEYWORDS

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Problem-based development

learning,

generative

design

questions,

competency

1. Introduction Over the last twenty years, the National Science Foundation and the engineering community have called for systemic changes in engineering education, including a shift from disciplinary thinking to interdisciplinary approaches; increased development of communication and teaming skills; greater consideration of the social, environmental, business, and political context of engineering; improved student capacity for life-long learning; and emphasis on engineering practice and design throughout the curriculum (The Engineering Deans Council 1994, NRC Board on Engineering Education 1995, I.C. Peden 1995). These calls can, in some ways, be thought of as calls for increased emphasis on broad competency development. Within this context, we have recently been experimenting with an extension of problem-based learning within the freshman year. The approach is centred on the idea that students must learn not only how to answer questions, but also how to pose questions. In this paper, we present an overview of the approach, and a summary of our preliminary findings. 2. Approaches to questioning 2.1. Taxonomies of Questions To the extent that our work focuses on engaging students in asking questions, it is important to discuss what kinds of questions students can ask and answer. Within education literature, a number of authors have

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generated taxonomies of questions that, in many ways, map to Bloom’s taxonomy. Of particular interest are Lehnert, Graesser, and Eris’ works. Graesser identifies a class of questions he terms deep reasoning questions, which are the types of questions students must be able to ask and answer in order to obtain full command of concepts. It is worth noting that these deep reasoning questions have right answers, or “truth value.” Recently, work within design research (Eris, 2004) has identified a second class of questions, generative design questions (see Fig. 1). Such questions do not have single right answers; rather, they admit a world of possible answers – they are questions that lead to generation of ideas and possibilities, rather than elimination of falsehoods. Figure 1: Taxonomy of deep reasoning questions and generative questions (excerpted from Eris, 2004). Category Deep Reasoning (convergent thinking) Interpretation Procedural Causal Antecedent Rational Generative (divergent thinking) Enablement Method Generation Proposal Scenario Creation Ideation

Example Will it slip a lot? How does a clock work? Why is it spinning faster? What are the magnets for? What allows you to measure distance? How could we keep it from slipping? Can we use a wheel instead of a pulley? What if the device was used on a child? What can we do with magnets?

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Eris postulates that these generative questions may be critical to success in design tasks, as generative questions prompt divergent inquiry. Students investigate alternatives through such questions, and use such questions to navigate in as-yet undefined concept spaces. 2.2. A Spectrum of Inquiry With these definitions in mind, we propose that one can think about different instructional models as residing along a “spectrum of inquiry.” The spectrum considers both the kinds of questions that are being asked in the educational environment, and who is asking the questions. Figure 1 illustrates this concept.

Figure 2: Illustration of the “spectrum of inquiry.” At one end of the spectrum is a simplistic portrayal of traditional college instructional modes. Importantly, such instructional modes revolve almost

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exclusively around answers, not questions. The instructor tells the student what is true: “It is true that F=ma, so this ball will…” Questioning in this mode is reserved for assignments and examinations, and the sorts of questions that are asked are always convergent (i.e., they have a right answer) and only sometimes involve deep reasoning. Within mathematics and physics education, it has been fairly convincingly shown that such traditional approaches are not terribly effective. Accordingly, there has been extensive work within first-year science and mathematics curricula (e.g., Peer Instruction, Studio Physics, Workshop Physics, etc.)to develop approaches in which students are actively engaged in constructing their own knowledge. In these constructivist approaches, the instructor poses questions: “If F=ma, how will this ball move?” In general, these more constructivist approaches are based on the observation that most students have mistaken prior conceptions about the way the world works. Thus, inquiry in these approaches asks students to engage in the work of challenging and restructuring their world views; the questions students wrestle with in these pedagogies are designed to expose inconsistencies in conceptual frameworks. Within the taxonomy of questions outlined above, students are actively engaged in answering deep reasoning questions. In both of these approaches, a course is literally that -- the instructor “sets a course” through a defined set of material, and the students, led by the instructor, progress fairly linearly along this path. All students have (nominally) the same experiences in these approaches, and can be said to have seen the same information. As we move further to the right on this spectrum, we enter a space in which students, not instructors, ask and answer questions. In this space, a course may no longer be a defined set of specific, linearly connected concepts that all students see in sequence. Rather, a course might consist of a set of “spaces”, in which individual students ask different questions and follow different paths. In this model, the instructor defines the spaces, guides students in posing and answering questions, and facilitates student-student learning – but the student has substantial autonomy in deciding where to “go”. For the purposes of discussion, we will refer to this space as “guided exploration.”

Figure 3: Within guided exploration, a course might consist of a set of “spaces”, in which individual students ask different questions and follow different paths. The pedagogy emphasizes competency development over specific topical knowledge.

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From the perspective of questioning, such an approach is different in two respects: first, students are asking the questions. To the extent that effective life-long learning hinges on being able to pose questions, it seems obvious that we must provide students with experience in this area. Just as important, this space involves both generative questioning and deep reasoning questioning. In other words, students are required not only to think analytically, but also to think creatively about the material at hand. On the other hand, this approach suffers from the topical perspective. Not all students can be said to have seen the same material, and to a greater or lesser extent, the material “covered” in the course an approach is not fully determined beforehand.

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3. Pedagogical timeline We have been working to develop a pedagogical approach within the space of guided exploration. As noted above, a course in this approach consists of student exploration within a small number (2-4) broad, instructor-defined areas. For example, a first semester course covering mechanics and introductory differential equations included two major areas: • Discrete time models and linear kinematics • Continuous time models and second order systems Thus, the course consisted of two “explorations.” Figure 4 illustrates the pedagogical timeline for one of these explorations. For discussion purposes, we use the continuous time models and second order systems space as an example in discussing this timeline.

Figure 4: Illustration of the pedagogical timeline for guided exploration. Students engage both in deep reasoning questioning and in generative questioning. 3.1. Touring the Space Before students are asked to develop questions, they must have some idea of the space in which they are operating. Thus, it is critical within this approach for the instructor to spend some time in “tour guide” mode. In this first phase, the student is explicitly introduced to the major concepts within the space. This phase is substantially more structured than later phases – here the instructor is asking questions with the intention of helping students know what to watch for. The major difference between this phase

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and instructor-driven constructivist models (e.g., Peer Instruction) is time and depth – in the guided exploration model there is no expectation that students will end this phase with full command of concepts; the intention is to introduce students to concepts and vocabulary, so that when they encounter them later, they have some idea of how to start wrestling with them. For example, in the continuous time models and second order systems space, class activities focus on basic definitions of second order differential equations, qualitative understanding of the sorts of behaviour these systems can exhibit, and identification of some of the physical systems that can be modelled with such equations. 3.2. Exploring the space Once students have been introduced to the major landmarks in the space, they are asked to “look around,” and to decide what they want to explore. The instructor might offer options to students, but it is made clear that the student is ultimately responsible for deciding what is worth exploring. For example, in the case of second order systems, students could be given suggestions such as: • What is the “best” suspension system for a car? • How could you model personal relationships with second order systems? Such questions are designed as prompts – the instructor asks the questions knowing that there are interesting things to be found in the vicinity of the question, but they are not questions with right answers. Indeed, they are examples of generative questions. With such prompts in mind, students go through a divergent process of thinking about possibilities: “What if we did investigate something with relationships?... What about doing something with international relationships?... Could we model war and peace with a second order system?... How would we do that? What would it mean?... What about the suspension thing? What about suspension bridges? Remember that Tacoma Narrows video – could we do something with that?...” In this process, students are trying (often unsuccessfully) to identify what pieces of experience/knowledge are connected to the broad area they are to investigate. It is a very different kind of thinking than is typically undertaken in engineering science classes; yet it is a critical type of thinking to develop if students are to apply their knowledge in creative ways. Just as importantly, this process gives students ownership and autonomy. They are choosing what to work on (within certain boundaries), and through that positive choice, they become substantially more invested in the work. 3.3. Defining the Question The divergent process of exploration must be followed by a convergent process of question definition. Ultimately, students must develop a deep reasoning question that they propose to answer, and they must begin to answer the question. Particularly when students are beginning to develop skills in this area, instructor facilitation is important, for students have little

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idea of how to scope their questions such that they can develop adequate answers:

Student: We were thinking we would investigate an active suspension design for a car. Instructor: OK. What is the question you’re asking? Student: Umm… What is the best design for an active suspension for a car? Instructor: OK, and how do you propose that you might answer this? Student: Well, we thought we’d simulate an active suspension, and try to vary parameters until we got the best behaviour. Instructor: So let’s talk about this simulation. What are the differential equations that govern the motion of the car? For that matter, how many differential equations are there to govern the motion of the car?...

Through this type of dialog, the instructor can help students identify questions that are answerable and appropriately scoped. As students refine their questions, they also discuss and criticize other students’ questions. In other words, they are consciously asked to decide what makes a good question. In the particular case of second order systems, student questions ranged from “What are the optimum PID parameters for controlling an inverted pendulum?” to “How does the motion of a Ferris wheel car depend on speed?”

3.4. Exploring Solutions Once students have a first cut at an appropriately scoped question, they again go through a divergent process of exploring ways to answer the question. Since the questions they pose are not “textbook” questions – i.e., questions which have a single, well-defined approach that yields a clear answer – students typically must think of different approaches, and try them to determine which paths are most fruitful. The instructor’s role in this is again guidance through dialog and questioning:

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“What happens if you make one country much richer than the other?” “How do you know that energy is conserved in your simulation?” “Have you considered trying to simplify the problem by…?”

Similarly, peer interactions during this phase can help students identify promising approaches. As students explore solutions, naturally their questions shift as well, and they gain a much better appreciation of the question’s scope. At the same time, though, possible solutions often raise as many questions as answers – so at the end of this phase, students often have a guess at an answer, accompanied by many uncertainties. 3.5. Sharing the Story Despite their uncertainty, students must, at some point, commit to an answer to their question. However, rather than having them commit to an answer for the instructor, we ask them to commit to an answer before their peers. At this point in the process, students share their work with one another, and formally review each other’s work. These reviews have a number of benefits. First, students are exposed to questions other than their own, and asked to assess those questions. This

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process critical process helps students better define what makes a good question. Second, students see other areas of the space in which they have been operating. Such exposure helps them better understand the space as a whole, and also (often) gives them better insight into their own question. Finally, these reviews change the motivations for student work. Rather than the work being private, shared only by instructor and individual student, it is public. Such shared work not only raises the stakes for individuals, but also engages the community as a whole in reflecting on the material. 3.6. Refining and Formalizing Public peer review must, of course, be followed by a revision process. This process allows students to bring the learning they have gained through the peer review process to bear on their own work. Such a revision process is critical both to improvement of the individual student’s work (as an instructor, it is a pleasure to assess work that has already undergone revision), and also to the student’s formalization and refinement of their conceptual map. More importantly, there is a significant learning opportunity at this time, for all students have been wrestling with, and formalizing, their own understanding of the conceptual space. Reflection on and discussion of the space is sensible at this time, for students have ownership of some of the space, and have familiarity with most of it. 4. Results and discussion To date we have implemented this approach in two different first year courses, as well as at least one third year course. Surveys of students indicate a number of interesting areas that merit exploration. 4.1. The Textbook and Reality

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“(There was) not enough text book material.” - Student Comment

Students appeared to make a significant distinction between “textbook problems” and “authentic problems”. When asked to rate their confidence with the disciplinary material addressed by the class, 50% felt neutral or unconfident of their “ability to solve textbook problems” dealing with the course’s disciplinary material. On the other hand, approximately 95% of students felt confident in their ability to “pose and solve real-world problems” that dealt with the course’s disciplinary material. Student comments reflected this divide: This divide is a fascinating one, for it highlights a difference between the student definitions of “solving a textbook problem” and “solving an authentic problem”. For students, being able to solve a textbook problem appears to mean “I know the material well enough that I can, without references,

identify which formulas/concepts I should bring to bear on a particular problem.” Solving an authentic problem, on the other hand, appears to mean “I know how to find and synthesize the necessary material to propose a solution to this problem.”

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4.2. Competencies, Topic X, and Assessment

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“I feel like there are some gaps in my learning.” “I’m sure that if you gave me a standardized linear algebra exam right now, I wouldn’t do all that well – but I am also sure that I could close myself in my room and teach myself the necessary material to do well on that test.” “I feel like I’ve learned about how to learn and how to solve very complex problems, if perhaps at the expense of being very comfortable with simpler problems.” “It was great to develop my writing skills.”– Student Comments We have thus far outlined a pedagogy that involves substantial student autonomy. Significant amounts of time are devoted both to student exploration and to communication between students. Necessarily this approach requires tradeoffs. In particular, it requires re-thinking the learning objectives of the course, so that the learning emphasis shifts from specific disciplinary knowledge to broad competency areas. We do not currently know to what extent this shift actually succeeds in developing student competencies, and the extent to which it develops (or fails to develop) command of disciplinary knowledge. At this point we have done a small amount of tracking subsequent student performance after the completion of this sort of course. There are not, at this point, indications that students’ command of disciplinary knowledge was adversely affected by this experience – test scores in subsequent disciplinary courses for students who went through the guided exploration approach are as good as or better than the scores of students who experienced a conventional approach. On the other hand, subsequent instructors do report that students who experienced the guided exploration approach are not as good at homework. With regard to competency assessment, student comments certainly suggest that the approach does positively influence at least their perceptions of their competency – many students refer in their comments to “learning to learn,” “learning to deal with open-ended problems,” “learning to communicate effectively,” and so on. Measurements of competency development are more challenging. Preliminary measurements of competency by outside assessors do suggest a weak difference between students who experienced guided exploration and students who experienced more traditional approaches. In particular, students who experienced guided exploration received consistently higher ratings for “synthetic” competencies, such as design and diagnosis, which require students to make connections between disciplines and to engage in both divergent and convergent thinking. However, we clearly have more work to do in this area. 5. Conclusions We have presented a preliminary description of a pedagogical approach that actively engages students in posing and answering authentic questions. The pedagogy is founded on the hypothesis that (1) both generative questioning and deep reasoning questioning are critical to effective learning, and (2) students must learn not only to answer questions, but also to ask questions.

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The pedagogy represents is similar to many problem-based or project-based approaches, but perhaps differs in its emphasis on questioning as a mode of learning.

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References The Engineering Deans Council and Corporate Roundtable of the American Society for Engineering Education, 1994. Engineering Education for a Changing World: http://www.asee.org/publications /reports/green.cfm National Research Council’s Board on Engineering Education, 1995. Engineering Education: Designing an Adaptive System, National Research Council Report, National Academy Press. Peden, I.C. E.W. Ernst, and J.W. Prados, 1995,Systemic Engineering Education Reform: An Action Agenda, National Science Foundation. Eris, O. 2004. Effective Inquiry for Innovative Engineering Design, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston. Lehnert, W. 1978. The Process of Question Answering. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, New Jersey. Graesser, A., K. Lang, and D. Horgan, “A Taxonomy of Question Generation,” 1988. Questioning Exchange, Vol. 2, No. 1, 3-15.

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Part 3: Faculty and Facilities

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Chapter 17 INFORMATION LITERACY AS SUPPORT TO ACTIVE LEARNING AND VICE VERSA Pernille Andersson, educational consultant, Åsa Forsberg, librarian, Lund University, Faculty of Technology Sweden [email protected], [email protected]. SUMMARY At Lund University Faculty of Technology a growing number of teachers develop active student learning methods. No single model for doing this is recommended at the faculty but the goal for the whole faculty is that each teacher has a conscious learning perspective in all the teaching activities. To support the development in teaching and learning there exist a rather extensive pedagogical development program to develop the knowledge in teaching and learning. One specific problem raised in this development process towards using active learning is to create suitable possibilities for the student to use and independently search for literature and other materials needed in their studies and get them to use this in an adequate way. Since 2003 there is cooperation between the pedagogical development program and the student library of the faculty to create conditions to support development of active student learning methods and information literacy. In themselves they are important objectives in an academic education. Both these competencies are best learned in integration with the core subjects. Just as important is the fact that the development of these competencies will support the students’ learning of the core subjects. To concrete link these activities together in the teaching and learning courses an Internet tool is used called “My Course Library”.

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KEYWORDS

Active learning, information literacy, pedagogical development, information science, cooperation, Internet tool 1. Information Literacy and active learning as objectives One of the primary aims of higher education is to provide the students with an adequate education for their future working life. The students´ goals with their education are to develop the ability to manage their role at the labour market and the ability to scientific and critical thinking, but also to develop as human beings (Trowler, 1998). According to recent research on higher education it seems to be equally important during an education to acquire competencies to manage changes and develop openness to new circumstances and perspectives as it is to develop new knowledge in different subjects (Bowden 2004). Also the rapid development of new knowledge in the science of technology raises the demands on engineers to have the competence to find and evaluate new information and to transform

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it to new knowledge which can be applied on new situations. This also leads to that the students must develop a competence to take responsibility for their own learning. One way to do this is to use active student learning methods where the teachers’ focus is to develop the students’ learning process so that they will be able to conduct tasks in a flexible context (Bowden, Marton 1998). At Lund University Faculty of Technology a growing number of teachers develop active student learning methods. No single model for doing this is recommended at the faculty but the goal for the whole faculty is that each teacher has a conscious learning perspective in all the teaching activities. To support the development in teaching and learning there exist a rather extensive pedagogical development program to develop the knowledge in teaching and learning. The program has been running since 2001 and provides teachers with courses in teaching and learning, consultative support to activities aiming to develop new teaching methods and research on student learning in engineering education. There are two objectives for this developing program. The competence and knowledge of teaching and learning shall increase and the communication and dialog about teaching and student learning shall increase. One specific problem raised in this development process towards using active learning is to create suitable possibilities for the student to use and independently search for literature and other materials needed in their studies and get them to use this in an adequate way. This is also an important part of the learning processes in active student learning. Maybe this can be due to the tradition in engineering education were study of literature not is in immediate focus. Still this is an important objective for higher education and in the society to day, characterized of a constant flow of information, an essential capability for every individual. In information science the capability to manage information is called information literacy. One definition of information literacy is: “Information literacy is the adoption of appropriate information behaviour to identify, through whatever channel or medium, information well fitted to information needs, leading to wise and ethical use of information in society.” (Johnston, Webber, Boon 2005). In Sweden the important of this objective for higher education is stressed in The Swedish Higher Education Act, S. 9. The regulations for higher education requires that the students develop this capability during the undergraduate education: S. 9 “Undergraduate education shall, in addition to knowledge and skills, provide the students with a capability of independent and critical judgment, an ability independently to solve problems and an ability to follow the development of knowledge, all within the field covered by the education. The education should also develop the students’ ability to exchange information at a scientific level”. To make it possible for the students to acquire information literacy, understood as training to search, evaluate and use information, the development of this capability is facilitated if it is integrated with the core subjects, incorporated in the entire curriculum. By training to search and evaluate information in many varied contexts the students will develop this

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capability and be able to use it in new, previously unknown situations. Active student learning methods where the students are required to gather and use information to solve tasks support the development of information literacy. Since 2003 there is cooperation between the pedagogical development program and the student library of the faculty to create conditions to support development of active student learning methods and information literacy. In themselves they are important objectives in an academic education. Both these competencies are best learned in integration with the core subjects. Just as important is the fact that the development of these competencies will support the students’ learning of the core subjects (Bowden 2004). 2. Strengthen information literacy and student learning The challenge for the pedagogical development program at LTH is to make the teacher understand how to be able to teach in learning focused way and what features this kind of teaching has. The teacher has to start a process to develop the teaching methods in a more learning focused way. Often the teacher find that active student learning methods is the most effective way to achieve better learning outcome and that these methods support the students in developing different capabilities essential in higher education as scientific report writing, critical thinking, evaluations of outcomes and also information literacy. A problem in this process of developing the teaching methods is that many of the teachers, but not al, has little or non experience from active student learning methods. The teachers have to change their conceptions about their teaching practice and believe about how teaching in higher education ought to be arranged. They have to understand learning in a deeper way and also find out how active student learning methods practical are planned and conducted. One way to facilitate the teachers’ understanding of student active learning and how teaching in those methods is conducted is to link to the training of information literacy and to discover how they certainly can support each other. One strategy to achieve these objectives is to use active learning methods in the courses for teachers in teaching and learning. The idea is to give the teacher a concrete experience of learning in an active learning context. In some of the courses advantage is taken by the cooperation between the student library and the pedagogical development to widen the understanding about how active learning is supported by competence in information literacy and vice versa. According to the findings so far by a not yet completed research project in the UK including academic teachers’ conception of information literacy it seems that teachers having a focus on the students learning process in their teaching also have a deeper conception of both information literacy and of the pedagogy which could be used for supporting the students to acquire information literacy (Johnston, Webber, Boon 2005). 2.1 Active learning in courses in teaching and learning The method during all the courses in teaching and learning at the faculty of

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technology set out from Kolb’s circle of learning as the underlying theory (Kolb 1984). The starting point in all courses is always the teachers own practice, problems and experience of teaching and the students. Intensive interaction and dialog among the participants is also a special feature. The courses always include a project work were the theory shall be linked to the teachers’ subjects and everyday teaching activities. The project works are mostly conducted in groups. In the group the teachers have to formulate their project task together. This way of work aims to give the teachers an obvious experience of active learning, about the process and the learning outcome achieved in this kind of teaching. Another reason behind this course design is the ambition to contribute to the formation of a culture at the faculty built on a constant dialog between the teachers about student learning, teaching methods, didactics and other conditions that affect the outcome of the students learning, one of the main objectives for the faculty development program. The objectives for the teacher in those courses are the same as for the engineer student, to be self conducted as a learner and to reach a well developed competence to handle tasks in working life in a professional way. That is, to be able to analyse new problems, know what to do about the problem and how and where to acquire knowledge to solve the problem. Many teachers discover the benefits of active learning during the courses and start to use active learning methods in a way suitable for their courses while others find it very hard to transfer their experiences to their own subject and teaching methods. By taking advantage of the cooperation between the student library and the pedagogical developing program there is one more way to make the teachers understand the core of active student learning using the library as they do in their research work. To concrete link these activities together in the teaching and learning courses a certain tool is used called “My Course Library”. 2.2 The tool “My Course Library” The tool used for information management in the courses is the internet based tool “My Course Library” developed at Lund University. This internet based tool provides links to current databases used in the subjects. It is also possible to put lists of current literature in this tool and other material the participants can use in their work. The course participants are required to on their own start the process to find relevant information in the sources presented in “My Course Library” and with support from the librarian and the course leader learn how to value the information and analyse its application on the problem in the project. An effective, mostly self conducted, learning process occur. Another objective with using this tool is to make the teacher familiar with the information sources of teaching and learning. Next time the teacher is standing in front of a mystery in learning she or he will hopefully have some knowledge were to find information to help understand the problem better. Even better is if the teacher also find a colleague to discuss the problem with.

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This internet tool is easy to use and one of the ideas with using it in the course is that the teachers will discover how they can use it to improve their present course homepages, if they have one, or how they easily can get a “My Course Library”. They can also choose if the librarians will help them form the “My Course Library” or if they prefer to administrate it themselves. A general version of “My Course Library” for teaching and learning is on the homepage for the pedagogical development program to facilitate for the teachers to use the sources in their every day life.

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3. Findings and results When this collaboration started the idea was mainly to stress that the library should be more used in the undergraduate courses and to solve the problem in the teaching and learning courses to have an effective method for the participants to find relevant sources of information to use during the project work. Of course there was also a thought that in extension it could mean that an increasing number of teachers could use it as a tool developing active student learning methods. The result when we started to use the tool “My Course Library” in those courses for teacher surprised us. This has shown to be an effective way to make teachers start to moderate with active student learning. It is a very concrete way that makes it easy for the teachers to reflect up on and understand their own learning process. Starting using “My Course Library” in their own courses helps them with an entrance to develop there own teaching. By using this tool the students become active in their learning process and that starts a process were both the teachers and students get experiences new qualities in learning. Several projects have been started to develop active student learning methods in different institutions or improve courses already designed with active student learning methods. 4. Conclusions It is obvious that some teachers feel comfortable working together with a librarian and others with an educational consultant. This cooperation between the library and the pedagogical developing program is an effective way to start developing processes that reach many teacher were they can choose in which way and with whom they would prefer to work with. It seems that this cooperation has opened up for more teachers to find a way in to a developing process. In itself this cooperation shows the connection between learning and information literacy and makes it concrete to experience for both students and teachers. It is becoming more obvious what this is all about. This method of working in the courses of teaching and learning has going on for a short while. It will be interesting in the future to study its effects on the students’ learning and on their capability to manage information and self conducted learning at the Faculty of technology at Lund University. References Bowden, J., Marton, F. (1998). The University of Learning – beyond quality and competence. London: Kogan Page

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Bowden, J. (2004). Capabilities-driven curriculum design. I C. Baillie, I Moore (red.) Effective learning and teaching in engineering, 36-47. London: RoutledgeFalmer. Johnston, B., Webber, S, Boon, S (2005). Conceptions of pedagogy for

information literacy in two disciplines: English and Marketing: a comparison & discussion. Presentation given in Skövde, Sweden, 31/3 2005. Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning, Experience as the Source of learning and Development. New Jersey: Prentice - Hall Trowler, P. (1998). Academics Responding to Changes. New Higher Education Frameworks and Academic Cultures. The Society for Research into

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Chapter 18 ACTIVE LEARNING FOR NET GENERATION STUDENTS Ellen SJOER, Wim VEEN Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands E-mail :[email protected]; [email protected]

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SUMMARY Technology has changed the way nowadays students learn dramatically. The average college students in the USA spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours of playing games, not to mention the 20,000 hours of watching TV (Prensky, 2001). Computer games, the Internet, MSN, chat rooms, cells and PDA’s are an integral part of their lives and they have developed new skills how to deal with information overload and their view on learning and knowledge. This paper presents two small scale case studies using innovative tools in an ICT based environment. Students appear to use the available tools in a way that is congruent with what we find in literature on this net generation or homo zappiens. They show twitched search strategies, they are goal oriented and multimedia minded. Self directed learning is a natural approach in which they appreciate to be in control of their own learning process. They are in favour of tools that help them search information and knowledge quickly and consider knowledge rather as a tool to generate new knowledge than something to memorize for exams. 1. Introduction Active learning is an educational paradigm that has been reinvented many times. Partly because of emerging technologies such as Learning Content Management Systems and intelligent tutoring systems, ‘new’ active learning concepts became popular. One of these approaches is ‘just-for-meeducation’, often proposed as a way of meeting the individual needs of students. Each learner is an individual with a certain background, motivation for studying and learning style. Education would be more efficient and effective when learning processes are adjusted to students’ individual needs and addresses learning activities such as solving problems, answering questions, formulating questions of their own, discussing, explaining, debating or brainstorming. Central to the concept is that students are making their own choices and taking up responsibility of their learning process. When designing digital learning environments to support these students, one need to understand who the learners are and how they learn. Nowadays students appear to show different learning strategies than former generations when technology did not have such an impact on their lives and behaviour. Therefore, we have studied today’s student’s experiences with active learning concepts as well as literature on the learning strategies of the new generation students called ‘homo zappiens’.

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This paper will start describing the net generation coming into our universities and using technology for information and communication in innovative ways. Then two case studies, both carried out in engineering education are presented. In the first case study students are confronted with a new way of working and a new digital environment for the course materials. The way they responded is evaluated. The second case study, will describe students working on their own during the first phase of their research proposal for their Master thesis. The results of both case studies are analyzed considering the theory of the learning strategies of the net generation students. The paper concludes with preliminary directions, points of particular attention to support net generation students. 2. . Active learning” for net generation students Various electronic devices have changed the lives of generations who have grown up using a PC mouse, the TV remote control, the cell phone, PDA’s, and i-Pods since early childhood on. Video games are now available at low cost for different game consoles, music can be downloaded using free software, MSN is a very popular and widespread used communication platform as well as many other open chat rooms. Children in the age of 3 to 5 years old start gaming on the computer or the game boy, asking their parents how to start and play some of the games. But very quickly, they become at ease with technology and surpass their parents in how to use it and for what purposes. Kids of 8 years old start using cell phones and ever since are connected to their friends. The generation that is now growing up is at the steering wheel of superabundant information flows coming to them through various media. Using their devices they decide what kind of information they choose from and how they are going to use it. This generation learns to deal with information overload, making something useful out of discontinued information flows. It also learns how to communicate with others and share ideas, ideals, music and video clips. They have understood multimedia better than any former generation as they develop visual attention and iconic skills watching TV, DVD’s and scanning screens in stead of book pages. The net generation considers learning as a playful activity by which they are challenged to solve puzzles, reach levels, and find solutions for problems that are ill defined, complex and not explained in a linear way. They have come to terms with video games that are demanding but that never give negative feedback when a player fails. On the contrary, game pedagogy is oriented towards positive feedback and rewards for what has been achieved, rather than concentrating on what was incorrect. Research on gaming and it’s relation to learning has shown that children develop a variety of learning skills by playing games. Gee (2003) extracted 36 learning principles from his studies on gaming and concluded that games should be considered as a serious way for learning in schools. Even before technology became a prominent phenomenon in our lives, Huizinga (1952) already indicated in his famous book ‘Homo Ludens’ the relevance of gaming for learning. Castells (2000) explains that ICT are not simply tools but processes to be developed. The consequences of ICT on society and on learning are much larger than the technologies themselves.

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What is revolutionary in the introduction of ICT is that knowledge and information that become available through them will be applied in knowledge generation and information processing, and will have much larger effects on new innovations using technologies. Just like the automotive industry has changed our society, not by the technology as a tool, but by its applications that have been developed using and reinventing its applications. If humans start learning by playing, what we think is a correct premise; classroom practice in many schools is in flagrant contrast to the world that the net generation has experienced until school life starts. Learning activities in schools are to a large extent restricted to listening and performing tasks that are provided by teachers. And even when classrooms have been computerized, research has shown (Goodson et al. 2002) that in many cases the push to integrate ICT into classroom pedagogy has led to culture clashes of ICT inside culture and ICT outside culture. Inside culture consists of students as insiders in a technology oriented society, outside culture consists of digital immigrants (Prensky, 2001) those who have adopted ICT but did not grow up in a digital world. ICT insiders or digital natives have learnt to learn by doing and as a consequence have developed a different view on knowledge and information processing. For them knowledge is strongly related to what it means for solving problems or how to generate new knowledge. Knowledge has become a tool and an ingredient in the process of knowledge creation. And information processing is a skill that helps to interpret images, sounds, movements and texts in order to find what you are looking for. University students prefer ‘reading’ on the computer screen, because they scan texts using commands such as Ctrl F, as will be shown in case study 2. Their reading strategy is to find most relevant key words and phrases and if the key word does not appear sufficiently in a text, they skip the article or screen and proceed to the next resource. Communication as a learning activity has become an integral part in learning among youngsters. The first thing to do is asking your peer if you need to know something, rather than searching the manual or the book. Sharing knowledge is what the net generation has experienced and internalized as a natural behavior whereas for elderly it is a kind of wishful thinking. So how can we let our students learn in an ICT based environment taking the above mentioned digital learning skills into account? We have done two case studies using the four dimension framework of Lankshear & Knobel (2003, p. 158-168). This framework summarizes the fundamental changes in the learning approach of the net generation: 1. Changes in ‘the word of to be known’. (There is a different world to be known, besides text) 2. Changes in conception of knowledge and processes of coming to know. (The primary concern will not be judging whether something is true, but judging whether the learning is of any use to get things done more efficiently.) 3. Changes in the constitution of ‘knowers’. (The role and significance of multidisciplinary teams will supersede that of the expert individual; more

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and more knowing will become collaborative, networked and distributed.) 4. Changes in the relative significance of, and balancing among, the different forms and modes of knowing. (There will be more balance between propositional knowledge and other forms of knowledge, such as procedural knowledge (knowing how).

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3. Student experiences in two case studies The objective of the case studies was to experiment with self-directed and authentic learning and to reveal to what extent learning content management systems could support this concept. In the first case study, an elective course ‘E-learning in Corporations’ students must act as a junior elearning consultant and work in a team on an authentic assignment for a company partner. In this way they experience what e-learning in a corporation means for stakeholders at different levels in the organization and how to come up with recommendations that work. In the words of Lankshear & Knobel students could work on assignments that matter to the outside world (Lankshear & Knobel 2003). In addition, students were asked to define their own learning goals, to decide on activities they want to undertake and find relevant materials for their assignment and for the questions they formulate. As we consider students as knowledge producers, they were invited to contribute to the content of the course by providing materials that can be shared and rated by peers. The second case study was carried out in the Master thesis phase of Management of Technology (MOT). Hardly any content had been provided by teachers; the students were expected to find resources themselves and also contribute a selection of these resources to the Virtual Knowledge Centre of MOT. 3.1. Case study 1 Five teachers involved in the course stored content (on two levels of granularity) in a database assigned with metadata. These resources helped students to find relevant materials for their assignment. As a result, teachers and students were able to select the content, based on the metadata using search engines or a mind map. Students were able to search these metadata to find the materials that would answer their questions in a way that suited their own learning style and pace. The key questions we address in this paper are: • Do students appreciate the concept? • How can the results be understood within the view and culture of the net generation students? During the application phase (field use) students were logged in terms of the date and time of their queries and which metadata they used. At the end of the course, the concept was evaluated by means of interviews with six students. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to make the answers comparable. The usage of metadata to find relevant resources was logged. Apart from keywords, students were able to choose what resource type they preferred,

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for instance if they wanted to read something about the subject, or watch a video clip that explains the same subject. If they wanted to read something, they were able to vary the ‘difficulty level’ and they got an indication of the ‘learning time’. Although these students are used to the fact that in today’s education knowledge is still assessed via text (Lankshear & Knobel 2003), the idea was to expand the possibilities and offer students the same content also in pictures, sounds and people, who are experts to communicate with. Of all the queries, by far the most commonly used were the keywords (more than 50%). Did students appreciate the concept? The interviews showed that students like the idea of deciding what they want to learn and they appreciate a concept that would take their prior knowledge into account. They call it ‘efficient’ and ‘the concept of the future’. Herewith we came across the notion that students are aiming to do things efficiently (Lankshear & Knobel 2003). Disadvantages they mention include the ‘lack of inspiration by accident’, since ideally they only see the resources that fit their measurements and no other resources that could inspire them. Another fear is to miss something, and they mentioned the lack of overview, when they compare it with the traditional folders of Blackboard. Finally, in practice, the students feel that being an active learner is not easy and is different from what they are used to. It introduces a feeling of uncertainty and therefore some students plead for a minimal path that can be expanded. As we know from research, the shift from passive recipient of information to an active user requires a major re-conceptualisation. This kind of substantial redefinition of roles of both teacher and learner takes both time and effort (MIT 2004). The appreciation of the concept is closely related to the experiences of the students with the interface and tool that is used. Most appreciated were searching on keywords, and second best were ‘resource type’ and ‘subjects’ which means that the content was linked to a theme. Overall, students indicated that they appreciated: 1. Relevance – they prefer to read descriptions quite carefully and then follow the link and scroll the document themselves, 2. Structure: what is there to find and am I on the right track? Can I find more of this? 3. Judgement: which materials are popular? Which ones are approved and recommended by experts? Finally, students appreciated the ease of finding materials again. ‘Quicker and more direct than with Blackboard’, and they liked the idea that ‘the searching is done for you’. 3.2. Case study 2 In the second case study seven students were observed when searching for literature for their Master thesis, storing the content and applying it to their subject. Afterwards they were interviewed twice in a three-month period. In the intervening time they kept a diary of their activities. This educational setting was selected since students have to find (relatively unprepared) their own learning path and most of their materials. An additional complicating

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factor was that these students, coming from different countries with various technical Bachelor degrees, differed in the way they work and learn. Key questions we wanted to address were: • What are students doing during the activities that are connected with searching, selecting, and archiving literature? • How can the results be understood within the view and culture of the net generation students? Searching and selecting are the key activities in the start up of a Master thesis project. To be able to define their research questions, students search for content on the Internet and for persons or networks that could give advice on certain resources. All students had their favourite search engines and databases to look at: Google, Google scholar, Science direct, Kluwer online, library catalogue, electronic journals, Emerald, Scirus (Elsevier). They use the facilities of the library but not in the way they were told during a workshop by selecting relevant databases first; they experience these search methods as user-unfriendly. Speed and relevancy are the key values observed. ‘When I do not have a result after two times, I change the keywords” In order to select a piece of content, they tend to read the title and the abstract quite carefully after which they open the link and scan the document. They prefer a document in pdF format, since “it looks more professional’, ‘it is nicer to read and easy to save’. The strategies to scan the document quickly are among others to look at preferential places using Ctrl. F. Within the document they are searching for keywords: how many times will ‘innovation management’ appear and at which places? Much appreciated are table of contents and figures. If the document looks useful, the file is saved at a USB stick or at their own drive at the faculty or within ‘favourites’. All students had their way to commute between ‘home’ and ’elsewhere’. At home, they open and scan the document again and make a new selection round. Some students then tend to read the document; others say that they almost never read a whole document. “From an average text, 90% is not important for your goal”. Some students are copying relevant passages into a new Word document, together with the source. These students tend to read from screen; they do not print that much. Also the way they store materials differs. Most of the students do not care (in this phase), they know a lot by heart; others rename the pdf files and add a – , 0 or +, which means ‘I have seen this document and judged it’. Every student has his of her own system to store documents. There are programs that help to structure information from the Internet, one of the students mentioned he used for his Bachelor degree ‘Content 7’ that makes it possible to categorize on different resource types, and one document is accessible from different categories. However, students say that they want to have their own system as well. One of the students had installed a program that could search on his computer faster, which makes storage a less important issue. Future technologies might support students in a better way by offering more advanced searching concepts, accessible working domains and concepts for the selection of materials ‘on demand’ that are much smaller than whole articles (Duval and Hodgins 2004).

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4. Conclusion Both case studies have shown that these students appreciated self-directed learning as the pedagogical approach. They wanted to be in control of their learning process which they managed by using ICT tools and learning environments. They have also indicated that easy access and use of tools is important to them and that user friendliness is a matter of their own definition. Tools making searching easier, providing the right information they need for their learning ‘track’ are critical for their enthusiasm to learn in ICT based environments. Technology is a friend that helps you to do what you want, and preferably instantly. Just-for-me education should be understood in terms of the right tooling for searching, storing, and communication, a very similar phenomenon as among youngsters playing games. Finally, what has been instructive for the teachers was that students use knowledge in view of their learning goals, it should help to generate new knowledge rather than memorize what they have read. This coincides with the findings of Lankshear & Knobel (2003). References M. Castells, (2000). The Rise of the Network Society, Oxford, Blackwell. Duval, E. and W. Hodgins, (2004), Learning objects revisited. In: Online Education using Learning Objects. Ed. by R. McGreal. London and New York: RoutledgeFalmer. Gee, J.P. (2003). What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, New York, Palgrave Macmillan. Goodson, I.F., M. Knobel, C. Lankshear, J.M. Mangan, (2002). Cyberspaces / Social Spaces: Culture Clash in Computerized Classrooms, Palgrave, Macmillan. Huizinga, J. (1952). Homo Ludens: A study of the play element in culture Haarlem, H. D. Tjeenk Willink & Zoon N.V. Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, In: On the Horizon, NCB University Press, Vol. 9, No. 5. MIT, (2004) Findings from Ten Formative Assessments of Educational Initatives at MIT (2000-2003).

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Chapter 19 THEATRICAL SKILLS IN HIGHER ENGINEERING EDUCATION: CAPTIVATING BOTH TEACHERS AND STUDENTS Toine Andernach & Gijs Meeusen Delft University of Technology, Eindhoven University, the Netherlands E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] SUMMARY Since 2001, teachers at Delft University of Technology have the opportunity to follow a long term qualification program to improve their teaching skills (cf. Klaassen, Andernach, de Graaff, 2003). In the past few years, we experienced both a lack of interest of experienced teachers for our qualification program and a lack of proper use of the teaching method lecture. Therefore, we decided to offer a course which could overcome these problems: a course on the use of theatrical skills in teaching. In this paper we will discuss the points of departure, methods, effects and evaluation of this course. Our experience up till now is that training teachers in theatre skills has a positive effect on student appreciation and quality of lectures. Furthermore, relatively more experienced teachers appear to participate in this course compared to other courses and they consider the course to be very valuable.

KEYWORDS

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theatre, teacher skills, staff development 1. Introduction Since 2001, teachers at Delft University of Technology have the opportunity to follow a long term qualification program to improve their teaching skills. This program is mainly taken by inexperienced teachers: they start with a course in which they acquire teaching knowledge, skills, attitudes and awareness, followed by some more profound thematic modules during which they compose their digital teaching portfolio. This program appeared to be unattractive for more experienced teachers: only few of them subscribed to this program. One could wonder if they did not need their teaching to be improved. Many signals, however, seem to indicate the opposite: students complain about boring lectures at which sleeping seems to be the most appropriate activity and the number of students on the lecture’s attendance list decreases significantly after each session. Furthermore, teachers themselves appear to feel uncomfortable in this situation. They don’t know how to cope with sleeping students and low attendance rates and start to wonder what to do.

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Our experience of both the lack of interest of experienced teachers for our standard staff development program, their uncomfortable feeling about student behaviour and the poor use of the teaching method ‘lecture’ led us to the action of offering something special for them: a course on the use of theatrical skills in teaching. In the sections below we will discuss the points of departure, methods, effects and evaluation of this course.

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2. Point of departure Point of departure of the course is effective communication: In normal communication people synchronously use several communication channels, such as words, gestures, facial expressions and intonation to transfer their message. The default distance at which they do this is about 1 meter. In the past millions of years we have optimized the use of these channels for that specific distance in the situation that we address one person. In a lecture hall however, teachers teach in a theatre-like setting where they find the people they communicate with at much larger distances and much larger numbers. The questions that arise are: how can we communicate effectively with more than one person on such a large distance? The first clue to an answer leads us to effectively adjusting the way we use our communication channels. In order to give the audience the feeling that they are addressed, teachers (and actors likewise) need to translate ‘normal communication’ into ‘theatrical communication’. This translation comes down to intensifying the way the messages are transferred through the different communication channels, hence giving the audience all signals they apparently need in communication. By doing so we teach teachers how to use some technical aspects of the tool ‘theatre’, in the same way as you would teach them how to use other educational tools. 3. What does the course program look like? The course program duration is 7 hours long and maximum 7 participants attend the course. The best results are however found with smaller groups of about 4 to 5 participants. This relatively small number of participants results from the fact that presenting and giving feedback on presentations is a time consuming activity. The first topic covered in the course program is communicative behaviour on a very short time scale (seconds). In this part of the program participants discover that they use and need many communication channels in normal communication. After this the participants find out that they need to intensify all these signals in a theatre like setting in order to reach the distant audience. These skills are practiced in short plenary or sub-group exercises. The effect of this intensification of signals is that the audience is indeed captivated by the way the teacher is presenting in the same manner they are captivated looking at a theatre play. Main questions in this stage of the course are: Does my theatrical presentation work? Does the audience of participating teachers feel addressed by what I do, which ways of theatrical acting is comfortable and

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natural for me? And: How can I increase the theatricality of my presentation? Participants are encouraged to help each other by providing feedback. The aim of this is threefold: they are more active during the course, they learn to recognize the aspects that are relevant and they learn that they do not look silly using theatre skills. Feedback of a skilled trainer is necessary for giving clear directions for improvement. The next step in the course is developing the use of theatre on a somewhat larger time scale (minutes). Here we come to the matters of style and segmentation. Like in a play is divided into different scenes, the lecture content is divided into different segments such as introduction, theory, anecdote etcetera. If the teacher changes his style from segment to segment these differences become visible and audible and the audience will continue to follow the story. However, most teachers do not change their style when encountering a change in lecture content. Although they have numerous different segments in the content of their lecture, their style remains more or less the same throughout. The effect of not changing style while encountering such a change in content is a significant decrease of student attention. It would be worth to investigate this effect in more detail, because it could be the cause of the general decrease in attention we see in lectures and often refer to in teacher training programs. Using these theatrical skills presentations become much more communicative and therefore much easier to follow. Two more topics are dealt with in the course: interaction and the role of lectures in education. Theatrical aspects of interaction give insight and practice in translating crucial aspects of normal interaction to interaction in theatre. In the role of lectures in education we briefly discuss the learning pyramid. Learning by doing is the key concept in this part of course. Participants’ focus of attention should be that learning demands doing, which is the basis of the educational changes of the past 25 years. 4. Effect of using theatrical skills on class teaching The results of using theatrical skills in the theatre of our class teaching are promising. During the course program, participants experience instant effect of the exercises: by alternately presenting a brief fragment of their lecture and adjusting the output of their communication channels they feel the effect it has on the other participants. The learning effect is also increased by the trainer who professionally demonstrates (either wanted or unwanted) teaching behaviour on the spot and stimulates participants to contribute. After the program, teachers report increasing student attention and interaction with students during lectures. When all communication signals are proportionally intensified, matching the distance to the audience, the audience is captivated. Teachers also report to be less tired than before, after a couple of hours. Some teachers report that they learned to keep this attention for a whole lecture after following the course. Furthermore we see that the participants can more easily remember the theatrically presented fragments than the non-theatrical fragments. In one case we studied the effect of the use of theatrical skills in lectures on

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student evaluations. Such evaluation results generally remain constant over the years for different student populations when the content and the teacher remain the same. In this case we put more effort into developing theatrical skills. After the course of two half days a coaching program followed in which the teacher was guided for about 8 hours contact time. We show the results of five point scale evaluations reduced to negative/neutral/positive percentages. (i.e. the five point scale 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 becomes (1+2) / 3 / (4+5)). Two relevant results of the evaluation before and after use of theatre skills are shown. These results are found in two different student populations of 40 students typically. In both cases the evaluation took place right after the examination. In the years before the first result was found, with the use of theatre skills the students were significantly more positive about the lectures in which teachers applied theatre skills. Before the course After the course Do the lectures contribute to a

-/0/+

-/0/+

80/17/3%

23/40/37%

65/24/11%

24/41/35%

better understanding of the content to be learned? Is the teacher’s explanation clear?

This illustrates that using the theatre in a more professional way has a positive effect on class teaching effectiveness as perceived by students. 5. How is the program evaluated? On a scale of 1 to 10, the average score for the program among more than one hundred participants lies between 8 and 8.8 and is recently found to increase to 8,7 as a result of the improvements of the program. Participants that are somewhat hesitant or stimulated by their superiors to participate, tend to give lower appreciations whereas higher appreciations are given by fully cooperating participants:

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-/0/+ Do you find the various parts of the course instructive?

6/18/76%

Do you consider the duration of the course to be appropriate?

42/49/9%

Did this course help to improve your presenting skills?

0/0/100%

Can you use what you’ve learned in your educational practice?

0/0/100%

Would you recommend this course to your colleagues?

0/0/100%

The remarks most frequently made by the participants are that they are struck to see that theatrical skills have such an impact and that they wanted the course to be longer. This latter remark corresponds with the closed question about the length of the course, where 42 % of the participants indicate that it was too short. Recent experiences with longer programmes (1,5 day instead of 1 day) show an appreciation of 9.1 ± 0.8 with 28 participants. However, the participants in this case still found that it was not long enough. The similar duration question was in this case answered with: too short 45%, not too long, not too short 40%, too long 15%.

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6. Do senior staff members participate? From the beginning of the program in 2001, we were happy to experience an increasing number of senior staff members joining the program; they appear to feel the need to improve and are therefore intrinsically motivated to work on their teaching skills. Especially so, because this program focuses on a teaching method they are very familiar with: the lecture. Furthermore, the program is something new: experienced teachers feel that it is something advanced instead of basic, and, advanced courses appear to be more attractive for experienced teachers. Compared to our regular program more participants were associate and full professors and even Deans of Faculty. One important side-effect of the program is that participants feel more comfortable to follow other staff development programs as well. Moreover, the verbal advertising by senior participants (associate and full professors, Deans of Faculty) has a percolating effect in the participant’s faculty community. 7. Conclusions and future plans Our experience up till now is that training teachers in theatre skills has a positive effect on student appreciation and quality of lectures. Furthermore, relatively more experienced teachers appear to participate in this course compared to other courses and they consider the course to be very valuable. For the future we plan to increase the length of the course and add a program that explicitly deals with structuring content from a story point of view. Recent experience shows that the effectiveness increases even more when story construction is taken into account.

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Literature Klaassen, R.G., J.A. Andernach and E. de Graaff, 2003. A Qualification Programme for University Teachers in Engineering. In: Proceedings of the 31st SEFI Annual Conference, Porto, Portugal.

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Part 4: Good Practice of Active Learning

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Chapter 20 AN EXAMPLE OF ACTIVE LEARNING IN AEROSPACE ENGINEERING Vincent Brügemann, Harald van Brummelen, Joris Melkert, Aldert Kamp Bernard Reith, Gillian Saunders-Smits, Barry Zandbergen Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands E-mail: [email protected] SUMMARY This paper is a showcase for an on-going active learning capstone design project in the BSc. programme at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at Delft University of Technology. In multi-disciplinary teams supervised by tutors from different backgrounds students work towards an Aerospace (related) design. In the exercise students learn about applying knowledge, working in teams, sustainable development, project management, reporting, presenting and design in a semi-professional environment. KEYWORDS

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Design education, Project-based learning, Aerospace, Active learning 1. Introduction Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) began offering Masters and Doctoral degrees in aeronautical engineering in the early 1940s. By the 1960s design of aircraft and spacecraft became a major topic in the teaching activities at TU Delft. Right from the start, attention focused both on the teaching of engineering science as well as on engineering practice. The latter because it was realized that engineers need more than pure technical knowledge to find good and viable solutions to the complex technical problems they are facing. For this reason design exercises were held wherein the students were required to actually perform a ‘paper’ design of an aerospace vehicle and/or component. This resulted in the publishing of the book “Synthesis of Subsonic Aircraft Design” (Toorenbeek, 1982). In the 1990s the educational program was restructured to allow for team design projects (Rothwell, 1995, 1996, Saunders-Smits et al., 2003). It was felt that such a team project would provide a vehicle for attaining other educational objectives (Faculty of Aerospace Engineering 2004), such as the ability to work in teams, communications, documentation and configuration control and to improve their presentation and report-writing skills. It also resembles the team-design environment typically found in the aerospace industry. This lead to the current design/synthesis exercise, a 360 hours design project conducted by teams of 10 students, in the third year of the study for aerospace engineering at TUDelft acting as the BSc. capstone project. The whole of the design exercise takes up 9 full weeks of 40 hours each in the fourth quarter of the third year of the study. The design exercise has now

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run for 8 years averaging 12-14 projects per year. A large variety of projects have been conducted including the design of an ultra-long range reconnaissance aircraft, several unmanned aerial vehicles, wind farms, rocket launchers, solar power stations, airport adaptive regional transporter aircraft, micro-satellites, microgravity platforms etc. (van Baaren et al. 1998, 2001, Bergsma et al. 2001, Melkert 2001-2004). This paper aims to provide information on the current exercise, how it is set-up, organized and graded as well as how its quality is monitored. It also reflects on the challenges that lie ahead. 2. Objectives of the exercise In the design project, the students must demonstrate that they have the basic knowledge and skills necessary to accomplish a successful ‘paper’ design of an aerospace system. By completing the project, the student will demonstrate: Technical competence or applying knowledge • Apply basic sciences, mathematics and engineering sciences to convert resources optimally to a stated • objective • Model a variety of physical systems and use the models to predict system behaviour • Use the modern tools of the trade in analysis and design of engineering systems Design competence: • Perform conceptual design of an aircraft or spacecraft system • Integrate life-cycle issues in the design Effective communication skills: • Plan, prepare, deliver, and assess oral presentations • Plan, prepare, deliver, and assess written reports • Prepare & maintain documentation of the design process Professional attitude: • Work in multi-disciplinary teams • Manage their work • Perform peer and self reviews • Understand contemporary & societal issues in their work from sustainable development point-of-view • Exhibit life long learning attitudes and abilities The objective is not to attain a flawless final technical product, able to compete with industrial standards. However, students must be aware of weaknesses in their design and whether their design is feasible within the timeframe defined in the project assignment. A fundamental limit to the current design project is that the students are unable to verify their solutions themselves. This, however, is dealt with in several other exercises in the degree. 2.1 Sustainable development Within the exercise students are also required to analyse how their designs

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contribute to a more sustainable world. There are two ways to facilitate the above. To explain the two approaches first a definition of sustainable development is given (Brundtland, 1987): “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Within the exercise one of two approaches can be used: the first approach is looking into radical changes towards new (transport) systems; the second approach is looking at improvement of the current (transport) systems. Examples of radical changes are the development of: • Solar powered aircraft • Completely new transport vehicles based on renewable energy • Examples of improvement of current systems are: • Reduced emissions • Lower noise production • De-orbiting plan for a satellite at the end of the operational life The aim for the assignment is to have SMART requirements, which can be met by the students and validated afterwards by the tutor. 3. Organization of the exercise Staff members initiate most topics of the exercise, however, students are also encouraged to come up with their own project ideas. Every research group within Aerospace engineering is asked to volunteer one or more principal tutors (PT). They will take the lead in writing the assignment and lead the group of tutors. In total they are required to spend some 220 h on the project, including the preparation of the assignment. Each principal tutor is assigned two project coaches (PC), which must come from different research groups to ensure multi-disciplinarily support. They are each allowed to spend some 70 h on tutoring the project. Every project is therefore guaranteed tutoring from at least three tutors. They offer supervision, guidance and assistance during the exercise, though the group has to operate independently as much as possible, thereby introducing their own ideas and program. The assistance of PT and PCs is limited to reinforcing the team’s ideas and project plan in close cooperation with the project team and giving feedback (both activating and motivating) at project meetings, reviews, reports on progress, content, procedure/approach, organization, communication, and cooperation Table 1: Summary of phases, activities, reviews and deliverable items in the design exercise. Project phase Phase O

Phase B

Activity/step 1: Organization and planning 2: Requirements generation 3: Set up design options 4: Analyze options 5: Trade and select best option 6: Detailed design & analysis

Symposium

7: Present project

Phase A

Milestone Baseline Review Mid-Term Review Final Review

Deliverable Item Project Plan Baseline Report Baseline report Technical Design Report (mid-term) Technical design report (final)

Symposium

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Students are asked to express preference for a project, although teams may be adjusted to accommodate all the students in the class. Each project is defined by three phases. In these phases a number of activities has to take place, see table 1. Step 1. Organization and planning is key to a successful project. During this activity, the team members are introduced to the project. Next, team members learn about their (technical and managerial) strengths, weaknesses, and interests, with an eye toward how team members will be allocated to solving the design problem. The students are then asked to organize themselves. Usually one team member is chosen as project leader for organizational and contact purposes, but all team members are expected to contribute to all components of the project. The students must decide on the various roles in their team and who is serving in what role. The team must also prepare a complete road map of how the team plans to develop the design through studies and analysis and perform the necessary scheduling. Step 2. Starting from the top-level requirements, students are to analyze the functions that the design (the product) must be able to perform to allow the intended use. Next, requirements are to be generated that specify how well these functions shall be performed. Attention should also be given to non-functional requirements and constraints that relate to operations, cost, manufacturing, testing, reliability, availability, maintainability, safety, etc. Step 3. In step 3 the students are to set up a number of design options. This step is usually the most creative part of the exercise. As a rule any solution initially is fine. Only because the time for analysis of the design options is limited, each team must decide which options they feel fit for further analysis. As a minimum it is required that at least two options are selected which must be worked out in further detail in step 4. The trade-offs are mostly based on known (from literature) advantages/disadvantages with respect to (functional) performance, costs, etc. Step 4. The designs selected in the previous step are analyzed with respect to how well they can fulfil the requirements. Analysis methods used are mostly fairly simple methods (parametric analysis, engineering experience, similarity comparison, etc.) that allow developing sufficient detail to estimate the performance and other characteristics of each option so that each option can be assessed in a comparative way. Step 5. In step 5 the students must compare and rank the various design options analyzed and select the most promising design for detailed design Step 6. In the detailed design analysis phase, the team works out the design selected in the previous step in more details. Students become ‘specialists’ in their team. Typical engineering disciplines included are aerodynamics, structures & materials, flight performance, stability and control, propulsion, manufacturing, cost estimation and RAMS. Step 7. As in any real life project the students have to communicate their project and its outcome to their fellow workers, knowledgeable people as well as to people who are totally unfamiliar to the project. In this final step, the students must prepare for a presentation to be held at a one-day

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symposium at the end of the project. They are also asked to write a 10-page summary of their project, which is published in a book (van Baaren et al. 1998, 2001, Bergsma et al. 2001, Melkert 2001-2004). Throughout the project, major emphasis is put on certain milestones marked by briefings, and reports. Students should consider these milestones equal to an examination. For all briefings technical content is the most important factor. Management content should not take much time in the briefing. It is required that every student must give a formal briefing at least twice during the project.

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4. Supporting Courses Imbedded in the exercise are three supporting courses: one in Systems Engineering and Project Management, one in Oral Presenting each of a workload of 40 h per student and a library course. The Systems Engineering and Project management course aims to equip students with the tools to structure their design process and time management. The oral presenting course aims to make the students more confident in presenting and communicating their ideas to others. The course is a combination of lectures and practice sessions during the design exercise. The design reviews of the exercise are videotaped and assessed by the oral presentation lecturers from the department of Technology, Policy and Management of Delft University of Technology. The library course aims to help students finding their way through a library and how to use all the options open to them to find the literature they need. The introduction of imbedded courses was done to enable students to immediately apply the knowledge and skills learned in the short courses in the design exercise. 5. Facilities During the 9 weeks the students spend on the exercise dedicated project rooms are made available. Each project room contains 5 PCs, meeting tables, swivel chairs, whiteboards etc. Also the students are given the necessary office equipment and access to photocopying and printing. A total of 22 of such rooms are available. Besides the existing library at TUDelft, the exercise has developed its own library of design and other related literature ensuring enough copies are available for all groups. 6. Tutor training The guidance of 10 students during the 10-week design project demands special skills from the lecturers. To guarantee the quality of the exercise and prepare the lecturers for this function, each tutor has to qualify for his position of principal tutor by completing an in-house tutor training. Every year new tutors and coaches are trained by a professional lecturer of the Institute of Technology and Communication of TUDelft, in a setting that is tailored to the design synthesis exercise in aerospace engineering. The training is built up of three modules: Project Design, Project Tutoring, and Project Evaluation. To achieve the optimum learning effect, the modules

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are synchronized with the design synthesis exercise itself. This means that the module Project Design is scheduled prior to the exercise, when the tutors have to define the contents and scope of their project; the Project Tutoring module is scheduled around the kick-off of the project; and the Project Evaluation module is given at the end when grading and feedback is appropriate. Each module contains a 4-hour workshop and a 2-hour feedback session. In the workshops the lecturer teaches the aspirant tutors the basics in an interactive way by various simulations and scenario analyses. Each feedback session is planned after the tutors have gotten their first experiences in each respective area. In these sessions the tutors reflect on their real-life experiences. 7. Grading of the Exercise The principal tutor is responsible for the grading of the design project. Grading a project team is a difficult matter but should be practical at the same time. Recognition must be given for both the achievement of the team as a whole as well as the individual contribution to the team result. Each student is graded individually. The grade should be a good reflection of how the student evolves during the design project. Hence the input to grading has to be collected at several moments such as the reviews and the technical reports. Also the results of self-evaluations and peer reviews that are done around the two critical reviews in the project, provide valuable information on the attitude, performance and functioning of each team member. Tutors are recommended to attend a review from a different project to “calibrate” the performance of their own team. Final Individual Grade

30 %

35 %

Individual Technical Quality

Group Grade

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20 %

Technical Quality

35 %

Individual Team Role

10 %

Team Process

Figure 1: Grading of the design exercise The individual grading is done in two stages: 1) Grading the group and 2) Grading each student individually. Each grading is based on two main performance aspects: Technical Quality and Team Organization Aspects (commitment, attitude, initiative, management of resources and communication). The Final Individual Grade is composed from weighted contributions as shown in figure 1. 8. Quality Control In order to maintain high standards of the design synthesis exercise, an elaborate quality control system is used. In this system, the quality of the

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assignment is the shared responsibility of the organizing committee, and the principle tutor. The tools that are used to facilitate these responsibilities are described below. 8.1 Tools used before the exercise: • Choice and division of coaches: Principle tutors must have completed the tutor training and have been a project coach before preparing an assignment. Experienced coaches are assigned to less experienced tutors and vice versa. Secondly, coaches are placed such that their expertise provides the best possible match with the project. • Template for the project description: Principal tutors use this template to assure that all project descriptions are written in a uniform manner to the same levels of detail. • Quality control and improvement of the project descriptions: A committee of faculty members and external experts verifies all assignments prior to kick-off against set criteria: Relevant Subject, Multidisciplinary and SMART objectives. Experienced staff members support tutors in improving the assignment if the quality review commission judged the quality as insufficient. • Manual for Principal Tutor and Project Coaches: A compact set of instructions, guidelines and hints for the definition, monitoring and control of the Design/Synthesis exercise.

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8.2 Tools used during the exercise: • Project guide: Students and coaches use a project guide in which all important data on the assignment can be found • Review milestones: The review milestones are used to give feedback to the students about the quality of their work and their ‘virtual grade’ that will become real if work is continued at the same level. • Peer reviews: Tutors have access to student peer reviews to find any problems in the group that need their attention. 8.3 Tools used after the exercise: • Student, tutor and coach evaluations: All participants are asked to complete a survey to enable the evaluation of the assignments and organization and thus to improve the exercise (Brügemann, 2004). • Verification of completed points of improvement: Just before the exercise starts again, a check is made against the list of planned improvements to see if those improvements have been realised. • Timekeeping: The students have to log their time spending to the Design Synthesis Exercise. These logs serve to gain insight for students about work load distribution and for tutors and organisers to gain insight about the study program and to improve their estimates for the future. 9. Added value of the exercise Over the years, the projects received great enthusiasm and appreciation from the participating students. They demonstrate this by working well over the required number of hours and organizing activities during the exercise.

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One reason for this is that in most projects representatives of industry are involved in the projects as clients and as evaluators in the formal design review presentations during and at the end of the exercise. Feedback from industry representatives as well as from faculty staff is also very positive. Since 2002 international design projects are also run (Melkert et al., 2002). Partners are Queen’s University Belfast and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. In the future the exercise expects to be able to maintain its ability to challenge students to go above and beyond themselves working on more ambitious projects whilst at the same time maintaining the quality of teaching design. References E. Toorenbeek, 1982, Synthesis of Subsonic Airplane Design, Delft University Press, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Delft, Dordrecht. Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, 2004, study guide 2004-2005, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft. Rothwell committee, 1995, Design/synthesis exercise, Advisory report Faculty of Aerospace engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft. A. Rothwell, 1996, Design/synthesis exercise, project proposal (in Dutch) Faculty of Aerospace engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft. G.N. Saunders-Smits and E. de Graaff, 2003, The development of

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integrated professional skills in aerospace , through problem-based learning in design projects, Session 2125, Proceedings of the 2003 American Society

engineering education, Nashville. R. J. van Baaren, O.K. Bergsma, F. van Dalen (editors), 1998, Ontwerp Synthese Oefening 1998, Delft University Press, Delft. R. J. van Baaren, O.K. Bergsma, F. van Dalen (editors), 2001, Delft Aerospace Design Projects 1998/99, Aksant Academic Publishers, Amsterdam. O.K. Bergsma, J.A. Melkert, S.W.M. Tijssen (editors), 2001, Delft Aerospace Design Projects 2000, Aksant Academic Publishers, Amsterdam. J.A. Melkert (editor), 2001, Delft Aerospace Design Projects 2001 Aksant Academic Publishers, Amsterdam. J.A. Melkert (editor), 2003 and 2004, Delft Aerospace Design Projects 2002, 2003, 2004, Het Goede Boek, Huizen. Brundlandt committee ,1987, Our Common Future,. UN World Commission on Environment and Development. V.P. Brügemann, 2004, OSO 2004 – Summary Evaluation report, internal report Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft. J.A. Melkert, A. Gibson, S.J. Hulshoff, 2002, International DesignSynthesis Exercise in Aerospace Engineering, 3rd Global Congress on Engineering Education, Glasgow, Scotland, UK.

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Chapter 21 ACTIVE LEARNING IN BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING Ákos JOBBÁGY Budapest University of Technology and Economics 1521 Budapest, p.o.b. 91. Hungary E-mail : [email protected] SUMMARY Students in biomedical engineering need to be apt and spirited. They must be able to manage complex problems usually without widely accepted solutions Biomedical engineering courses must teach students to compose models and to interpret measured values according to these models. Biomedical signal processing is first of all signal processing, applied to signals of physiological origin. Students are willing to record their own signals (e.g. ECG, pulse rate, photoplethysmographic (PPG) signals, trajectories of limbs or fingers during specified movements, etc.) Using these recordings students can discover and practice different signal processing algorithms and better understand the meaning of the calculated parameters. Department of Measurement and Information Systems at Budapest University of Technology and Economics is involved in different courses related to biomedical engineering. The paper summarises the courses and introduces the Biomedical Engineering Laboratory (Biomed Lab), which is available for students of different subjects. Before making experiments in the laboratory, students need to gain the necessary knowledge in the field of physiology as well as signal processing. This is a prerequisite for the effective application of active learning in the Biomed Lab. KEYWORDS

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biomedical engineering, active learning, modelling 1. Participating students Students of different courses make experiments in the Biomed Lab. At present Biomedical Engineering Course accepts students both from engineering and from medical courses and gives the students a second diploma (biomedical engineer). This course is being adapted to the Bologna Process; it is supposed to be offered as an MSc course in the near future. Details about the implementation of the Bologna Process in Hungary are given in (Molnár and Jobbágy, 2004). The basic subjects are: mathematics, physics and computer studies for students with medical qualification; functional anatomy, medical physiology and biochemistry for students with engineering qualification. The common courses are: biomechanics, biophysics, clinical instrumental diagnostics, theory of technical and biological systems, instrumentation and measurement technique, biocompatible materials, process control, radiation technologies, biotechnology, optical medical instruments, molecular biology, biomedical

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modelling, humanities. Elective subjects (artificial intelligence, medical informatics, medical image processing, ecological architecture), project work and thesis work complete the 120-ECTS-credit course. There is a minor module in the field of biomedical engineering for electrical engineering students at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics. This comprises four lectures (medical physiology, biomedical instrumentation, biometry and medical image processing) and two laboratories, totalling 24 ECTS credits. There is also a 5-ECTS-credit elective subject, electronic medical instruments, offered for engineering students in all faculties. Students in the Biomed Lab make experiments related to several above mentioned subjects, mainly project work, thesis work, electronic medical instruments and compulsory laboratory work in the minor module. 2. Biomedical engineering laboratory The experiments in the Biomed Lab aim at demonstrating that the signal/noise ratio of physiological signals is usually unfavourable, noise may be also of physiologic origin (e.g. myographic signal is considered to be noise when recording ECG), variation in physiological signals many times cannot be attributed to a known cause, models describing the functioning of human organism are usually not detailed, several parallel control mechanisms are functioning in the human organism. In the Biomedical Engineering Laboratory of the Measurement and Information Systems, Budapest University of Technology and Economics there are six measurement set-ups. These are: • Recording ECG, photplethysmographic signal (at the finger tip) and cuff pressure during non-invasive blood-pressure measurement, • Processing ECG signals, • Testing an ECG equipment according to the relevant IEC standard, • Assembling and testing selective amplifiers for increasing the signal/noise ratio, • Evaluation of capacitive and inductive noise coupling, • Experiments with an ultrasound demonstration device. There is a passive marker-based movement analyser in the laboratory able to record trajectories of fingers, hands and arms. Students record the following signals from themselves: during indirect blood-pressure measurement the actual cuff pressure, ECG and PPG at the index finger tip, during different simple movements (finger-tapping, twiddling, pinching and circling, pointing) the trajectories of markers attached to anatomical landmark points. 3. Syllabi for the experiment Instructions for laboratory exercises are crucial. Students loose their motivation if the instructions are similar to this: “Connect points A and B. Connect a voltmeter set to 10 V full scale to points C and D. Press button S and read the voltmeter.” Instead, instructions should give the necessary background, a description of the measurement set-up and raise questions to be answered. Beyond the measurement tasks, syllabi comprise a short description of the phenomenon to be analysed and self evaluating questions.

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Typical measurement tasks in the Biomed Lab are: • Characterise the signal/noise ratio of the recorded ECG signal. • Assess the effect of breathing on heart rate and time delay between ECG and PPG signals. • Characterise the effect of mental effort on the frequency content of the PPG signal. There are no exclusively good solutions for these tasks. In the majority of cases students must realise that first they need to build up a model then complete calculations and give evaluations according to it. Let’s have a closer look at the signal/noise ratio. Signal is the electrocardiogram originating from the electrical activity of the heart. The frequency range of the ECG at rest is considered to be 0.05 … 120 Hz. Noise is a sum of several sources: electromyographic signal (electrical activity of smooth muscles), offset and drift of the electrodes (more exactly, it can be attributed to the layer between the electrode and the skin), signals deriving from the power line, signals deriving from broadcasting or mobile phones, etc. Students have to understand that it is not possible to separate the ECG from noise without identifying each signal. A simple model is to consider the 50 Hz signal noise and everything else signal. This simple model may turn out to be sufficient. However, there are cases when the power line related noise has substantial energy at harmonics (100 Hz is present with the highest probability). Students have to analyse if the simple model is sufficient or they need to use a more sophisticated one. As coupling between the body surface and the power line is not stable, it may easily happen that different ECG recordings – even from the same person – require different models for characterising and quantifying the signal/noise ratio. 4. Physiological background There are no exact models for the human control mechanism. During measurements to assess it, reproducibility is essential. It is not the measuring equipment that causes the deviation of the results. Tested subjects themselves have different momentary parameter values. Bloodpressure varies during the day; 20 – 30 mmHg differences in both the systolic and diastolic values are not uncommon. Physical stress as well as emotional impact can increase blood pressure even in the short run. Parameters calculated based on the execution of well specified movement patterns reflect the actual state of the tested person. The movement coordination ability shows the progress of different neurological diseases (e.g. Parkinson’s disease) and the momentary alertness of control subjects. 5. Recording real-world data Figure 1 shows the cuff pressure, the systolic and diastolic blood pressure of a young healthy subject. Signals were recorded using a COLIN tonometer attached to the wrist. The figure clearly shows the short-term variations in blood-pressure (Jobbágy, 2004). This variation cannot be directly measured in the laboratory; a tonometer would be too expensive to make experiments only. For a qualitative demonstration the time delay between ECG and PPG is used.

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Figure 1. Figure 2 shows the cuff pressure and the PPG signal monitored at the fingertip during inflation and deflation of an upper arm cuff. When the cuff occludes the brachial artery, pulsation in the PPG ceases and when the cuff pressure falls below the systolic pressure pulses reappear. However, there can be a substantial difference in the two cuff pressure values. Students can control the inflation rate of the cuff and are able to keep the cuff pressure constant during deflation. By making measurements on each other they understand the oscillometric method and realise its drawbacks. They also notice that movement causes artefacts in the ECG and PPG signals and results in false blood pressure readings.

Figure 2. 6. Processing real-world data Once the recordings are made, students have to quantify the performance or the actual state of the tested person. They are requested to suggest appropriate signal processing algorithms. As an example, the finger-tapping performance can be based on the speed, regularity, smoothness of the movement and the order of the fingers hitting the table (Jobbágy et al., 2005). The regularity can be quantified by using the SVD (singular value decomposition) method. This allows the breakdown of the movement into base vectors of any kind, not only sinusoidal waveforms as in the Fourier analysis. Trajectory of a passive marker attached to the index finger is shown in Figure 3 (young healthy subject) and Figure 4 (stroke patient). Recordings are made using a cheap, clinically applicable marker-based movement analyser, PAM (Jobbágy and Hamar, 2004). Tested persons were asked to perform the finger tapping movement as fast as possible. The trajectory is cut into periods; the periods are aligned at the maximum finger position. It is clear that the movement of the healthy subject is more “regular” than the movement of the Parkinsonian patient. The students have to give a

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quantitative evaluation. When they come to the Biomed Lab, they have studied basic signal processing methods. Filtering in the frequency domain does not help and applying the Fourier transform is not helpful either. Based on the given literature students find out that the speed of the movement is an important parameter. Characterising the quasi-periodic signals, i.e. how close they are to periodic signals is not dealt with during their previous studies. Nevertheless, it is quite easy to guide them to an effective method, Singular Value Decomposition, SVD (Stokes et al., 1999). Up to this point students evaluate trajectories of previously recorded movements. The most fascinating part of the experiment starts now; the group (usually 3 students) makes a plan for testing their own movement. “Finger tapping” is very similar to playing the piano, but it does not have a unanimous definition. Students have to decide what instructions they give to themselves. The movement is different when you request the tested person to tap as fast as possible from that when you request to raise the fingers as high as possible. It makes also a difference, if the subject pays attention to the movement or not. Some student groups try to make recordings with eyes open and close, and/or to give intellectual tasks in parallel with finger tapping. Many good ideas arise; the movement analysis group invites some students to elaborate their ideas.

Figure 3 Another task is to provide a method for the objective evaluation of an operator interface. Heart rate variability (HRV) decreases as the mental strain increases. The tested person must be provided with problems that demand cogitation. Subtracting three-digit numbers or multiplication of twodigit numbers is most often used. Students have to define the measurement procedure, develop QRS detector for the ECG and peak detector for the PPG signal. The applied signal processing largely depends on the recorded signals. It is not uncommon that the signals recorded from students in the group are quite different. This helps students understand how physiological signals are qualified: there are ranges for parameters – not single values – even for healthy subjects. When the parameter value gets out of this range, the diagnosis is rarely undisputed.

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Figure 4 7. What students learn The exact details of the experiments are not given. While preparing for the laboratory work, students have to specify these themselves. The student group (2-3 students) has to study papers that describe similar problems and solutions. Based on it they plan the measurement procedure, perform the experiment and evaluate the acquired data. They repeat this process if necessary. The task is very similar to real-word applications. The main difference is that patients (Parkinsonian or stroke) are not involved, students make measurements on themselves. However, recordings taken from patients are available. Biomedical engineers often have to solve problems without having exact models. The variation of physiological parameters can rarely be completely attributed to measurable effects. We have favourable experiences; students are enthusiastic during the experiments and are keenly working to develop adequate algorithms. Learning by doing is even more effective in the laboratory than in the classroom (Felder and Brent, 2003). By discovering they understand the meaning of signal processing concepts much better compared to studying textbooks only. References Felder, R. M.,R. Brent, 2003. Learning by doing. Chemical Engineering Education, 37(4), 282-283. Jobbágy, Á. 2004. Using photoplethysmographic signal for increasing the accuracy of indirect blood pressure measurement. Proc. Estonian Acad. Sci. Eng., 2004, 10, 2, pp. 110-122. Stokes, V. H. Lanshammer, A. Thorstensson, 1999. Dominant Pattern Extraction from 3D Kinematic Data. IEEE Tr. on BME;46:100-106. Jobbágy, Á.,P. Harcos, R. Karoly, G. Fazekas, 2005. Analysis of the Finger-Tapping Test. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, January 30, Vol 141/1 pp 29-39. Jobbágy, Á.,G. Hamar, 2004. PAM:Passive Marker-based Analyzer to Test Patients with Neural Diseases, Proc. of 26th Annual Conference of IEEE EMBS, 1-5 Sept. 2004, San Francisco, CA USA, pp. 4751-4754. Jobbágy, Á. 1999. Teaching Biosignal Processing: What Expertise Is Needed?, Conf. proc. of EMBEC99, 4-7 November, Vienna, pp. 688-689. Molnár, K.,Á. Jobbágy, 2004. Suggestion for the implementation of the Bologna Declaration in Hungary in engineering higher education. European Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 29, No. 1. March 111-118.

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Chapter 22 THE CHALLENGE OF TEACHING A SOFTWARE ENGINEERING FIRST COURSE Rubby Casallas, Luz Adriana Osorio, Angela Lozano University of Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia E-mail: [email protected]

SUMMARY We present an approach to teach a first course on software engineering. The course focuses on the development of a medium size software project by a team of 5-6 members. To develop the project, students use a process whose central features are based primarily on Humphrey’s Team Software Process (2). TSP has several components to build active/collaborative learning: role definition, positive interdependence, reflection on the doing, etc. However, there are some barriers to fully achieve the course’s instructional objectives. These barriers are a combination of the complexity of software development and the student background; they are manifested as: 1) the lack of motivation 2) teamwork reservations and 3) the lack of commitment to quality. In this paper we present a proposal to help students overcome these barriers. Our contribution is sustained on an active/collaborative learning approach based on three main types of activities for the students: 1) to organize themselves, 2) to execute the tasks and 3) to reflect and conceptualize on what they have performed (1). Our proposal includes the development of a virtual learning environment (VLE) that integrates classroom lectures, labs and practical work. We describe how this environment supports the active/collaborative learning activities and show the elements intended to overcome the mentioned barriers.

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KEYWORDS

Software Engineering, Software Processes, Active/Collaborative Learning, Virtual Learning Environment. 1. Introduction Currently, software is so complex and large that it cannot be written by an individual programmer. Developing software is a challenging task because it involves several risks such as ambiguous requirements, changing technologies and/or teams of several developers. Teaching Software Engineering faces the challenge of offering students the possibility of building their own toolbox full of well understood methodologies, procedures, computational tools, languages, teamwork principles, metrics, etc, as well as, some kind of criteria that will allow them to determine what the correct tools to apply in a given context are. There are many approaches taken for designing a software engineering course. On one extreme, we can

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find courses organized around the activities considered necessary to develop software: design, testing, project management, requirements, etc. The students work in one of these topics at a time and perform some exercises to practice the theory. Some textbooks supporting this approach are widely used (6), (7). On the other extreme, we can find courses organized around the development of a large project by a large team. This second approach has a more practical vision in mind, and in theory, this will allow the students to integrate the topics mentioned above. The first approach has the disadvantage that it is very difficult for the student to have a coherent vision of the different dimensions of software engineering. A risk with the second one is to transform the project into a nightmare where the students spent many of hours trying to fulfil the requirements. A better alternative is to give to the students some well-defined process like RUP (4) or TSP (2). With this alternative, the students can develop a project by following a better plan and having a better organized team. However, a course with the approach: “follow the process” is a difficult sell; students feel that they can accomplish the same job only by coding and without “heavy” tasks like testing, reviewing, planning, versioning, etc. They do not perceive the process as a tool to develop a high quality product but as something redundant and meaningless. In our work, we attempt to defeat this perception. Our contribution is sustained on an active/collaborative learning approach based on three types of student activities: 1) organizing themselves, 2) executing the tasks and 3) reflecting and conceptualizing on what they have performed (1). Our proposal includes the development of a virtual learning environment (VLE) that integrates classroom lectures, labs and practical work. The aim of the environment is to facilitate team organization, the acting and the reflecting, and also to give students elements to make sense of the tasks they are being asked to perform. The paper is organized as follows. In section 2 we go deeper into the challenge of a software engineering first course. In section 3 we describe the elements of our proposal. In the fourth and fifth part of the paper we aim to evaluate our proposal against the active/collaborative learning principles and the obstacles the students have when they start the course. We finish by enumerating some conclusions about the proposal and the VLE. 2. The Challenge The main challenge of teaching a first course in software engineering resides in the fact that many aspects of a software process do not make sense to the students. Maybe we can get the students to use the process but rarely is this process internalized and used again in other projects. We have identified three sources of this problem: lack of motivation, teamwork reservations and lack of commitment to quality. Software engineering requires large projects to be meaningful. It also requires experience to be significant. Students taking this course do not have real experience and most of them have carried out only small programming tasks individually or in small groups in previous courses. Therefore, we find a lack of motivation

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to follow a structured process. Students have proven to themselves that they are able to code, and they do not distinguish clearly the difference between their past exercises and a larger software program (for them, it is only a question of the time it takes to complete the task). Students often have reservations to teamwork because in their previous team working experiences they have not seen the need of exploring collaboration among their mates beyond: “you do that and I do this”. They dislike and avoid creating dependencies among team mates because it is easier to place trust on oneself than to trust on others. Responsibility and commitment for quality is another important issue. Usually, students’ software projects (which are, in fact, small programming tasks most of the time) from other courses end when the course is over. The final product is not used and program failures will not affect anybody, so it is very hard to make sense of the meaning of quality (5). Furthermore, since the product is not used, the consequences of bad design decisions, lack of documentation or insufficient testing are not going to have significant impact in their lives. Because of the issues mentioned above, our proposal focuses on showing real-world context of the professional practice of the software engineering. 3. The proposal The course focuses on the development of a medium size software project by a team of 5-6 members. To develop the project, students use a process which central features are based primarily on Humphrey’s Team Software Process (2). Each team has to build a product in an incremental iterative manner with at least two development cycles; Each cycle ends with a finished and usable application. The course is developed in four parts. The first part corresponds to the course presentation and its main goal is to motivate the students on the importance of the software engineering topics. The second and third parts are the two development cycles which the teams go through to develop the product. The last part corresponds to a final reflection about the software industry and current software engineering trends. A development cycle is composed of various phases: launch, strategy, planning, requirements, design, implementation, test and postmortem (see figure 1). At the end of each phase, teams have to deliver software artifacts (i.e., requirements document, design document, inspection results, testing plan, source code, etc.). Requirements

Launch Strategy

Design

Planning

Code

Testing

Postmortem

Figure 1. At the beginning of each cycle, during the phase called launch, each team establishes its policies and goals they then decide what the requirements to

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deliver are and they plan the cycle tasks. At the end of the cycle, during the phase called post-mortem, they evaluate the quality of the product, assess the process used and propose improvements for the next cycle. In Figure 2 we show the basic four parts of the course and, around it, some of the elements of our proposal. We give a deeper explanation of these elements in the following sections. Lectures and labs materials Journal Individual Reflection Private and public team discussion and publication spaces. Planning, tracking, versions, defect management tools Project Notebook

Process definition, templates, standards

Introduction

L cycle 1

L

interviews with experts Video studies

case

Student testimonies cycle 2 Conclusion

Situations illustrated with comics

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Figure 2. The proposal includes coordinated activities in the classroom, practices in the lab, teamwork and in the VLE. The learning sequences are given by individual and/or team actions performed in those spaces. A possible teaching/learning sequence that integrates the different spaces could be: 1. Introduction to the topic and the activities to be carried out (Classroom) 2. Interaction with the material used to support the understanding of the topic: Videos, interviews with experts, student testimonies, comics, forum discussions, etc. (VLE) 3. Application in the project(Lab) 4. Publication of deliverables and work tracking. (VLE) 5. Feedback and synthesis (Classroom) 6. Individual, team and class reflection(VLE) For the different phases of the process, we have developed an integrated sequence of activities for the students to carry out with instructor intervention as a tutor and facilitator. In figure 3, we illustrate a very simple example. This is related to the topic: organize a team. There is an instructional objective: the students will be able to run an effective meeting. We use a comic strip to illustrate bad practices: for instance: people arriving late at the meeting, people doing activities not related with the meeting subject, meetings without an agenda and with out a well organized discussion, etc.

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How to run a meeting

1. Students see a comic that shows bad practices

2. Students discuss in a forum about the consequences of the bad practices

3. The instructor helps them to make conclusions about the bad practices and gives good tips for an effective meeting

4. Students try to apply the good practices in their meetings

Figure 3 We have videos of other students where they talk about their past project experiences. We also feature students from advanced programs, specifically, continuing education programs in Software Engineering, where students’ motivation to follow a project management course comes from their actual experience and the need is clear.

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4. Active learning Support From the active learning perspective, the students have to organize themselves, perform tasks, reflect about the work done and iterate over a new cycle with the new experiences gained (3). From the collaborative learning perspective, the organization and execution of the project is done by the teams. Teamwork is the central axis of TSP and it can be described as an application of the collaborative learning principles proposed by J&J (3). 4.1.1 Self organization Student self organization is achieved by positive interdependence and interaction between team members. Positive interdependence is developed because the team members define their goals and plan strategies to achieve these goals collectively by means of each team member’s role, responsibilities and commitments. The interaction between team members is essential to meet deadlines and complete dependent tasks, thus endorsing face-to-face promoting interaction. The VLE supports these activities through private spaces for team organization and communication. It also integrates planning and tracking tools, which allow students to keep a web project notebook and reduce the process complexity. 4.1.2 Execution Lectures have theoretical and practical activities. Each topic is presented

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whenever particular skills or knowledge are required to successfully achieve the project activities of the week. During the lectures, the instructor refers to the activities currently being carried out in the VLE to put the topics in context. Meanwhile, each student, as a team member, has to track her own work in order to control plans and contribute to the project history. This individual and team accountability should allow them to perform a better estimation next time. Each team is constantly faced with coordination, decision making, conflict negotiation, and problem resolution issues that will hopefully allow them to build trustful work environment. The VLE provides students with the required information about the process and the theory. This includes scripts for the activities to be carried out and the applications, formats, standards, lecture presentations, and complementary readings that support them. There are two kinds of applications: those that support project management (communication, planning and task tracking tools) and those that support the engineering activities. The project management tools allow teams to know the current state of the project, to deliver partial products, and to have decision making elements in a timely manner. The engineering support tools are used to aid in the construction of artefacts. 4.1.3 Reflection and conceptualization The VLE also offers also spaces for individual, team and class’ reflection. Lecture exercises serve as doubt-generators which allow students to analyze and compare examples against their own experiences, interpret data, discuss different points of view, and try different alternatives. Afterwards, the instructor provides supplementary material such as readings, tutorials, examples, etc. The instructor also provides feedback to exercises. All this information establishes an environment for thinking about the topic’s usefulness and value. Individual reflection aims to achieve understanding not only about software engineering methods but also about the professional practice of software engineering. Class reflection addresses the transversal aspects of the process and course topics. This is a space to conceptualize about what has been learned. Team members perform an assessment of the work done in terms of product and process goals. The result of this assessment is a set of findings called possibilities for improvement. The challenge for the team is to be able to propose actions to be applied during the next cycle and to get to the root of the issues. This team processing, or reflection, focuses on the process, the product and the teamwork itself. The team has to identify possibilities for improvement and to propose changes in its organization, methods, and communication for the next cycle. 5. software engineering teaching challenges support 5.1 Motivation The VLE integrates video cases as examples of process stages, expert interviews and student’s testimonies. In addition to this, there are comics that illustrate different situations that are related to both good and bad teamwork and software development practices. Expert interviews and video cases generate a real-world application context of the course’s concepts.

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Student testimonies and comic strips allow students to gain meaningful referents of the application of the Software Engineering practice. The purpose of those elements is to show the students aspects to take into account in order to maximise individual and team performance. The VLE provides examples of good and bad practices which are used for: meetings, task assignments, the climate of trust, etc.

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5.2 Teamwork During the course, students are confronted with the problem of developing a product defined in terms of a set of needs large enough to be carried out by several people. To achieve this task, they have to divide the job. TSP practices help them organize the team by means of clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Although everybody in the team is a developer, there are other tasks associated with the roles. Sometimes, it is not easy for them to fully understand their roles. Interviews with students who have taken the course show their interpretation of the roles: how they understood it, what worked and which things they misunderstood and caused trouble. During the phases they have to synchronize work and collaborate. In the VLE we have tools to help them to plan and track the project. Connected with the team workspace, they can find dotProject (dotproject.org), a planning/tracking tool where each student can see what is expected of him and of others. Members can see the advance of the project and can have a clear idea of what is completed and what is still missing. Furthermore, each team has a control version repository CVS (cvs.org) that can be accessed by every member to synchronize and to publish his work. 5.3 Responsibility for quality Students are requested to develop the product in an incremental way. During the second cycle, the instructor takes the role of a client and changes some of the initial requirements. These changes can cause a considerable impact in the product already built. They are confronted with the problem of redesigning and reworking some parts. The objective of this challenge is to increase the students’ awareness on quality or, better, on the lack of quality. The ease or difficulty of the rework depends highly on the quality of the software already produced. Furthermore, they have to renegotiate with the client the deadline or the scope of the project justifying quantitatively the time they will need versus the time they have available. To be able to do this, they have to use metrics based on their previous cycle. Additionally, one of the roles in the team is related to Quality Assurance. A responsibility of this role is to verify that the standards and methods used by the team conform to those the team decided to use. To help students use these standards and methods, the team members can find the related information and some tools to facilitate the application (i.e., a code standard) in the VLE. There are others tools to support quality management. For instance, tools to help students collect data to build metrics or a tool called Mantis (www.mantisbt.org) for bug tracking.

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6.Conclusions The here presented proposal is an active/collaborative learning approach for the teaching/learning of a first course in Software Engineering. The proposal includes an articulation of activities carried out in the classroom, the laboratory, and the virtual learning environment. The VLE is an integration space that contains elements not only related with the specific subjects but also related with motivational aspects and justification about why to use a tool or a process. From the active learning perspective, the students have to organize themselves, perform tasks, reflect about the work done, and iterate over a new cycle with the new experiences gained. From the collaborative learning perspective, the organization and execution of the project is done by teams. Moreover, the proposal intends to help students use the Software Engineering practices in a meaningful way in spite of their lack of real-world experience. The team organization, the project and the elements included in the VLE try to simulate a professional context for the students.

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References Bransford, John. Brown , Ann. Cocking , Rodney. How People Learn. Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. The National Academic Press. 1999 Humphrey, Watts. Introduction to the Team Software Process(sm). Addison Wesley Professional. 1999 Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., Holubec, E.J., Cooperation in The Classroom, Interaction Book Co: Edina, MN. 1991 Kruchten , Philippe The Rational Unified Process: An Introduction. Addison Wesley. 2000 LUPG. Why Do Universities Fail Teaching Software Engineering?. Downloaded from: users.actcom.co.il/~choo/lupg/essays/software-engineering-and-uni.html on February 2005 Pressman, Roger. Software Engineering: A Practitioner’s Approach. McGraw-Hill. 2004 Sommerville, Ian. Software Engineering Addison Wesley. 2004

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Chapter 23 PROJECT WEEK BACHELOR DEGREE BUILT ENVIRONMENT Working on location – Town Centre Almere 2005 Cilian TERWINDT, Herman HENSEN University of professional education Amsterdam School of Technology, the Netherlands E-mail : [email protected]; [email protected]

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SUMMARY Each year the Unit Built Environment organises a Project Week (so-called IPweek). Last year the area of study of the project week in 2005 was the Town Centre of Almere. During one week 800 students of various years and specializations worked on eight design assignments in 80 teams of ten students. The question Almere put to our institute, was to generate ideas with regard to the future expansion and changes to the Town Centre, after the redevelopment that is taking place at the moment. This assignment is broken down into eight questions. In only three working days the students developed many interesting ideas and concepts. Working on location and the group’s concentration on one theme created favourable conditions. Also the explanations by the current protagonists who develop the plans in the town centre on the Monday and the 16 inspiring public guest lectures by the experts on the Tuesday, have contributed to this. The 9-member external jury, headed by the Director of the Department Town Centre faced the challenge of awarding prizes on the last day. 1. Organization and aims of the week From Monday 24 January up to and including Friday 28 January 2005 our institute organised the Institute’s Project Week (so-called IP-week) for the 5th time. And like last year by the knowledge circle of the readership ‘multiple and intensive land- use’. During this week all students from the first, second and fourth year and from various fields of study worked together on the town centre of Almere. (The third year students are in their internship year.) The fields of study are: architecture, urban design, building technology, structural engineering, construction management, project management, infra construction, water management, real estate management and project development. They learn from each other and each student plays every year a different role in the group, depending on the attained skills during their study. This project week is an example of an educational project whereby the relationship with practical experience becomes clear in various ways. During this week the school moved to Almere and was housed on some empty floors of an office building next to the railway station. We also got the opportunity to use various other locations in the centre of the project area during the week. We were guests of Almere during the entire week!

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On Monday morning the week was opened in sport complex Centre Point by the protagonists of the project, like the alderman, the director of the town centre, bureau OMA that has made the urban design, and the project leader of the underground waste conveying system. After we clarified the project assignments, we explored the town centre and surrounding area in the afternoon in different groups. On Tuesday 16 guest lectures were given in three halls of the brand new cinema complex Utopolis and in the Council Chamber of the town hall. Per assignment two experts were brought in, who from their work in the area covered by the plan were able to pass on specialized knowledge or were able to inspire the students from their experience with similar subjects on other locations. The persons had various angles and were coming from different institutions, like universities, building companies, project development companies, governmental organisations etcetera. For the students, as well as the teachers, a unique day to have that much knowledge and experience explained by top specialists during these lectures. Two of the lectures were compulsory, but the halls were large enough to attend every of the four parallel-lectures. Already on the Tuesday, but predominantly on the Wednesday and Thursday the groups focused on the project related questions, supervised by tutors and teachers. On Friday the ideas of the groups were presented to an expert part jury per assignment and the preliminary winners were being known. In the afternoon the 16 nominated groups presented themselves during the closing gathering in the discotheque ‘Eindelijk’. The external members of the morning jury, lead by the project manager of the town centre, announced the winners of the eight assignments and the overall-winner. While the jury was deliberating a titillating final consideration, an improvised ‘column’ was held for everyone who had participated by Maarten Kloos, director of the Amsterdam Centre of Architecture. Besides the people from Almere, also the companies who have provided internships and the advisory commission of our institute were invited to the afternoon program so that there were Possibilities to exchange ideas internally as well as externally. A publication will give a representation of the week with a report on the lectures and the ideas of the eight prize-winning teams. 2. Why Almere? This year we choose the Town Centre of Almere. Why? A characteristic of Almere is the enormous eagerness to build. Almere is the fastest growing town of the Netherlands. In approxim. 25 years 175,000 people moved in. This growth is well organized. A characteristic of Almere is also the enormous dynamics with changing views. Here in Almere you recognise those different building phases so clearly because many parts of the town were built at once. The building of the renewed town centre looks totally different compared to the existing ancillary town centre from the ‘80’s. It shows the time aspects of insight in architecture, urban design and

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technology. And while you are taught during your training that buildings and infrastructure are always built to last several generations, that your work will amply survive you, here with the construction of the renewed town centre, 220 houses are broken down as well as the building of the Department of IJsselmeerpolders, where the ‘founding fathers’ had there offices. It is also interesting that despite the enormous space Almere has – with several satellites the town is spatially laid out – in this renewed town centre multiple and intensified spatial use is chosen. That offers a special quality: functions like living, working, shopping and entertainment, health care and education are mixed; stacking, infrastructure and parking facilities go below ground. Almere has ambition and chooses quality: renowned names are present or brought in and this results in buildings each with their own identity and quality, loosely laid out in the public area. It will be interesting to see in several years time whether this scattering concept, results into that new urbanisation that is aimed at here. Such a new town also offers the possibility for technological innovations, such as for example that of the underground waste conveying system. In short, the town centre of Almere is an interesting field of study. More so in the face of the question about the future: what has to be done as over the next five years, according to the Policy Document Spatial Planning from The Hague, you need to put an other 40,000 people up. What needs to be done if until the year 2030 there might well have to be an enormous scale increase to finally 400,000 inhabitants (half the size of Amsterdam) will take place. What will the town look like then, where do you deal with the growth, how do you adjust the facilities for this as well as the other necessary infrastructure? 3. Assignments We concentrated on the future of the Town Centre and formulated, together with the Bureau Town Centre the following questions: 1. Which functions will be put in the future eastern part, how do you integrate the water into this; 2. what measures need to be taken to make the existing real estate ‘grow’ in line with the rest; 3. how do you later on open up the town centre for the heavy traffic, but also 4. how do you improve the accessibility in the centre for loading and unloading at the shops and for the pedestrians. 5. What will the load bearing construction of the infrastructure look like if taken underground; 6. how will you adjust the current railway station to become an efficient transfer machine? 7. Will the public area benefit from a boulevard and 8. is it important to connect the four centres of the town centre via the public areas with one another. For a week the students thought about these future problems. 3.1 The overall winner, group 5. The plan: Urban link between the 4 centres of the town centre Analysis: Railway station is (functional) the connecting element between the various areas of the centre. So all areas will have to be linked to the railway station. There are three areas; ‘80’s centre (green), new area of OMA (blue) and the educational zone (red) planned by the group, that connects to the railway station and the centre.

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‘The students arrive by train and leave school after a beer in the centre on their way to the station’.

Modifications in the area: • • • • • •

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•

‘80’s centre tighter grid ‘80’s centre grid as a mirror to the new block structure near the railway station as an example for the educational centre at the eastside; the new centre linked to the railway station by way of a boulevard; station square to be constructed with a roofed over square, so that a connection is created with the centre and the business centre; in real estate terms: business men earn the money that they then spent while walking to the centre or at the Weerwater in the evenings, whereupon they have to earn money again the following day’. zoning: business centre above the railway station, boulevard and plan OMA with A-shops and retail chains; southern part ’80’s centre with small boutiques and (foreign) shops (like the 9 small streets in Amsterdam); northern part ‘80’s centre partly to be reserved as a neighbourhood centre with, amongst others, a supermarket; education-zone to the west of the centre.

Jury report for the winning team A strong analysis with a fairly realistic elaboration doubling the town centre to the east, bus lane around the centre, boulevard from railway station to weerwater and roofed over square at the railway station. The concept is very clearly and dynamically expressed: with the railway station as a connecting element in the centre and the explosion at the end of the boulevard. The group has presented the plan in a powerful and humoristic manner. Team members were: Mastaneh Atighehchian, Yael Breimer, Jeremy Hau, Richard Koorn, Mirjam Ott, Lucas Sluiter, Ton Verhoeven and Sybren Vermeulen

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4. Conclusion Working on location was a successful experiment. That way the students could survey the area of study well and take it in. The students learned to work in multidisciplinary teams related to this real life problem in this developing huge and complex building project. In this short period of time students are allowed to be explorative, they can use their imagination and creativity even the problems are very complex! It has been an inspiring study event whereby the relationship with practical experience became clear in many ways, owing to the commitment of all those people from outside and inside of the institute.

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Chapter 24 EXPERIMENTAL MECHATRONICS EDUCATION AT MONTERREY TECH Rubén Morales-Menéndez, Ricardo A. Ramírez-Mendoza. Jorge Limón-Robles ITESM campus Monterrey, México E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] SUMMARY Monterrey Tech has been working in a new teaching-learning model for several years. Mechatronics is one of the key research areas at Monterrey Tech. The fundamentals for the Experimental Mechatronics Education are the active learning technique based on experimental labs. Classical Problem Based Learning and Project Oriented Learning are combined in this framework. ITESM professors designed their own labs. Several didactic experimental stations in the automation field were built. In addittion, intensive and successful experiences in continuous education programs have been obtained for more than 15 years. KEYWORDS

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Active Learning, Educational Technology, Mechatronics, ITESM

Introduction The Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM), commonly known as Monterrey Tech, was founded in 1943. The ITESM system integrates 33 campuses in Mexico and several offices all over the world. In its mission to develop values, attitudes and abilities in its students, ITESM has restructured its teaching-learning system. In order to fulfill the challenge of redesigning the teaching-learning process taking into account the features and requirements established in the Monterrey Tech’s 2005 mission, it was required to change the traditional teaching way that the teachers were only giving lectures. In this new educational model that arises with the Monterrey Tech’s 2005 mission, the main role of the education-learning process is assumed by the student instead of the teacher. The Collaborative learning is combined with individual work, so that the exploration of the student complements but does not replace the lectures of the professor. In addition, teaching techniques are applied and incorporated to the didactic processes, whose efficiency has been demonstrated. On the other hand, the underlying educational model uses information technology that offers, enriches and enhances the teaching-learning process. In the new model the student occupies a main role; the process turns around its self learning. This is based on two fundamental principles: constructivism and experimentation (Martin 2002). Additionally, the active learning technique is specifically emphasized in this

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model. This technique has the following basic principles: • Students must discover new phenomena and concepts by themselves, and they must relate these concepts with their knowledge. • Motivation is the key driving force. • Team work is promoted, so the students are more involved in their learning process. • Problem based learning (Grimheden and Hanson, 2003) and project oriented learning are fundamentals in this educational system. The learning process is inductive instead of deductive so the students can develop skills and abilities that demand active participation. Creativity and innovation are promoted formally by different activities. Since 1987 a group of professors have been working on consulting, continuous education and developing educational technology at automation business. This experience combined with the new teaching-learning system has been exploited in the new Mechatronics academic program. The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 presents some basic ABET criteria. Section 3 reviews the Mechatronics Academic Program. Section 4 describes the educational technology developed by ITESM professors for continuous control system laboratory. Section 5 discusses some important results, and finally Section 6 concludes the paper and shows future work. 2. ABET Criteria Even though the Mechatronics program is not included into the ABET criteria, (ABET Board of Directors, 2004), Monterrey Tech concluded that this area provides a new way to integrate the applications of these criteria in many Electrical, Computer and Mechanical Engineering courses. Given the importance of interdisciplinary education and teamwork in the development of an engineer, the Mechatronics program is part of a wider curriculum development effort at Monterrey Tech . The ABET criteria (effective for evaluations during the 2005-2006 Accreditation Cycle) for the Electrical/ Computer Engineering part of the program must be included in the curriculum’s structure by adding engineering topics related to the title of the program. The program must demonstrate that graduates have: knowledge of probability and statistics, which include applications appropriate to the program name and objectives; knowledge of mathematics through differential and integral calculus, basic sciences, computer science, and engineering sciences necessary to analyze and design complex electrical and electronic devices, software, and systems containing hardware and software components, which are appropriate to program objectives. Programs containing electrical modifier in the title must also demonstrate that graduates have knowledge of advanced mathematics, typically including differential equations, linear algebra, complex variables, and discrete mathematics. Programs containing the modifier computer in the title must also demonstrate that graduates have knowledge of discrete mathematics. Although neither the electrical modifier nor computer per se are included in the title of our program it is implicit in an outmost level that the suffix tronics in the title Mechatronics must obey the above mentioned criteria.

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Regarding the Mechanical Engineering part of our programs curriculum, ABET states that the program must demonstrate that graduates have the ability to use mathematical and computational techniques to analyze, model, and design physical systems consisting of solid and fluid components under steady state and transient conditions. 3. Mechatronics academic program Mechatronics see (Grimheden and Hanson, 2005.) for evolution of this academic discipline in engineering is a multidisciplinary approach based on concurrent practices to design better engineering products. This means that a Mechatronic product or process should have some added value. This may either be in terms of added functionality for the same price or a reduced price for similar functionality to those produced by a more classical or conventional approach, (Acar and Parkin,1996). In the literature, the term Mechatronics appears in different manners. A typical definition is to describe Mechatronics as the integration of the technologies of mechanics, electronics and information technology to provide enhanced products, processes and systems. It integrates the classical domains of mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, computer science and information technology at the design stage of a product or a system. Thus, mechatronics is not a new branch of engineering, but a newly developed concept that underlines the necessity for integration and intensive interaction between different branches of engineering. This involves enabling technologies such as sensors, actuators, software, communications, optics, electronics, structural mechanics, and control engineering, (Amerongem 2003, Alptekin 1996, and Wolfe, et al , 2003). At Monterrey Tech, the academic program in Mechatronics focuses on integrating and developing systems that involve technologies of several fields of the engineering. This specialist understands the functioning of the mechanical, electrical and electronic components and information technology of the industrial processes (automation and control). The specialist also selects the best methods and technologies for the design and integral development of a product or process. The Engineer in Mechatronics is a project leader who is qualified to manage teams of multidisciplinary work. The leader designs and introduces products, processes and systems in accordance with new needs and requests’, generates solutions that contemplate creativity and innovation in automatic control and automation, evaluate, select and integrates the technology most accurate technology for the design of Mechatronics products and systems. The curriculum of Mechatronics Engineering at Monterrey Tech, is show in Table 1. Even though the Mechatronics program is not included into the ABET criteria, (ABET Board of Directors, 2004), Monterrey Tech considered the guidelines proposed in the criteria. Notice that the curriculum includes extensive practical works, projects, laboratories and individual projects. For this reason, many educational equipments/systems have been developed for our laboratories. 4.Active learning in the automation field There are several experimental labs in the Mechatronics academic program.

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Five of these labs are closely related with the automation area: Continuous Control Systems Lab, Logic Control Systems Lab, Instrumentation and Industrial Measurement Lab, Industrial Networks, and Manufacturing Systems. For these labs, experimental equipment based on industrial instrumentation and systems were designed and built by ITESM professors for more than 15 years (see Morales-Menéndez, et al, 2005 for detailed description). These equipments have been installed in several ITESM campuses since 2000. Table 1. Mechatronics Academic Program Year 1

2

3

4

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5

Description

Lecture Topics (100%)

Mathematics Physics Chemistry Programming Lecture (70%) Mechanical Eng. Basic Electrical Eng. Basics Materials Drawing-CAD Design Methodology Lecture (50%) Sensors and Actuators Electronic Engineering Mechanical Design Manufacturing Process Lecture (50%) Industrial Network Automated-Manufacturing Systems Project Management Control Engineering and Automation

Specialization to select

Practical Work 0%

30%

50%

50% Mechatronics Project

Specific Project

Mechatronic Design Automation and Control Integration of Manufacturing Systems Electronic Systems

We will only describe our experiences with the Continuous Control Systems lab. Basically, we will present the educational stations, experimental mini projects and the teaching-learning system that we exploited in this lab. Similar approaches had been developed for the other labs in the Mechatronics academic program at Monterrey Tech. 4.1 Educational Stations. Two main stations were designed for the continuous control systems laboratory: Level-tank control station and Temperature control Station. Level-tank control station. A level-tank control system is a widely studied system, which can represent the dynamic behavior of many industrial processes, such as a boiler drum, part of a distillation column, part of an

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evaporator, etc. This station is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Level-tank Control Station The instruments have standard analog (4-20 mA) and digital communication with a Honeywell UDC 6300 controller, which in turn has digital communication with a computer using the Honeywell LeaderLine PC software. Figure 2 shows a basic instrumentation diagram with the most important instruments. Two feedback control systems can be configured: input flow and level control systems. Both have important dynamic characteristics.

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Figure 2. Level-tank station diagram. This diagram includes a level-tank system, 2 flow sensor-transmitters (FT101, FT102), 1 level sensor-transmitter (LT100), and 1 control valve (FV100). Students can work with the PID controller locally or remotely for operation and configuration tasks. Temperature control station. The industrial dryer is a thermal process that converts electricity to heat. The dryer is able to control the exit air temperature by changing its shooting angle. It has digital communication with a personal computer using a data acquisition system. 0-10 volts and 420 mA communication interfaces are also included. The temperature control station is very portable. The process dynamics is very fast, so several tests can be performed quickly even in a conventional classroom. The heat dryer may appear to be a very simple process; however, some nonlinear characteristics had been important components of master thesis.

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Using a data acquisition system in both stations, we open up room for several important applications based on conventional software such as Matlab, LabView, LabWindows, C++, etc. 4.2 Experimental mini-projects The students have to develop several experimental mini projects where they repeatedly have to design, analyze, implement and test their solutions by learning and using the following concepts for this laboratory: • Identification methods (modeling) such as least squares estimation for parametric models. • PID tuning methods such as pole placement, integral criteria, PID synthesis, internal model control, ultimate gain, etc. • Different continuous control strategies such as feedback feed forward and cascade control. Instead of a specific experimental description for each mini-project, we will describe this lab into the mechatronics program as a big picture as follows: 1. Students have to understand the process. By understanding we refer to basic principles (thermodynamics, mechanics, etc). Also, the automation needs have to be defined. 2. Based on this knowledge, they have to find the relationship between the main variables. Students have to identify the input-output variables and the possible disturbances in an experimental fashion. 3. Students have to design the experimental tests for parametric modeling in order to get a mathematical formulation of the real systems. 4. Based on the process model, students have to tune the PID controller. Several PID tuning methods can be tested for servocontrol and regulatory approaches. 5. Students have to analyze the PID controller limitations for different operating conditions. Figure 5 shows experimental results using a feedback control system. 6. Based on the feedback control system limitations, students have to solve some of them through different control strategies: • Feed forward/Feedback control. Where the main disturbance (output manual valve, V2 ) has to be identified (outflow in this case, FT102) and by experimental test the lead/lag block has to be configured into the PID controller, Figure 6, left plot. • Cascade control. Where an intermediate variable (input flow, FT101) must indicate a disturbance (input manual valve, V1). With this intermediate variable students have to configure the slave/master controllers using the cascade approach, Figure 6, right plot. Steps 1-5 can be implemented in both level-tank control and temperature control station. Steps 6-7 can only be implemented in the level-tank control station because the PID features.

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Figure 4. Feedback control system. LIC100 represents a PID controller. V1 and V2 are used for disturbances implementation (under different operating conditions)

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Figure 5. Feedback control system performance. Top plot shows the different operating conditions (discrete modes). Middle plot shows the set point (SP) and process variable (PV, LT100), and finally bottom plot presents the PID output (FV-100).

Figure 6. Feed forward/Feedback control system and Cascade control system (LIC/FIC) 4.3 Teaching-Learning methodology. This lab combines 2-hour lectures with 2-hour experimental mini-projects a week. Organized in 3-students per team and 4-teams per session, students solve different mini projects every week. Advisors play a consulting role just for technical problems with configuration, software, or data acquisition. Students learn the Problem Based Learning and Project Oriented Learning methodologies in previous courses. Here, students analyze, design, implement and test by performing hand-on activities during mini-projects, and through Active Learning in the lab. Students can see whether their implementations meet the project goals during the experimental session.

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The learning environment is characterized by a larger student-responsibility, mutual trust respect and helpfulness and the professor has a coaching role instead of a lecturing one. Each mini project represents a new problem for students. These problems have different complexity. Solving each mini project, students can learn the full procedure for solving an Automation project. Students have to solve an integral short-term project at the end of the course. Also, students have to write down a brief technical report for each mini-project, so formal communication skills are developed.

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5. Results The experimental Mechatronics teaching-learning system at Monterrey Tech has generated several successful results. For years, this educational technology, described only in the automation field, had been proved with chemical and mechanical engineering students. Many ex-a-TEC engineers have high positions in the Automation business in several international companies; also, many of them have started their own business in this field. Acquiring sufficient basic and specific knowledge and the application of this knowledge is an important process. The main ideas behind Problem Based Learning / Project Oriented Learning that we appreciate are: • Active Learning (AL): Students participate actively in the teachinglearning process where interaction and discussions are important. • Precise feedback. Feedback is important to achieve the AL. • Emphasis on the process. Creating an understanding and meaning of a problem is the key step. We replicate these ideas in the other labs: Logic Control Systems Lab and Instrumentation and Industrial Measurement Lab. In these labs students work with real industrial instrumentation ( PLC, sensors, actuators, etc). Students can prove their knowledge and skills. Self-motivation takes an important role here. Motivation is a key driving force in this teachinglearning process. 6. Conclusions and future work It could be noticed that the Mechatronics Engineering Curriculum includes extensive practical works, projects, laboratory and individual projects. The Continuous Control Systems Lab was described as a part of this educational technology at Monterrey Tech. The didactic stations respond to the Mechatronics spirit as the integration of the technologies of mechanics, electronics and information technology to provide enhanced products, processes and systems. These stations have been successfully used to train the most advanced industrial automation techniques. Also, these stations have been exploited for Continuing Education Courses for more than 15 years with more than 1,000 professional engineers from different Mexican companies. Students learn specific knowledge and its application in real industrial equipment. They also participate actively in the teaching-learning process where they can get a quick feedback from their results or their advisors. In addition, students can discover insightful knowledge about the automation field, and they evaluate the application of theoretic concepts.

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6.1 Related and future work We only described our approach at the automation field. Classical Mechatronics approaches had been worked around Robotics in several universities (Ahlgren 2002, Amerongen 2003, Alptekin 1996, Wolfe et al 2003 and many more). However, we started 3 years ago, a research chair about Design, Manufacturing and Integration of reconfigurable and intelligent machines were full Mechatronics capabilities will be exploited soon. Also, we are still testing two new important stations, 1) the industrial network station and 2) the flexible manufacturing cell. The industrial network station allows students to design, analyze and configure a particular industrial protocol. Some field devices are interconnected in the network, in particular: drivers, PLC, push buttons, etc. The flexible manufacturing cell has the following automatic equipments: assembly station with an industrial robot, CNC milling machine, and transport systems with a vision station for inspection, automatic storage and retrieval system References ABET Board of Directors, 2004. Criteria for accrediting engineering programs. Technical Report ABET Engineering Accreditation Commission, ABET, Inc., Baltimore, MD. Acar, M and R M Parkin, 1996 Engineering education for mechatronics. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 43(1):106–112. Ahlgren, D. J. 2002 Meeting educational objective and outcomes through robotics educationn, in Control, and Manufacturing: Trends, Principles, in Robotics, Automation, and Applications, Vol. 14, pp. 395–404. Alptekin, S. E. 1996. Preparing the leaders for mechatronics education. In Frontiers in Education Proceedings, pp 975–979, 1996. Amerongen, J. van 2003. Experiences with mechatronics education at University of Twente. Technical Report ICIT, University of Twente, The Netherlands. Grimheden, M. and M. Hanson, 2003. How might education in mechatronics benefit from problem based learning? In 4th Int. Workshop on Research and Education in Mechatronics, Germany. Grimheden, M. and M. Hanson, 2005. Mechatronics - the evolution of an academic discipline in engineering education. Mechatronics, (15):179–192. Martin, M. 2002. El Modelo Educativo del Tecnológico de Monterrey ITESM Technical Report Morales-Menéndez, R., R. Ramírez, J. Limón and M. Ramírez, 2005. Educational Technology at Monterrey Tech. To appear in Computers And Advanced Technology In Education, August, Oranjestad, Aruba. Wolfe, D., K. Gossett, P. D. Hanlon, and Curtis A. Carver, 2003. Active learning using mechatronics in a freshman information technology course. In 33rd ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Boulder, CO.

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Chapter 25 MORPHOLOGIC DESIGN BASED ON ACTIVE LEARNING PhD Naoko Takeda, Carlos Ortiz Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, México. E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] SUMMARY This paper analyzes the teaching of the Morphologic Design methodology, which necessarily requires active learning methods. Morphologic Design is an alternative designing method based on “Biomimicry,” the creative method of “Provoked accidents,” and the philosophy of “Thinking with your hands,” where exploration and propositive creativity in experimentation are an essential part to obtaining successful results. The course is taught with active learning methods that support the students’ creative behaviour in the experiments they perform during their morphologic investigation. During class sessions, each participant shares the most interesting results obtained during their experimentation. Discussion on the relevance of these developments is encouraged, and feedback from the group participants is generated in order to enrich each of the projects. This methodology has been implemented in the course “Morphologic Design” taught at ITESM Campus Monterrey during the past 3 semesters. Considering examples of projects completed during the courses, it can be concluded that active learning methods used in the course makes students passionate about their projects, acquiring a greater involvement and as a final result, innovative industrial design products.

KEYWORDS

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Design Education, Morphologic Design, Design Methodology. 1. Introduction Industrial Design, or Design in general, has always been an area where students and professionals with high levels of creativity come together in the quest for fresh production of ideas generation or innovative proposals. Design reflects creativity so there should not be a designer without creativity. According to Carlos Soto Curiel, Industrial Design is defined as the “discipline that tends towards the optimal satisfaction of human needs by means of generating and conceptualizing iteratively manufactured objects. (…) these objects are the matter and purpose of the discipline, and to distinguish them from the whole range of man-made objects, they have been named Product-Objects” (Soto, 3). Optimally satisfying the human needs is not the only challenge that a designer must face when proposing objects - the object should be feasible and economic in terms of

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manufacturability and functionality, and should have potential in the aspects of interaction with humans, such as ergonomics, usability and aesthetics. Thus, a designer should possess technical skills as well as a sufficient degree of creativity so as to be able to contribute with proposals of artefacts that can be catalogued as product-object. For this purpose, the designer needs creativity tools to continuously propose improvements and innovations. These tools can be traditional, or they can experimental and abandon the path of logics and rationalization. In this paper we shall not speak of this origin of creativity but rather about an activity that evidently promotes, stretches and drives creativity: education. 2. Background Ever since the beginning of the profession, in the early 20th century, a special emphasis has been placed on the way theory and practice of design are taught. This takes us to the first school of modern art, design and architecture: Bauhaus. Founded in the year of 1919 in the city of Weimar, Germany, the school gathered a group of professors and artists led by the architect Walter Gropius, whose motto was “the new construction of future.” Under this maxim, the artistic and didactic concerns of its members would start writing the history of modern design. Many famous names can be found among the professors who once taught courses in Bauhaus: icons of abstract painting such as Wasilly Kandinsky and Paul Klee, or the fathers of architectonic rationalism such as Mies Van der Rohe or Gropius himself. But there was one artist that, even without being as renowned as those mentioned before, had an enormous influence within the school and the teaching of design in general: Johannes Itten, the painter and professor in charge of teaching the Vorkus or elemental course. This course was mandatory for all new students at Bauhaus. The objective of the course was to “unteach the students to give them back a state of innocence” (Lupton, Miller 4) and thus be able to produce new things that went as far away as possible from any artistic school from the past. This was one of the goals of Bauhaus and in order to achieve this goal, Itten used unconventional teaching techniques such as the collection of waste material to later use it for artistic creations, or to have students do gymnastics before painting the first brushstroke on a canvas. With these and other didactic techniques, the elemental course would introduce the future designers to composition, color, materials, three-dimensional forms and, in general, every important element for any artistic visual expression, be it a painting, a chair or even a building. Driven by Gropius, Itten resigned from Bauhaus in 1923 due to ideological conflicts, and the position of basic course director was taken by the artist and professor Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. In the new elemental course, MoholyNagy delivered activities that were similar to Itten’s, but with the difference of guiding the experimentations with materials towards the creation of products of use. The teaching methods of these two Bauhaus professors can be considered active methods, as students were taught not only the theory of design but were also encouraged to express their ideas through the creation of objects originated from their own research and experimentation. If we compare the methods of these two Bauhaus professors to L. Dee

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Fink’s four-part model for active learning --Observing, Doing, Dialoguing with Self and Dialogue with Others-- it can be concluded that in fact the teaching in Bauhaus was completely active: The student would not passively sit and receive information, but would observe the behavior of the materials and produce 2D or 3D compositions from the results. This experience allowed dialogue with his or her self while trying to apply the knowledge gained from the exercises, to products of use. Then, upon sharing his or her work, dialogue with others would necessarily happen in the school classrooms and workshops, because a very sharp critical spirit was always encouraged within the school. It is worth mentioning that Bauhaus would later become the prototype of design schools. Although it disappeared in 1933, professors and students spread its heritage and up until today, most design schools preserve Bauhaus’ elemental course scheme as a base for their curriculum. Definitely, the Bauhaus school generated innovative designers whose ideas and creations still have an impact in the world. For instance, Marcel Breuer’s Cesca chair, designed in 1928, continues to be manufactured and currently it is still valid from the aesthetic point of view in the world of design. This is how we could argue that a great deal of the success of the creations of Bauhaus were owed to the didactic methods employed, which lead students to thorough experimentation and meditation --elements that ultimately lead to a revolution in the world of design. 3. What is morphologic design? According to Bruno Munari, creativity “…does not mean improvising without a method”, but is an activity that requires a method if you want to achieve specific objectives. In industrial design there are traditional methodologies and alternatives to them. In this paper we will speak of one of these alternatives: Morphologic Design. This is a designing method based on Biomimicry and the philosophy of “thinking with your hands,” as well as on the practice of “provoked accidents”. Biomimicry’s contribution is the attitude of considering nature as a model for all human creations. This leads researchers to search for natural principles to be applied as a solution to a problem of design. “Thinking with your hands” invites the designer to the generation of ideas from volumetric models, starting at the very first steps in the process of design. This enhances the traditional practice of designing with two-dimensional sketches only. The technique of “provoked accidents” moves the student towards non-orthodox experimental procedures --results of which are completely unknown and unexpected. This provokes the accidental generation of forms, mechanisms or processes that, after a comprehensive recording and study, can be applied to the design of products. Putting these three practices into action results in a method for the creation of innovative products. This method has the following steps: • Selecting a theme: The student selects a theme on which he or she will develop an extensive research and experimentation, which is why it is recommended that the participant is truly interested in his or her theme. There is literally an unlimited amount of themes that can be developed. In essence, any topic from which it is believed possible to extract, through experimentation, forms and mechanisms, has great potential.

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•

•

• •

• •

• •

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• •

Water, flowers, plants, skeletal structures, melting, dripping, fractal geometry and music are only a few examples. Research on the theme: Once the theme is selected, a thorough research is conducted concerning any aspect that may be relevant for it, such as historical, biological and geometrical data, as well as the application of the elements from the selected theme in areas other than design. Listing possible experiments to be performed: In relation to the theme of study, the student makes a list of possible experiments that he or she believes could significantly contribute to the research. Among the experiments we can cite some examples such as dissecting, photography, plaster casting, covering with paraffin, distorting in computer programs, etc. Experiments: The student starts performing his or her experiments and further develops the ones that produce the most interesting results. Creation of a database: It is very important that all the experiments and their results are thoroughly documented with photographs, video, audio, sketches and notes. All this is in order to create a very complete database. Analysis and synthesis. Analyzing and studying the formal, functional and structural solutions, organizational systems found in nature, with the objective of extrapolating them towards new solutions to human problems through the creation of technologies and the conception of objects. Possible applications. This is the creative phase in which the researcher proposes different solutions from a database that has been developed. The reading techniques that are usual in basic bionics are those related with sinectics, or addressing the problem deliberately from non-conventional perspective and reference frame. (Vanden, 2000). Application in design. Volumetric and functional models of the proposals made subsequent to the analysis of the experimentations’ results. In addition, materials are selected and technical drawings and prototypes, etc. are generated.

In order to exemplify the scope of Morphologic Design we cite a case of morphologic research on folds in laminated materials, performed by Naoko Takeda. By studying the natural fold in the leaf of the persimmon fruit (Fig. 1a) and imitating it on a piece of paper, a system of self-fastening folds was obtained. With this system a series of recipients (Fig. 1b) and CD cases (Fig. 1c) were designed, that do not need extra fastening elements such as glue or staples to sustain their three-dimensional form. 3. Active learning method how is morphologic design taught? Since the 2004 January-May term at the Campus Monterrey of the Instituto Tecnologico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, the course of Morphologic Design is taught to students in their last semester of the Industrial Design

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Fig. 1a

Fig. 1b

Fig. 1c

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undergraduate program. The course is taught by Dr. Naoko Takeda Toda, whose inspiration was her masters and doctorates courses in the School of Arts in Kanazawa, Japan, under the guidance of professor Sakae Wahei. The objective of the course is to broaden the creative horizons of the students by teaching them this non-conventional methodology. Through research and experimentation, it is intended that students find innovative solutions in the area of design, find their personal style and practice their observation, analysis and synthesis skills. The course is structured as follows: During the first two weeks, the students are introduced to the basic concepts of morphology. Immediately afterwards they are asked to choose their theme of study. After selecting the definite theme the student is guided through his or her research project at the same time that the following subjects are taught: • Structural and functional principles of natural elements and their application to industrial design products. • Case studies of products obtained from biomimicry. • Theory of perception. • Meaning of forms. • Resource organization schemes. At each session, activities concerning the class subject are delivered, in order to meditate on and reaffirm the knowledge gained. Simultaneous to the theory classes, outside the classroom and during the

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entire course, the students carry out an individual research project and they receive personal mentoring throughout the semester. During the semester each student exposes his or her advance at mid term and then their final results at the end of the term. This activity stimulates the interchange of ideas and enriches each student as a designer. If again we apply the model of active learning of L. Dee Fink we can conclude that the teaching and practice of morphologic design are active in nature. This not a nature imposed to the course, but the method itself dictates the way in which it is to be taught. • Observing: The student is encouraged to sharpen all his or her senses towards what surrounds them. Only then shall he or she realize the nonobvious solutions hidden behind his object of study. • Doing: The student is guided so he or she never stops experimenting. The most intensive part of the research is performing experiments, sketches and models that derive from the student’s observation and intuition. • Dialogue with Self: As we have said, Morphologic Design is a path towards the personal discovery of one’s own designing style, because while generating proposals that are not derived from the actual tendencies of design, the student creates products that will bring him or her nearer to an original style. • Dialogue with Others: Every experiment or proposal is shared with the rest of the group through in class presentations. This allows the exposing student to obtain feedback and the rest of the students to listen to each other’s interpretation of the newly learned design method. The course is based on the principle that each student should develop his or her project in the most independent way possible, because since there are no imposed limits in the subject to be chosen and the type of experiments to be performed, the participant is encouraged to search events that to are interesting him or her and to extract his or her own conclusions to later share them with the rest of the group. This can trigger the enthusiasm required to create innovative products. Furthermore, the dynamism that is created through the interchange of ideas and opinions between the course participants and the instructor enriches the creativity of each participant. 5. Course projects Throughout the three terms in which the course of Morphologic Design has been taught, there have been very interesting and innovative design proposals that certainly would not have been projected under a traditional design methodology or a passive teaching method. We can cite the following outstanding research projects by students: 5.1. Study of fingerprints. Monica Rojas chose fingerprints as her research subject. This study was carried out to find applications of the essential characteristics of the theme: that fingerprints have arched, spiralled and curved patterns that are unique and unrepeatable and that they regenerate. The proposal generated was a

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regenerative tire of nonskid material (Fig 2). The idea emerged thanks to the concept that the fingerprints are the hands’ element of traction; therefore this pattern can be used as a traction element for other objects such as tires.

Fig.2 5.2 Study of pineapple peel. Carla Herrera chose as a theme to develop the fruit of pineapple. She started by studying the pineapple peel, which caught the students’ attention. From this research, a noticeable experiment performed was to take a print of the pineapple peel on an elastomer material (Fig. 3). The result was a very peculiar texture that combines the negative form of the peel and the elasticity of the material.

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5.3 Study of the skeletal structures of sharks. Gilberto Nieto picked the theme of sharks. During the experimentation phase, a very small shark specimen for consumer sale was achieved, and submitted to an anatomic study through cuts and sections. The most attractive results in the experimentation were the forms found in the skeletal

Fig. 3. structures of the animal. This research is still to be completed, and some proposals have been generated for products such as the cutter shown bellow (Fig 4).

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Fig. 4 5.4 Study of bamboo in combination with synthetic materials. While searching for new industrial applications of bamboo, Naoko Takeda and Carlos Ortiz experimented combining bamboo pieces with synthetic materials such as plastic resins, elastomers and laminates. After provoking accidents with dripping of resin through orifices cut on a bamboo piece, an idea was created of a lamp for children (Fig. 5), in which the plastic pieces through which light comes out, can be removed and used as toys.

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5.5 Study of negative spaces. Based on the idea that when paying attention to the negative spaces generated by the objects new things are discovered that are not perceivable at first sight, Naoko Takeda did an interesting experiment with a leaf of a tree. She took the flat form of the leaf and made a pattern with the negative space. This revealed the hidden forms of the leaf itself, something which could hardly have been imagined without performing the experiment (Fig. 6).

Fig. 5

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Fig. 6

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6. Conclusions Design should always be a synonym of creativity, innovation and originality. To achieve this it is not enough that the student beginning a career in design is a good designer but it is also necessary that he or she finds the way of canalizing their creativity to achieve the innovations that are needed throughout his student and professional life. It goes without saying that education plays the most important role in this development or growth of the designer. As the historical background teaches us, education in Industrial Design has always been active in nature, never imposing what the student should do and think but allowing liberty for him or her to learn through personal experience. This principle is taken as one of the pillars for generating the enthusiasm required for students to obtain success and innovation in their research. This leads us to the conclusion that Active Learning and Morphologic Design complement each other well because, as proven by the innovative results of the morphologic research studies, these proposals hardly could have been thought of using conventional design methods and of passive learning. References Soto, C. 1999. Glosario de Términos. México, D.F.: UNAM. Vanden, F. 2000. El diseño de la naturaleza o la naturaleza del diseño. México, D.F. : Universidad Metropolitana. Munari, B. 2004. ¿Cómo Nacen los Objetos?. Barcelona: Ed. Gustavo Gil. Dee Fink, L. 1999. Active Learning. Oklahoma USA: University of Oklahoma. Fiedler, J. and P. Feierabend. 1999. Bauhaus. Alemania; Könemann

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Chapter 26 SYSTEM DYNAMICS PROJECTS PRESENTED BY POSTER: PRODUCT AND PROCESS SYNTHESIS Gloria PEREZ SALAZAR Departamento de Ingeniería Industrial y de Sistemas ITESM Campus Monterrey, Mexico E-mail: [email protected] SUMMARY The purpose of this work is to share the experience using a Poster presentation of projects in System Dynamic (SD). The paper focus in how this didactic resource has been a helpful tool supporting the didactics of SD methodology (process) and at the same time a great resource to share with the students the entire project made by each of the class teams (product).

KEYWORDS

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Poster, systems dynamics, Project Oriented Learning 1. Antecedents Inspired by the poster sessions presented at the International Conference of the System Dynamics Society, at Palermo Italy in 2002, I told to my students that instead of present the typical final exhibition of projects in Power Point (PPT) they should design a poster showing the results of their projects. This would be different since the traditional exhibition in PPT assumed that the students present to the whole group the results of their project, nevertheless, in most of the cases only the professor attended actively this presentation because the students were nervous and reviewing notes of which they were going to expose. Therefore, designing a final presentation in poster would imply, at first, that the students applied their capacity of synthesis to show, in a limited space, the most important findings of its project. Also, it would demand a greater integration of the team since all the students of this team would have to be prepared to explain to the rest of the group under a scheme in which each student of the group had to attend through all posters and to make an evaluation of such in the format provided by the professor. This means that the members of each team would have to coordinate a rotation scheme so that one of them had to present his poster to his classmates while the other members attended the explanations of the rest of the teams. A document with suggestions for the design of the poster was provided to the students, and were mentioned to them that the topics would be due to include, and with this information the team designed his to poster. The carried out activities by the professor in that context were to coordinate the logistics defining the suitable time of explanation for each given the number

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of posters displayed and the number of students. It is important to mention that the course of System Dynamics is centred in the didactic technique of POL (Project Oriented Learning), reason why the project is carried out throughout all the semester. In it the students apply the methodology of system dynamics to construct a simulation model of a problematic situation that is worsening or damaging the system through time. An example of this one is the contamination by non biodegradable products in the ecosystem, such as disposable diapers and batteries, among others. This implies that students must learn the methodology at issue, but also to research about the project topic.

Fig. 1: Dynamic modelling of AIDS epidemic in the south of Africa

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As a professor, I have found out that the most complicated part of the matter is to introduce them to the kind of problems that could be modelled by SD and to the process that would be followed to model them, that is where the Poster comes to satisfy the two dimensions: when exposing to my students posters of previous semesters I can at the same time introduce them to the methodology and the diverse problems that can be modelled by. 2. Methodology As the students already have seen posters previously, it is easy than they can visualize the awaited product. At the presentation day the team places his posters in the walls of the classroom, separated such form that is left space among them so that the students can listen clearly to the explanation without the interference of another team. The professor provides an evaluation form in order to each student co-evaluate the work of the others. Maximum limit of time of exhibition of rounds is established; this time is calculated based on the number of posters to display, the number of students to have to attend to and the time available for the class. The professor must take a rigorous control of the time, and at the same time be evaluating the exhibition that each student is making. The session is closed giving thanks to the students by their effort and dedication, and mentioning that both the process of development of the project and the presentation of findings in a way that capture the audience are important. 3. Results This resource also has opened other doors to present the work of the students in forums and conferences in and outside of our university. An

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example of this is the presentation of 13 poster projects in the XXXIV Conference of Investigation and Extension of the Tecnologico de Monterrey. Fig. 1 and 2 display the posters presented.

Fig. 2: Posters about diverse topics This event was very enriching because, although the students who developed these posters no were longer in my classes during that semester, I could invite the students who were in my classes and I could design a class using the exhibition to show the students the process of modelling and the product reached from each one of the exposed projects. Fig. 3 and 4 show the students in this process.

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Fig. 3: Students in the exhibition of posters 4. Conclusions I do not have quantitative data that allows me to conclude in formal way on the reached results. I have found in the resource of poster a very useful element in didactics since it has allowed that the students develop and reinforce additional abilities besides SD such as synthesis capacity. Additional to this, in these two years using it I had accumulated an inventory of posters that each semester is increasing and that allows me, when I’m displaying them in my classes, introduce to my students at the beginning of each semester to the methodology of system dynamics and at the same time to display the type of projects that can be made. These also demand me being looking for forums in order share with the academic community the projects of my students and somehow, attract them to the investigation.

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Fig. 4: Students filling the report asked for on the poster exhibition

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References Bourguet Diaz Rafael, Perez Salazar Gloria, 2004 Designing a learning community for system dynamics. Memories of XXXIV Conference of Investigation and Extension of Tecnologico de Monterrey. Block, Steven M. 1996, Do´s and dont´s of to poster presentation. Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Biophysical Journal, Vol. 71

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Chapter 27 ACTIVE INDUCTION OF FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHILE Patricio Poblete, William young, Sergio Celis, Rodrigo Palma, Ramón Verdugo, Claudio Foncea, Carlos Gherardelli, Roberto Avilez, Mauricio Ramírez. E-mail : [email protected] SUMMARY Students entering the School of Engineering of the University of Chile received a different welcome this year. One of the main goals of the new induction program was to get new students close to engineering work since day one at school. This was done through a series of experiences, where ingenuity, talent, enthusiasm and team work were the main tools to attain the goals. This was complemented with the orientation about basic processes they should know to find their way around in school. They got to know the school and formed ties with their fellow classmates and with professors. This is a motivation to enjoy the six-year course of study they are beginning KEYWORDS

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First-year induction, active learning, team work 1. A big change In Chile as in many other countries, the change from the protected environment of high school to the university is an abrupt one. This, added to the normal pressures of the end of adolescence often generates feelings of disorientation and anguish. This is not the best environment to develop the full potential of students, and many of them develop feelings of low selfesteem and diminished academic achievements. In the particular case of the School of Engineering of the University of Chile, the curriculum for the first two years is heavily biased towards mathematics and the basic sciences, delaying contact of the students with the engineering disciplines, increasing the lack of motivation of students that are not very keen on these basic subjects. This year, the School organized a controlled activity as a way to welcome new students, aimed at getting new students to know the School and to feel a part of it. This program involved challenging hands-on activities, and to have the full attention of students it was decided that it should be held during the week before classes started. 2. Design of the activity A general theme in the design of this experience was to encourage the creation of ties among students, and the development of skills that would

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help students throughout their years in school. As mentioned before, the curriculum of the school lacks activities that would let students have an early contact with engineering work and their future as engineers. This led to the inclusion in the induction program of several hands-on activities that would help develop their interest in engineering since day one. Another important point in the design was to maintain a ludic environment that would help students remain interested and enthusiastic. Finally, the inclusion of upperyear students as group leaders would improve communication, the creation of ties and increase confidence, by treating these team leaders as peers. In this way, we expected to generate a feeling of belonging to the school, leaving students motivated to participate in its work. One of the key points in the design was how to keep students interested throughout the day. For this, it was decided to include an element of competition in the activities, to encourage enthusiasm and to motivate them to stay until the end of the day. Therefore, each activity carried some number of points that would be added up at the end of a day to determine a winning team that would receive a small price. We also felt that students would approach these activities in a better way if they felt comfortable in their groups. This was made harder by the fact that students arrived without knowing what would happen during the day. Therefore, we allocated some time during the day so they could get to know each other, and a group leader was assigned to guide them through this. Activities actually took part in two days. Because of the large number of students, the first day was replicated three times, each with one third of the students (180 persons, approximately). Students were assigned randomly to groups of 15 persons each. In the second day of activities, the whole contingent of students was gathered for a more traditional orientation, including a tour of the campus, group discussions to get their evaluation of the previous day, and a formal welcoming ceremony by the Dean, ending with an informal lunch. The innovation we introduced is more concentrated in the activities of the first day. They included: • Welcome, explanation of the activities, formation of groups and some time for people in each group to get to know each other (60 minutes). • First Engineering Challenge (90 minutes). • Two team work exercises and one exercise to make students familiar with administrative school procedures (90 minutes). • Lunch (60 minutes). • Choreography (45 minutes). • Final Technological Challenge (150 minutes). 3. Description of the activities All the activities had ingredients that encouraged team work and that tried to make students feel part of the School. They could be classified according to whether their main goal was team work, or contact with engineering work, but we also took some time to make students familiar with school procedures. 3.1. Activities related to school procedures There are many things a new student has to do when he first arrives in a

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campus that are often seen as not very exciting, but necessary. These involve chores like getting their computer account, making themselves familiar with the student services web portal, answering the social services questionnaire, etc. We designed activities that looked as challenges to be faced by the groups that permitted them to gather points in the competition by getting all group members to fulfil these duties. Something that was usually boring became part of a game, and students helped each other in the process. 3.2. Ludic activities to encourage team work Three of the activities focused mostly in trying to encourage students to work in teams, cooperate and communicate, without introducing elements of engineering work. The advantage of making this look like a game, in a protected environment, is that students feel safer to express themselves than in “real life”. Furthermore, the ludic environment foster corporal attitudes and emotions that facilitate participation, creativity and, most importantly, trust. In one of the challenges, called the “spider web”, students face a challenge that can only be overcome by working as a group. Participants have to pass through the openings of a net without touching the strings, and no opening can be used twice. Time pressure and the need of physical support by their team mates force them to develop leadership, rapid and effective coordination and the trust in the support and the physical competence of their peers. In the second challenge, called the “piranha river”, the winning team is the one that is the first to move across a simulated river infested with piranha. Each group is given a limited number of stepping stones (small pieces of wood), always fewer than the number of group members. No one is allowed to touch the ground, and if this happens thay have to start again from the beginning. This forces them to develop a strategy, leadership and trust, to avoid falling off. After lunch, in the early afternoon when people naturally tend to feel less active, they had the “choreography challenge”. Groups were merged temporarily to make teams of some 30 people, and each had 20 minutes to design, practice and finally perform a 2 minute musical choreography, to be judged by a jury, who would assign points to each team. This challenge became one of the happiest of the day, and prepared them for the final and most difficult technological challenge of the day.These games achieved their purpose of encouraging participation and team work, letting students see the effect of trust, cooperation and effective communication when facing different challenges. 3.3. Activities to put students in contact with engineering work. 3.3.1. Civil Engineering Challenges These activities took part in the Laboratory of Solids, Porous Media and Structures. The newcomers, grouped in teams, had to solve “toy” problems representative of real engineering cases, such as building beams of maximum span, water storage structures and reinforced slopes, using elements such as spaghetti, glue and paper. In front of all students and professors, the solutions worked out by each group were experimentally

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evaluated through load tests and seismic effect. Students, with no exception, actively participated not only in the design of the solutions, but also in their construction with surprising motivation, talent and creativity, entirely satisfying the programmed goal. It has to be mentioned that professors in charge of these tests were greatly impressed by the innate talent showed by the new students who reached valid solutions in subjects still technically unknown for them. 3.3.2. Final Technological Challenge This activity was designed to end the work of the day, and its goal was to motivate the students to work in a number of problems related to technology, and in passing to get to know the campus. These were the criteria used to design these activities: • The whole activity should be performed in two to three hours. • The whole set of activities must be replicable three times (because the cohort of students was split in thirds). • Students should be able to work for themselves on the problems, with just a little help from team leaders. • Activities should encourage cooperative work within each group, with an element of competition between groups. • Ideally, activities should involve a number of different technological areas present in the Faculty, and let students become familiar with different labs and facilities. South Hall of the main school building Projectors Projection screens 1

Ramp1

Projection screens 2

Computers

Ramp2

Energy

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Supplies

Decoding a video files

Robots Renewable Energy

Numerical Lab

Renewable resource Lab

Figure 1. scheme of the proposed activities A general scheme of the proposed activities is presented above. The challenge is organized around a number of tasks that must be performed to achieve the final goal, which was to run a multimedia presentation in the South Hall of the main school building. When students succeeded in putting all pieces together, they were able to screen a video of a welcoming message by the Dean. The challenge was to perform all sub-tasks that, when put together, allowed for this screening to happen. The sub-tasks were:

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1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Energy supply, Assembling a computer, Decoding a video file, Robots to transport key element, Robot entrance ramp. Projection screens,

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Energy supply: This involved using electricity generators from a renewable resources lab and transporting this energy to the South Hall to power computers and video projectors. The solar and eolic generators were located in a different building. Students have to use batteries, transformers and wiring to transport electricity across campus. Assembling a computer: This challenge consisted in getting each group to assemble a computer, using pieces found in a box. The computer was to be fully operational, to run the program that would play the video file with the welcoming message by the Dean. Decoding a video file: Students have to use computers from the Numerical Lab to search the web for pieces of a file. To achieve this, they also had to physically visit the Library and learn how to find information there. To enter the Library they had to solve a mathematical puzzle and the file, when found, was encrypted with a key they had to discover. Robots to transport key element: In this part of the challenge, competing groups had to assemble and program LEGO robots. The robots had to climb a ramp and then follow a path that would lead them to the South Hall, carrying some key element to screen the video file.

Figure 2. Robot entrance ramp To construct the robot entrance ramp students had to use carpentry tools and supplies to make the ramps to be used by the robots to climb to the South Hall. Projection screens: Finally, students had to build and hang a big projection screen, and to install the computer and the video projector. The maximum allowed time was 150 minutes. The small teams were merged in two super-teams for this challenge, and sub-groups of each team had to perform the sub-tasks in parallel. In each activity, the professors responsible for them made an introduction, explaining the problems to be solved, that engineering disciplines involved

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and outlining some of the solutions. Points were awarded using the following criteria: • Mission accomplished • Best group for each sub-task • Best overall team 4. Results On the basis of the opinions of the students, gathered through conversations and surveys, we can say that their evaluation was very positive. They valued the opportunity to get to know the school in an informal setting, they were fascinated by the engineering challenges, and at the end had a feeling of being already members of our community. This was the first time we organized this kind of “active induction” for firstyear students, and we have already decided to make it a permanent part of our activities. Other schools are interesting in replicating it with their students. Since this was the first time we had done this, it was also a learning experience for us. As the first day activities were repeated for three thirds in which we divided the cohort, some of them went more smoothly, as we could anticipate the main stumbling blocks the students would encounter. It is remarkable that, even though students had a very demanding set of activities throughout the day, they remained enthusiastic and in good spirits until the end. When evaluating the experience, they valued the team work and the feeling of achievement when they could attain the proposed goals at the end of the day. References Shobrook, S. The role of Pre Entry Practices and Induction Strategies in

relation to Student Retention.

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http://www.hull.ac.uk/engprogress/Prog3Papers/Sarah1.pdf Senger, P. 2003. La Quinta Disciplina.

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Chapter 28 Effectiveness of the Course of Entrepreneurial Development, in the development of the entrepreneurial profile of the student “Analysis of the contribution of the course: Entrepreneurial Development, in the development of the basic characteristics of the profile of the Entrepreneur, of the students of the Tecnologico de Monterrey”

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Rafael E. Alcaraz Rodríguez E-mail: [email protected] SUMMARY The topic “Competences of the entrepreneur” receives great importance due to the transformations that have arisen in these times (globalization, competition, technological development, and many more), it is mandatory to provide an increased development in the capacities and skills of the individuals who are part of the society in order to confront successfully these changes. This study was planned with the intention of determining the specific characteristics that with major emphasis promote the better performance of the entrepreneurs, the levels of entry and exit of the above mentioned characteristics in the process of development of the students across the course of “Entrepreneur’s Development” of the Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico, and it’s effectiveness in the promotion and development of these characteristics. One of the previous aspects in this research is the design of an instrument of evaluation (as by-product of the investigation itself), that allows the measurement of the chosen characteristics of the profile of the entrepreneur, adapted to the cultural peculiarities and of language of the students in Mexico. The obtained results lead to the following conclusions: The designed instrument allows to discriminate and to evaluate the level of some chosen characteristics of the profile of the entrepreneur. The formative process of the course of “Entrepreneurs’ development” seems to favour the development of certain characteristics of the entrepreneurial profile; nevertheless, under the conditions of the study possible tendencies were visualized but without any significant differences statistically. The characteristics of the entrepreneurial profile have a high correlation, for what it becomes indispensable to carry out more analyses that allow to generate a model of behaviour to focus the formative process on the development of the distinctive characteristics of major impact in the profile of the entrepreneur. 1. Introduction The topic “Competences of the entrepreneur” receives great importance due to the transformations that have arisen in these times (globalization, competition, technological development, and many more), it is mandatory to provide an increased development in the capacities and skills of the individuals who are part of the society in order to confront successfully these changes. Nowadays, it is not only necessary to form good professionals,

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academically speaking, but people with basic competences that allow them to be developed as Entrepreneurs, people that include the possibility of contributing with the social and economic growth of their community, at the same time they perform their maximum potential in their professional life. For this reason, it is necessary to develop models that facilitate and promote the development of people with new capacity to undertake businesses, based on innovative creations that truly solve problems, lacks or needs of the population, that support its operation in the development of a clear concept of business, as well as with an adequate planning that permit them to subsist through time. Since 1990, the Tecnológico de Monterrey has decided to include in all its plans of studies a course to favour the promotion, development and consolidation of a series of know-how, abilities, values and attitudes in its students, that contribute to their personal development and professional future, among which was found to be “Entrepreneur”. In this manner, the course was designed “Entrepreneurial Development”. It was adopted as “Seal Course” (mandatory) in every plan of studies and began to be offered in the Institution to all its students of professional level. Even when, the course has been incorporating improvements (redesign, didactic technique, technological platforms, evaluation, documents of support, videos, dynamic and readings), it has not been evaluated in a direct form in terms of its effectiveness to achieve the purpose for which it was designed, to promote and to develop the change of attitude, besides fortifying certain characteristics and capacities that allow the student to visualize the option to be an Entrepreneur, as an opportunity of personal and professional development in their future. The course has been offered since its creation to more than 150,000 students, with the support of a great number of professors and advisors that have developed more than 25,000 projects of business, thanks to which they have established (according to the average reported to level of all the Tecnológico de Monterrey System), more than 2,500 businesses as a direct product of the course before mentioned. On the other hand, it is also reported in monitoring studies to graduates of the Tecnológico de Monterrey, that around 48% of the graduates have established their own business in a not greater period of 15 years after their graduation and 15% more offer their services as independent professionals. Thus same, it is mentioned in the studies that in general, the graduate of the Tecnológico de Monterrey is distinguished for its attitude as an “Entrepreneur”, which is perceived positively by the employers and the people which they develop professionally. Unfortunately the information before mentioned is not sufficient to establish if the course has had a positive effect or is correlated with the results indicated, therefore the only way to determine if the course has effects on the development of the student and contributes to these results, is measuring its impact on certain characteristics of the student, that form part of what is called the Entrepreneurial Profile. 2. Justification Just as was mentioned previously, we are living times of large

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transformations that urgently demand a greater development in the capacities and abilities of the individuals that form part of the society, to confront with success those changes. People with different characteristics are required to contribute to the development of their community. An aggregate value, as well as competences helps them to perform successfully in the environment where they live. On the other hand, the fight against unemployment is a generalized concern, even more with the globalization phenomenon. In a great part of the world in which we inhabit, the leaders are trying to find systems of economic organization that generate sources of jobs, nevertheless, by a various number of factors, the economies have left to create new sources of jobs in the quantity and necessary quality to satisfy all those that have not been able to find a way of subsistence or employment paid, reason by which it is necessary for the individual to develop characteristics that permit not only being capable of performing as an excellent employee, but even like an employer, developing their own sources of job and contributing to the job sources creation for those who are not able to do it. Recent studies indicate that more than 60% of the small businesses created, disappear in its two initial years of activities, mostly in developing countries (Gamboa, 2003). Does it mean that the efforts in matter of economic development and generation of businesses that carry ahead multitude of private and public institutions finish in failure? what is not functioning in these models? In diverse organizations of the company and especially in the universities, develop processes facilitate and promote the development of the Entrepreneurial characteristics, but in general the effectiveness it is not evaluated, except by its demonstration in the creation of new businesses. The present investigation tried to carry out a diagnosis of the formative support processes of the course “Entrepreneurial Development” of the Tecnológico de Monterrey and its effectiveness in the development of the characteristics of the Entrepreneur. This generated a feedback of that course with the consequent benefit for the students, as well as for the professors of the course and the same institution, providing valid information that will allow them to take the corresponding measures to redesign or to enrich the course and to improve its effectiveness. 3. Purpose and Objectives of the study According to the previous objective indicated, the study was planned with purpose of determining various elements and analyze up to now the Entrepreneurial Development Program and particularly the course of Entrepreneurial Development, of the Tecnológico de Monterrey, some of which are: the specific characteristics with greater emphasis that help the performance of the Entrepreneur, the formation’s process of the student through the course before mentioned and therefore the effectiveness of the course in the promotion and development of these characteristics. The design of an instrument of evaluation (as a by-product of the same research), that allows the measurement of the characteristics selected of the profile of the Entrepreneur, appropriate to the cultural particularities and language of students in Mexico. All this, with the purpose to measure the

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effectiveness, since the formative point of view, about the course of Entrepreneurial Development, and the consequent possibility of improve it. Due to all previously mentioned, the objective of the study was defined as: “To determine the effectiveness in the development of the Entrepreneurial characteristics of the student of the Tecnológico de Monterrey, through the formative process of the course of Entrepreneurial Development” Specific objectives: • Determine the characteristics that define the profile of an Entrepreneur. • Identify and/or to develop Entrepreneurial characteristics measurement instruments (inventory that allows to evaluate characteristics). • Determine if there is a change (and in its case the corresponding level), of the Entrepreneurial characteristics through the formation’s process of the course: “Entrepreneurial Development” of the Tecnológico de Monterrey. 4. Methodology The object of study in this research was the Entrepreneurial profile. Identifying which are the personal characteristics that should be considered in the Entrepreneur’s profile, to investigate and find out if it was necessary to design an instrument that allows to evaluate them, make an evaluation of the level (potential) in each characteristic, before entering the model of formation and comparing it with an evaluation at the final of the process; this offers us the opportunity of include the necessary results to verify the efficacy of the Model since the point of view of the Entrepreneurial Development. • Delimitation of the study (geographical Environment, population and period of the study): The geographical environment where the study was located is the Tecnológico de Monterrey System. The System Tec de Monterrey counts with 32 campus where it is given the Entrepreneurial Development (framework which intended to apply the instrument of evaluation). The objection is that the study was intended for the individuals that desired to answer the questionnaire, therefore, of the 2,250 people that approximately register in the matter of Entrepreneurial Development each semester in the System, I alone carried out the study on the sample that in a natural way this population stems from and decided to answer and to send its inventories. The population was composed by degree level students, of the 7o. Semester (third year of the career or fourth year of studies), with ages between the 19 and 22 years old approximately, that are registered as students regulated of the Tecnológico de Monterrey in their diverse campus to level of the System (getting an answer of approximately the 15% of the campus). A constraint of the present work was that the sample could not be determined and to be covered with precision, given that the members of the population in study would answer voluntarily the questionnaire, therefore, we were subject to this disposition, counting finally with approximately the 14% of the students in its initial phase and with the 7% in its final phase (therefore I worked with little more than the 10% on the average).

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The diagnosis is based on a longitudinal study, to be applied, in the case of the students of the course of Entrepreneurial Development, from the beginning and ending of the semester January–May of 2004. • Proposed Hypothesis “The process of formation of the seal course of Entrepreneurial Development of the Tecnológico de Monterrey, allows the promotion and development of certain basic characteristics (there are significant differences between averages of entrance and exit) that conform the profile of an Entrepreneur” • Data harvesting Method (evaluation instrument Application): The instrument was analyzed, designed, validated and applied in two moments (beginning and end) of the process of Entrepreneurial formation established formally in the Tecnológico de Monterrey (Course of Entrepreneurial Development). • Procedure of statistical analysis was carried out by a test (“T” of Student) because it let us determine if the sample of individuals analyzed have equal or different Entrepreneurial characteristics, comparing the beginning and the end, after going through the formative process of the course of Entrepreneurial Development. Thus same, given that in literature the possibility is reported of hard relations among characteristics; Subsequently it intends to carry out a main component factorial analysis, that allows to establish which are the assemblies of characteristics interrelated, to prioritize and to carry out concrete recommendations in terms of their importance in a formative process determined. Subsequently, in a second phase, an analysis will be carried out of regression, to determine a model that allows offering concrete recommendations of characteristics to promote and to support with greater emphasis. 5. Results Once carried out the investigation, the results obtained of the study were the following: 1. The authors consulted coincide in certain characteristics that could be considered the basics for the well performance of an Entrepreneurial Development, by making part of the ideal profile of the same one. Nevertheless, some of them could be correlated or even show direct dependence among them. 2. The instrument designed and evaluated is worth, really allows us to quantify the level of some characteristics of the Entrepreneurial Development, although not all of them can be evaluated. Another revision in the design is required and the corresponding reformulation of the questionnaire to assure its effectiveness in the evaluation of all the characteristics selected. 3. The results of the applications allow to conclude that the formative model analyzed (Course of Entrepreneurial Development), in the sample where the instrument of evaluation (inventory) was applied, and under the private conditions of the study, sample positive tendencies (of improvement), so much of the following characteristics: Creativity, Car-Confidence,

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Perseverance, Capacity to confront the Risk, Capacity to handle Problems, as in the General Profile of the Entrepreneurial Development. Nevertheless, it does not seem to influence in the improvement of the following characteristics: Initiative, Energy and Capacity of Work, Leadership, Need of Achievement and Tolerance al Change. Now well, all of this is to level tendencies, since statistically there is not any significant difference among the characteristics evaluated. 4. It fits to indicate that the characteristics where improvement is not appreciated are the same that the instrument seems not able to differentiate correctly or well the differences between not entrepreneur and entrepreneur individuals. Nevertheless, it should be carried out a new analysis of the instrument given in which the analysis of correlation performed indicates very high correlation among the characteristics evaluated.

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6. Discussion and conclusions In the same way, the investigation was carried out immediately and the results obtained were analyzed, the conclusions to the ones that can arrive are the following: • If the instrument designed allows to discriminate or to evaluate the level of some characteristics selected of the profile of the Entrepreneurial Development. • The formative process of the course of Entrepreneurial Development seems to support the development of certain characteristics of the Entrepreneurial profile; nevertheless, under the conditions of the study, possible tendencies were visualized, without determining significant differentiates statistically. • The characteristics of the Entrepreneurial profile have a high correlation, for which is indispensable to carry out a complete analysis that allows generating a model of behaviour been worth focusing in the formative process to the development of the distinctive characteristics for a greater impact in the profile of the Entrepreneur. 7. Capitalization The seal course “Entrepreneurial Development” seems to have a positive effect on the promotion and consolidation of some characteristics that undertake the students to pass this course, therefore, the implementation of the course offers us the opportunity to review some of our perceptions on the phenomenon of teaching-learning of the undertaking and to observe the effect of the formative process on the development of happiness characteristics. To know the results of this process, allow us to sit down the bases and to identify the areas of opportunity in this sense, so we can be congruent in our styles of teaching and didactic techniques applied, seeking a better formative effect in our students to be produced. Nevertheless, in spite of what was previously indicated, is indispensable to continue evaluating the effect of the course and to determine the characteristic of the Entrepreneurial profile that are better developed and/or fortified through their corresponding strategic didactic, to assure their formative effect in the students that took the course. Likewise, it is important to define what effect

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has on the student in its future as Entrepreneur (performance), for which serious convenient to establish an evaluation like this, but in line with the success indicators evaluation of the person and the corresponding correlation between these and the Entrepreneurial characteristics developed.

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Several concrete actions are recommended to try to capitalize the results of this study: Redesign and evaluate the instrument (inventory) to improve the weak points detected and indicated along this work. • Apply this study on a greater number of students to verify the validity of the results obtained and to carry out some other decisions that would be able to be generated from the study (being able to establish thus comparisons but clearly even by generate, geographical zone, cultural bosses of the participants, programs of studies, ages, semester in which the course is recorded, etc.) • Generate a program of improvement of the course that allows capitalizing the results of this and other subsequent investigations that have been carried out because of the results obtained in the present study.

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Chapter 29 ACTIVE LEARNING THROUGH INSPECTION Tim HEYER, Albin ZUCCATO Karlstad University, Sweden E-mail : [email protected], [email protected] SUMMARY

We present how we prepare students to become better engineers by using an active learning approach in a third year software engineering course given at Karlstad University. We use inspection as a teaching and examination aid. Inspection is a widely used method to verify various software documents. KEYWORDS

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Inspection, variation, student empowerment.

1. Background For decades engineering education consisted of teaching detailed knowledge of disciplines in a top-down manner. Disadvantages of this approach are that the students (1) tend to learn to pass the exams rather than to understand and (2) even if the students learn to understand they often are not able to apply and evaluate their knowledge in a broader context (see e.g. (CDIO)). We want to use active learning (see e.g. (Ciaccia)) techniques to engage the students in higher (i.e., analysis, synthesis, and evaluation) and holistic thinking. Our final goal is to better prepare the students for their professional life as engineers. (Bowden and Marton) point out that variation and “real world” experience are key success factors for higher education learning. This is to prepare the students for the yet unknown challenges they will face in their daily work after leaving the university. For us this means that both factors also need to be part of the examination. However, this combination is difficult to achieve with traditional, written examination forms. From our point of view, especially the variation should not only be an implicit part of the examination but should be made visible to the students. (Ramsden) argues that students’ motivation is crucial for their success and that the motivation can be increased by explicitly defined goals. For us this means that the students’ perception of variation needs to be an explicit part of the examination. 2. Our approach Different approaches are possible for preparing students for future tasks. Our approach is basically as follows. For each aspect of software engineering we want the students to learn, we developed an exercise and let:

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1. each pair of students solve the exercise, 2. each pair of students individually inspect another pair’s solution with the help of a tailored checklist, and 3. two pairs (which inspected each other) and a teacher meet to discuss their solutions. We see several advantages with this active learning approach. 1. We are able to show variation as the students see other solutions to a problem they know. Being able to see variations and to focus on the critical factors of a situation should make the students better engineers. 2. By careful selection of exercises and by using inspection (inspection is the in industry widely used visual examination of software documents as introduced by (Fagan)), we achieve a “real world” connection. 3. The inspection meetings are used to assess the solutions as well the individual inspections. Hence the students are empowered as they participate in the examination assessment where they usually do not have much influence over. This view supported e.g. by (Shulman and Luechauer). The idea to use inspection in software engineering courses is not new. However, most of the courses which use inspection are aimed especially towards quality assurance (see e.g. (Wilson and Johnson)) and/or software verification (see e.g. (Shepard) and (Collofello)). Our goal is to apply inspection to get the students involved in their learning and to engage them in higher and holistic thinking. Another difference is the inspected material. (Shepard) claims that only source code can/should be used for inspections by students. (Collofello) proposes to let students not only inspect source code but also some intermediary software documents. However, he argues that only pre-designed documents should be reviewed. We believe that this limits the real world connection and we therefore use all types of documents produced by the students as part of an exercise. For example, the third time the course was given some exercises consisted of describing different development models or discussing advantages and disadvantages of specific techniques or methods. 3. Results So far the course has been given three times (in 2002, 2003, and 2004). Each time the course was given we changed the teaching and examination forms corresponding to our observations and the students’ feedback. At the end of each course we distributed and collected a questionnaire. Filling out the questionnaire is voluntary and anonymous. In average the return rate was 66 % (the average number of participants was 47). 3.1 First run (2002) The first time we used an approach similar to the approach described in Sect. 2 for around a third of the course content (the inspection meetings included only the inspecting group). The process the students had to follow started with an exercise to perform. The students had to meet a deadline when to deliver their solutions by email. The compliance with the deadline was crucial for the success of the inspection approach because we intended

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to redistribute all solutions for their inspection in parallel. To encourage the students to deliver inspect able solutions in time, we awarded bonus points for the final written exam. After the deadline the teacher briefly checked if the documents were suitable for inspection. If they were not, then the documents were returned to the authors. Otherwise the documents were, by email, randomly redistributed for inspection. To inspect the documents the student groups were equipped with a checklist appropriate for the documents at hand. The checklists emphasized what type of information the documents were supposed to contain. Additional questions concerned understandability and ambiguity of the information. The students had to inspect the documents individually (which was verified in the inspection meeting as they had to bring their notes). Afterwards, each student group met with a teacher to discuss their findings. These inspection meetings were scheduled for half an hour and the students made appointments with the teachers. The checklists were evaluated and shortcomings of the solutions were discussed. The students were asked to assign a severity (one of three levels from severe to negligible) for each problem found and if they considered the solution to be sufficient. Student groups that delivered solutions which the inspecting group and the teacher considered sufficient passed the exercise. At the end of the meeting the students were reminded to hand in an inspection report summarizing their findings. 3.1.1 Experiences The questionnaire contained questions regarding the use of inspection. The students were asked what they considered the most positive and most negative aspects with the administration, the individual inspection, the inspection meeting and the inspection report. We explicitly asked for comments on the administration hoping to be able to exclude administrative issues from the students’ answers regarding the key elements. The students’ impression of the administration of the exercises was rather negative. In particular booking the inspection meetings and exchanging solutions and reports with other groups were perceived as difficult. Many groups complained that they received the inspection reports very late or not at all. In general, the dependencies between the different groups resulted in delays making it difficult to stay within the deadlines. The students also experienced difficulties in using email. Some emails containing large attachments got delayed or disappeared completely. The individual inspection was much appreciated by the students. Trying to understand the solutions of other student groups was perceived very interesting and enlightening as it provided a second view on the problem (“one develops new ideas and perceives alternative solutions”). A few students found it difficult to apply the checklist used to inspect the documents. Discussing the solution of another student group together with a teacher in an inspection meeting was considered very useful by the students. Some students explicitly mentioned the broadening effect of the third view represented by the teacher (“good to discuss different solutions

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with an ‘external’ party”, “one learned a lot from the teacher, things one did not think of”). Moreover, the opportunity to meet with the teacher in a small group was experienced as beneficial (“good to get an opportunity to discuss different solutions with the teacher in a small group”). The students considered the inspection report as welcome feedback. The teachers’ observations corresponded with the students’ observations. Individual inspections, inspection meetings, and inspection reports worked well and appeared to support the goals set up for them. The administration on the other hand did not work well. Coordinating all the inspection meetings and solution and report exchanges was more difficult than we expected. In particular, firstly collecting all documents after each deadline and then distributing them simultaneously created problems.

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3.1.2 Discussion Both the students’ and teachers’ observations indicate that inspection indeed helps students to see variations in the problem at hand. Instead of a single view the students are confronted with at least two other interpretations. However, difficulties in the communication with teachers and other students draw the attention from the content of inspection towards its administration. We decided to move the responsibility of the distribution of the solutions and reports from the teachers to the students. At the same time we moved from email to paper. We expected it to be easier for one student to control the whereabouts of one folder than for the teachers to control the whereabouts of all documents. This approach gives the students a more active roll in the education. To overcome delays, we decided to apply a dynamic assignment of student groups to each other (i.e. the first two groups to finish an exercise inspect each others’ documents, then the next two groups and so on). Finally, to ensure that each student group actually receives feedback on their solution, we agreed to include both the inspecting and inspected group in the inspection meeting, and changed the deadline to include the exchange of the inspection report. 3.2 Second run (2003) The second time we used the approach described in Sect. 2 for around a third of the course content. To move the more responsibility towards the students and to get rid of the email dependency, we required one folder per student containing control slips for each exercise. For each exercise the students had to put the specification of the exercise, the documentation, and the solution into their individual folder. As next step, the students had to arrange the inspection meeting. For this purpose the students had to sign in on a “rendezvous list” (provided by us) which had two columns and many rows. The first group to finish its exercise signed in on the left column, first row. The second group signed in on the right column, first row. The third group signed in on the left column, second row. The fourth group signed in on the right column, second row. This continued as more and more groups finished the exercise. As soon as two

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groups had signed in on one row, they proceeded by inspecting each others’ documents. To provide more opportunities to see variation, we required that no two groups ever paired more than once. After the registration on the “rendezvous list” each pair of groups contacted each other and exchanged the folders. At this occasion also a brief review, concerning the suitability for inspection, was conducted by the inspecting group respectively. The students were supposed to refuse incomplete solutions. If the solutions were acceptable, each student performed the individual inspection. When finished, the four students were supposed to sign up for an inspection meeting. At the meeting both groups discussed their findings together with a teacher. At the beginning of the meeting the groups were reminded by the teacher that only constructive critique is allowed, i.e. that they should avoid to fall into an attacker versus defender pattern. Each group had then 20 minutes to present their individual inspection results and to discuss the exercise with the teacher. Altogether, this led to 45-minute inspection meetings because of a 5-minute overhead due to the introduction and break when the two groups changed their roles. At the end of the meetings the students were reminded that they have to prepare an inspection report following a given template. Four copies of the inspection report needed to be provided — one for each of the participating students. To receive the bonus points, the complete folder had to be delivered to the teacher before the deadline. Opposed to the first time the course was given, this time the deadline comprised both the solution and the inspection report. To award credit the teacher checked for each exercise if the folder contained a specification, a solution, and two inspection reports. If the content of the folder was not considered appropriate a correction was required and handled, as the previous time, solely by the teacher. 3.2.1 Experiences The questionnaire we used was the same as before and concerned the administration, the individual inspection, the inspection meeting, and the inspection report. Regarding the administration, a few students complained that finding time where both groups and the teacher could meet was difficult. The students’ and teachers’ opinions concerning the individual inspection and the inspection meeting were basically identical to the ones of the previous year. The students found it very rewarding to try to understand other groups’ reasoning (“nice to get insight into other students’ thinking”, “learned a lot”, “good with real contact and feedback”). The students’ view on the inspection report was diverse. Some students enjoyed ordering their thoughts while writing it whereas other students found it meaningless since both groups participated in the inspection meeting anyway (“don’t know how much it contributed; the meeting contributed most”). 3.2.2 Discussion It seems that the administration worked much better than the previous time. Only a few students and none of the teachers regarded the document

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exchange and appointment booking problematic. The individual inspection and the inspection meeting were perceived as very valuable by both the students and the teachers. For subsequent occasions, we intended to apply our approach to a larger part of the course content. Moreover, we planned to improve the checklist to address the concerns expressed by a few students the first time the course was given.

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3.3 Third run (2004) The first two times, we used the approach outlined above only for around a third of the course content. The third time the course was given we used the approach for around three-fourth of the content (and reduced the amount of traditional lectures accordingly). The process was mostly the same as the previous year. We removed the inspection report and the bonus points, though. The inspection report was removed because we did not consider it to contribute enough to the students learning with respect to the overhead it created. The bonus points were removed because the final written exam now only covers a very small and specific part of the course content and we wanted all students to learn that part. Moreover, we rewrote the course plan (every course is accompanied by a course plan describing the level, goals, content, prerequisites et cetera). The course consisted to a large extent of unsupervised (individual and group) work. To ease the unsupervised work, we defined the course goals much more precise using Blooms taxonomy (Bloom). 3.3.1 Experiences We developed a new questionnaire to reflect the changes to the course. Many of the questions concerned the workload. The students usually follow more than one course at a time. To prevent interference between the courses each course has a defined average workload and we wanted to verify that we kept within the margins (and we did). Other questions concerned the understandability and ambiguity of the course goal description (the description seemed satisfactory). With respect to the learning experience, the students’ and teachers’ experiences are almost identical to previous years. Most students appreciated the layout of the course (“I think the course is very good. I like the structure. (…) If you participate, you will learn what you should learn.”). A few students complained that their result seemed to be dependent on other students performance (“it is not a good layout that you are assessed according to something that is dependent on somebody else’s work.”). From our point of view this risk is very small, since both the inspection protocol and the inspected report are available to the teachers. 3.2.2 Discussion Since most students and teachers were satisfied with the course layout we used in 2004, we do not plan any further changes in the process. However, some students intentionally chose the same partner in several exercises. This went undetected for some time because different exercises were managed by different teachers. The disadvantage is that those

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students experienced less variation than we intended. For next year we plan to use a web tool for managing the “rendezvous list” and the appointment booking. This web tool will enforce our rules.

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4. Final Conclusions Our intention was to better prepare the students for their professional life as software engineers by engaging the students in higher and holistic thinking. To reach our goal we decided to make the student more involved in what they learn and how they learn, i.e. we decided to use an active learning approach. We let the students become aware of variation in the problems they encounter by using inspection. The variation in the situations is reflected in the different solutions the students developed. Being able to see variation and to focus on critical factors better prepares the students for future and yet unknown situations (see (Bowden and Marton)). This point of view is supported by our students. Discussing the solution of another student group together with a teacher in an inspection meeting was considered very useful. Some students explicitly mentioned the broadening effect of the third view represented by the teacher. Moreover, the opportunity to meet and discuss with the teacher in a small group was experienced as beneficial. References CDIO, visited Mar. 2005, The CDIO Initiative, www.cdio.org Ciaccia, J. 2004, Totally Positive Teaching: a five-stage approach to energizing students and teachers. ASCD. Bowden, J.and F. Marton, 1998, The University of learning: beyond quality and competence in higher education. Kogan Page. Collofello, J. S. Feb. 1987, “Teaching technical reviews in a one-semester software engineering course,” SIGCSE Bulletin, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 222–227. Fagan, M. E. 1976, “Design and code inspections to reduce errors in program development,” IBM Systems Journal, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 182–211. Ramsden, P. 1992., Learning to teach in higher education. Routledge Falmer Shepard, T. 1995, “On teaching software verification and validation,” in Proceedings Conference on Software Engineering Education (CSEE 1995). Springer-Verlag, pp. 375–385. Shulman, G. M.and D. L. Luechauer, 1991, “Creating empowered learners: Merging content and process,” in Annual Lilly Conference on College teaching. Wilson, D. and C. S. Johnson, 1994, “Education of quality and quality of education: an Australian experience” in Proceedings Conference on Software Quality Management (SQM 1994), pp. 589–600. Bloom, B. S. 1956, “Taxonomy of educational objectives; the classification of educational goals”. Longmans, Green.

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