Search

Engineering studies are mainly based on problem-solving and computer skills teaching. As a result, all students are ICT literate, but are not familiar enough with academic values, process of information communication and use of information resources. One way to solve this problem could be to provide cross-curricular course with that content. An example of possible course could be an academic and information literacy course “Research, Publications and Responsibility in Science” at University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing for the graduate students. The aim of this paper is to present functionality of the components of the syllabus for engineering students through mandatory forms of literacy. The paper will present syllabus outline and describe examination model based on simulation of writing and submitting a scientific paper. Test results will be analyzed to prove the efficiency of such examination method, particularly as a long-term model for teaching academic and information literacy.

This paper presents a simplified model of the population migration problem, addressed to first-year engineering students in order to show them the use of linear algebra tools. The study consists of predicting the census in the city centre and in the suburbs, determining the city population equilibrium point, and making a sociological interpretation of population flows. This practical problem is part of the seminar “Applications of Linear Algebra in Engineering”, which is being held at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya-BarcelonaTech (UPC). This seminar consists in the learning of linear algebra by the implementation of real applications where mathematical tools are required to resolve them. This paper presents an application of linear algebra to the population migration problem and analyses students’ appreciation through anonymous surveys and personal interviews. The surveys assessed students’ motivation towards the subject of linear algebra and their learning of mathematical concepts. Personal interviews were conducted for students in order to let them express in detail their opinion about the seminar. The results confirm that the introduction of real applications in the learning of mathematics increases students’ motivation and involvement, which implies an improvement in students’ performance in the first courses of STEM degrees. Peer Reviewed Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::4 - Educació de Qualitat

This study uses phenomenographic research methodologies to identify qualitatively different ways engineering and architecture students conceptualize design creation; it seeks to discover if and how their conceptualizations of design creation relate to their conceptualizations of knowledge generation. This work extends prior research by King and Kitchener (1994) and others (Baxter Magolda, 1992; Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule, 1986; Hofer & Pintrich, 2002; Perry, 1970) about the ways students develop increasingly sophisticated ways of: understanding and conceptualizing knowledge; sources of truth; how to evaluate various opinions and points-of-view; and ways to assess truthfulness and validity of new ideas. This project stems from the proposition that this development process manifests itself somewhat differently in fields that deal with physical sciences than in those grounded in the social sciences—the realm where these theories were established and defined. King and Kitchener (1994) have shown that conceptualizations of knowledge vary from one field to the next, yet little if any work has been done to assess and compare patterns of conceptualizations in the fields of architecture and engineering. Many national regulatory boards urge engineering to change its educational practices to elicit high levels of student engagement and self-directed learning, and achieve outputs more like those associated with architectural education. An extensive report by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (Boyer and Mitgang, 1996) was conducted on behalf of the five organizations regulating the education and practice of architecture in the USA. That report described very high levels of student learning and engagement and recommended that the methods used to teach architecture be transferred for use in more fields. The current study provides additional understanding of this topic, identifying the various concepts that architecture students hold about knowledge and design as well as how these conceptualizations are both similar and different to engineering students’ conceptualizations. An outcome of this study is increased understanding about aspects of the learning experience and the learning environment that capture students’ attention and elicit their engagement. With this knowledge, educators can do more to encourage reflection, exploration, and self-directed learning among students. This is a work in progress, and the first phase has been a pilot study. This paper reports results of the pilot as well as the context, rationale, and design of the overall study. The pilot was the first step in a study seeking to provide new understandings: (1) spanning multiple professions; (2) identifying the various concepts that architecture and engineering students hold about the generation of new designs; and (3) describing how these conceptualizations compare within and between fields. The second phase will use phenomenographic methodologies to identify qualitatively different ways engineering and architecture students conceptualize knowledge and design. To date, the study has been designed and has gained approval to proceed from our ethics review board. Three pilot interviews have been conducted and these have been used to adjust the research design and widen the parameters for the sample group. The research team secured ethics approval for the proposed changes. This paper describes the overall design of the study and what was learned from the pilot interviews.

Spatial abilities are recognized as one of the main factors for success in technical (STEM) professions, especially in the field of architecture and civil engineering. Given that this kind of competence is not paid enough attention to in the early stages of education, students arriving at technical faculties have difficulties in mastering the subject of Descriptive geometry and solving spatial problems in general. There are different opinions on whether these abilities are inborn, if they could be improved and if they could, in what way. In this paper, the relation between spatial abilities and the subject of Descriptive geometry at the University of Banja Luka will be examined. The study involved 175 first-year students of the Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy (FACEG) who took a spatial ability test before and after attending the course. The results of the tests were then compared in order to determine whether their spatial abilities were improved and, if so, whether the mastering the course had an impact on it. The results showed significant difference among those three professions. The spatial ability test used in the research was customized for this purpose and will be described in the paper.

Problem. As engineering is a vast area of study in the world and English is a recognized language of international communication, knowledge of English is compulsory. Besides, we live in the digital age and English is the only language in latest version applications, installation guides and software instructions. Learning for students of engineering from not English-speaking countries is very important not only for their scholastic life, but also for their prospective career, mobility and successful communication. Goal. The goal of the work is to determine the features of teaching English to the students of electrical engineering, specify the role of English language for engineering students, outline the technique and methods of organizing the teaching process, look into innovative technologies of teaching. Methodology. The methodology is based on the analysis of the existing methods of teaching which are many, comparison of classical and innovative methods and analysis of the strategies of different methods. The paper emphasizes creative approach in teaching as a key to success. Results. The work provides a brief theoretical grounding and a working definition for creativity and motivation in teaching English for Specific Purposes and English as a Foreign language. It also explores the role and function of creativity in the context of the changing paradigm regarding the overall scope of the educational system in general and of the language learning in particular. Originality. The work offers combining creative methods and active strategies in fostering better language acquisition during English classes. When we see that the students are involved and motivated, it means that the strategy works. The teacher-oriented method is not currently welcomed in language teaching, and the ways to make it student-oriented are offered in the work. Practical value. The paper contains some practical advice on how a teacher can create more situations in which students can contribute, initiate, control and create. Keeping in mind the dependence of the learning success on creativity of teachers and motivation of students, new innovative methods of teaching in proper combination with theory of language can be used., Проблема. Зважаючи на те, що електротехніка та електромеханіка є величезною областю знань у світі, а англійська мова є визнаною мовою міжнародного спілкування, знання англійської мови є обов'язковим. Крім того, ми живемо у цифровому віці, а англійська мова є єдиною мовою в останніх версіях додатків, інструкцій та програмного забезпечення. Навчання для студентів-інженерів не англомовних країн дуже важливо не тільки для їх навчального життя, а й для перспективної кар'єри, мобільності та успішного спілкування. Мета. Метою роботи є визначення особливостей викладання англійської мови для студентів інженерних спеціальностей, окреслення техніки та методики організації навчального процесу, аналіз інноваційних технологій навчання. Методологія. Методологія ґрунтується на аналізі існуючих методів навчання, яких багато, порівнянні класичних та інноваційних методів, аналізі стратегії різних методів. У статті підкреслюється важливість креативного підходу до навчання як ключа до успіху. Результати. У роботі надається коротке теоретичне обґрунтування та робоче визначення творчості та мотивації у викладанні англійської мови для конкретних цілей та англійської мови як іноземної мови. У роботі також досліджується роль творчості в контексті змінної парадигми щодо загальної сфери освітньої системи в цілому та вивчення мови зокрема. Оригінальність. У статті пропонується поєднання творчих методів та активних стратегій у створенні кращий умов оволодіння мовою під час занять з англійської мови. Коли ми бачимо, що студенти залучені та мотивовані, це означає, що стратегія працює. Метод, орієнтований на викладача, наразі не вітається у вивченні мови, актуальним є спроба зробити навчання орієнтованим на студента. Практичне значення. Стаття містить деякі практичні поради щодо того, як викладач може створити більше ситуацій, в яких студенти можуть сприяти, ініціювати, контролювати та створювати. Успіх навчання залежить від творчості викладачів та мотивації студентів, це дозволяє знайти нові інноваційні методи викладання в належному поєднанні з теорією мови.

Denne artikkelen diskuterer hva ingeniørstudenter gjør når de lærer lineær algebra. Arbeidet inngår i et pågående forskningsprosjekt om læring, og grunnlagsdataene for artikkelen ble samlet inn ved at studentene besvarte et obligatorisk spørreskjema der spørsmålet om hva de gjør når de lærer lineær algebra, ble stilt som et åpent spørsmål. Dataene representerer derfor studentenes egne ord om hva de gjør, og svarene er analysert med bruk av tematisk analyse. Resultatene er gitt i form av fremkomne temaer med tilhørende koder og er eksemplifisert for å vise hva studentene vektlegger og hvilke sammenhenger som finnes mellom aktivitetene. Resultatene gir en systematisk informasjon om ingeniørstudentenes aktiviteter i læringsprosessen, noe som kan være til hjelp i utviklingen av undervisningen i lineær algebra spesielt og i matematikk generelt. This paper discusses what engineering students do when learning linear algebra. It is part of an ongoing research project on learning, and the data for the paper has been collected as students responded to a compulsory questionnaire, asking what they do when they learn linear algebra as an open question. The data therefore represent the students’ own words about what they do, and the answers are analysed using thematic analysis. The results show the emerging themes with associated codes, and examples are provided to show what students emphasise when they learn and which connections there may be between activities. The results provides information about which activities engineering students consider important in the learning process, which can be of help when developing the teaching style for linear algebra in particular and mathematics in general.

Purpose Project management skills are important for today’s engineers, as they get involved in various project-based employment roles. The purpose of this paper is to discuss a learning model to provide project management knowledge through scaffolding and project-based learning (PjBL) methods in the project engineering course. Design/methodology/approach This paper discusses a generic learning model that includes how scaffolding and project-based methods are integrated to provide project management skills to the students. The paper uses the survey method to collect and analyze data on the applicability of the model. Findings Statistical analysis of the collected data shows that the respondents positively perceive the value of the learning model to gain project management knowledge and skills. The response shows that the model is useful not only to the current students but also the graduates who use project management skills in their employment. Practical implications The learning model can be used by the instructors to provide project management skills to undergraduate and graduate students from all education disciplines. Originality/value This paper focuses on the development of a unique learning model, and artifacts used by the students and the instructors for interactive learning and gaining skills on project management.

It is unquestionable the role of entrepreneurship as a driver of innovation and economic development. The world is dynamically changing and intensively interconnected carrying new challenges and opportunities to the new generation of engineers working in a world where innovation will continue to evolve very quickly. This paper addresses the need to train engineering students to be entrepreneurial engineers considering the global challenges and the role that higher education institutions should play in developing an entrepreneurial mindset among engineering students. The paper presents and discusses the results of a survey carried out in a Portuguese engineering school with the goal of investigate students’ entrepreneurial mindsets. The main objective is to understand the extent by which entrepreneurship is addressed in students’ engineering programs as well as students’ perceptions of their entrepreneurial related skills and the reasons that would lead the students to start or not start a business as well as their perception of the ability to immediately start a business. The results of the study are critically analysed in light of the challenges and opportunities facing future engineers. The work, although limited to a specific context is a valuable starting point for additional research and for the implementation of faculty strategies to improve entrepreneurship education.

[EN] A practical intervention was devised in order to promote and to assess Critical Thinking in undergraduate students of Engineering. First, in collaboration with specialists in education, the concept of Critical Thinking, and its skills and dispositions on which to focus on, was determined. Second, a teaching strategy was designed in order to be as effective as possible, considering the limitations of the intervention. This strategy took advantage of the computer lab sessions where discussion and questioning encouraged the development of Critical Thinking. Then, the instruments to assess the acquired skills and attitudes of the students were developed. Finally, a quantitative analysis of the results was conducted in order to evaluate the validity and reliability of the strategy. This paper presents a full description of the intervention carried on for two years. Besides the desired effects on the students performance, some conclusions regarding the development of appropriate instruments to deal with a large group of students are drawn. This intervention has proven to be effective in order to help the students to develop their Critical Thinking skills, and it is particularly suitable for large groups., This research was funded by the Universitat Politècnica de València through the project PIME/2018/DPTO. IMM.

This paper analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the student's academic performance in the School of Engineering at Universidad Nacional de Colombia - Bogota Campus. The impact is assessed from a quantitative approach based on (i) student's grades, (ii) student's progress in their curriculum and (iii) dropped courses. In addition, results from a faculty survey (qualitative approach) are presented to expand some explanatory perspectives on the main academic changes during the pandemic. Results show a significant increase in the average numerical grade as well as in the probability of a course being dropped during the pandemic conditions. Furthermore, the student's average curriculum progress per semester grew approximately 18%. A differentiated academic impact, depending on sex and family income was observed which may be included in future post-pandemic programs. The survey reflects a new faculty's perspective on evaluation tools and methodologies. Resumen Este artículo analiza el impacto de la pandemia del COVID-19 en el desempeño académico de los estudiantes de la Facultad de Ingeniería de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia - Sede Bogotá. El impacto es evaluado mediante análisis cuantitativo basado en (i) calificaciones de los estudiantes (ii), avance del plan de estudios, (iii) cursos cancelados. El análisis es complementado con una encuesta a profesores (aproximación cualitativa) para analizar algunas percepciones explicativas de los cambios académicos más relevantes durante la pandemia. Los resultados muestran un incremento significativo en el promedio de calificaciones numéricas de las asignaturas y en la probabilidad de cancelación de cursos durante la pandemia. El avance curricular semestral, promedio, de los estudiantes, creció 18% aproximadamente. Los impactos fueron diferenciados por sexo e ingresos familiares y pueden tenerse en cuenta para diseñar programas futuros. La encuesta refleja nuevas percepciones adoptadas por los profesores en torno a herramientas y metodologías de evaluación.

A major subset of teaching English as a second or foreign language, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) refers to the teaching of English with specific academic or professional needs in mind. For a number of professions, general English classes cannot properly equip students with the technical language and communication skills required to function in the work environment. Many non-philological faculties in Croatia have therefore incorporated specialised English language courses into their curricula. As students are one of the main stakeholders in an ESP programme, more research is needed to understand their perspectives. The purpose of this paper was to investigate needs and attitudes toward ESP among first-year students enrolled at the Faculty of Mining, Geology, and Petroleum Engineering, University of Zagreb. The study also aimed to determine whether there is a connection between student attitudes and achievement, motivated by the fact that students display low interest and effort in their language classes. Instruments used were a short questionnaire containing basic demographic questions and items for language self-evaluation, followed by a semi-structured interview. The findings showed that students are aware of the importance of English in their field and generally have positive attitudes toward the English language and the ESP course, but some changes would be beneficial in order to fully meet their needs. Značajna grana poučavanja engleskog kao drugog ili stranog jezika, engleski za posebne namjene (ESP) odnosi se na učenje engleskog jezika za određene akademske ili profesionalne potrebe. Za niz zanimanja, nastava općeg engleskog ne može u potpunosti opremiti studente tehničkim jezikom i komunikacijskim vještinama potrebnim za funkcioniranje u radnom okruženju. Mnogi nefilološki fakulteti u Hrvatskoj stoga su u svoje nastavne planove i programe uključili specijalizirane tečajeve engleskog jezika. Budući da su studenti jedni od glavnih dionika u ESP programu, potrebno je više istraživanja kako bi se razumjela njihova perspektiva. Svrha ovog rada bila je istražiti potrebe i stavove prema ESP-u među studentima prve godine Rudarsko-geološko-naftnog fakulteta Sveučilišta u Zagrebu. Istraživanje je također imalo za cilj utvrditi postoji li veza između stavova polaznika i njihovih postignuća, potaknuto činjenicom da studenti pokazuju nizak interes i trud na nastavi jezika. Korišteni instrumenti bili su kratki upitnik koji je sadržavao osnovna demografska pitanja i stavke za jezičnu samoevaluaciju, nakon čega je slijedio polustrukturirani intervju. Rezultati su pokazali da su studenti svjesni važnosti engleskog jezika u svojoj struci te imaju pretežno pozitivne stavove prema engleskom jeziku i kolegiju ESP-a, no određene promjene bile bi korisne kako bi se u potpunosti zadovoljile njihove potrebe.

The paper demonstrates the results of the experimental research conducted during the first semester of the academic year 2020/21, including the remote learning period due to the Covid19 pandemic situation, at the lessons of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) (with students of Specialties 208 “Agrarian Engineering” and 141 “Electrical Engineering and Energy”) at the State Agrarian and Engineering University in Podilia, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine. The research basically analyses how TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) Talks impact university students’ listening comprehension and speaking skills. Online study support for ESP was personally created by the educators as a four-credit course due to ECTS in the Moodle Learning Management System (LMS) with the application of TED Talks, which was used for study purposes on the B1 level. The research sample is represented by 50 students majoring in Agrarian Engineering and 50 students majoring in Electrical Engineering and Energy, all of them enrolled in the mandatory subject of ESP. The subjects (students) were divided into the experimental and control groups. At the beginning of the course, the students wrote the pre-test, for their start level to be evaluated, and at the end of the semester - the post-test was done to check the achievements and probable benefits of TED Talks. The experiment results demonstrated the improvement of both groups while it was proved statistically that the experimental group showed better outcomes both in listening comprehension and speaking skills respectively. The questionnaires, distributed among the students, consisted of 5 questions, where they expressed their personal opinions about the e-learning process, and according to which the TED Talks influence on their listening and speaking skills was evaluated. The feedback of the questionnaires proved that the students mostly had a positive attitude concerning engaging TED Talks into the learning process, especially those who were involved in the experiment.

The University of Nottingham (UoN) recently established its own CubeSat programme, with the team commencing design, construction and testing of the first CubeSats in late 2020. However, one major challenge encountered was a common lack of practical applied electronics skills amongst students. This was repeatedly noted by students as a major obstacle to project success in progress reviews for WormSail, our first CubeSat project. Notably, these sorts of skills are also an area of common concern for young workers and employers in the UK Space Sector. This skill gap existed despite the student team coming from a variety of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) undergraduate backgrounds, including physics, computer science, and aerospace and mechanical engineering. With insufficient time to recruit students with electronic engineering backgrounds, it proved difficult to find "all-rounders" to join the team with the broad range of skills required for the project. One advantage that several students had however was their experience from informal hobbies involving Arduino and Raspberry Pi (RPi) based microcontroller electronics. These were found to endow highly transferrable skills, with these members providing significant contributions to the team through their skills and teaching. Team members found these so useful, that the “FlatSat” programme was set up to provide electronics teaching resources for new members of the CubeSat team. Sessions within the programme could be planned and delivered by the experienced team members, and hence be targeted to include applicable, referrable, and important skills and knowledge for building CubeSats. Through developing these resources, the team realised it may be beneficial to include this programme in taught modules offered in the Faculty of Engineering, to enhance practical skills for all students enrolled in these modules. This paper is intended to overview the work carried out in developing the FlatSat teaching workshop, and highlight the resources and their benefits to groups including other higher education space module conveners, developing CubeSat teams, School and further education teachers, STEM Outreach Coordinators, and general hobbyists. It is hoped that boosting confidence with such in-demand skills will be of great benefit to learners. We will also review case studies of the first large-scale workshop sessions and outline plans for future developments, particularly taking into consideration the feedback of demonstrators, students, and observers to the workshop.

A strong connection between research and teaching at a university is crucial to offer students a unique opportunity to put in practice the concepts taught in theoretical lectures. At the University of Stuttgart, several hands-on training courses have been offered for eight years within the module “Selected hands-on training for space”. Those are adapted to the current research at the Institute of Space Systems. During one semester, students participate in two of the offered courses and are evaluated through an exam or a report. Three ECTS for the space specialization in the aerospace engineering Master are granted after successful completion. The limited places offered are usually filled up in matter of hours and the students’ feedback has been very positive every year. The module includes up to five different courses, depending on the semester. The Life Support Systems seminar is focused on the cultivation of microalgae, linked to the institute’s ISS Experiment photobioreactor PBR@LSR. After learning the basic life support system concepts, the students build and conduct their own microalgae photobioreactor experiment. In the Missions Analysis practical seminar, based on the work of several PhD candidates, the participants learn and put in practice aspects of mission planning with the help of the Astos Solutions software as well as the SPICE toolkit. During the Rendezvous and Docking practical training, students learn about the operation and handling of a spacecraft. Besides theoretical lectures, guided sessions in the simulator allow to put into practice the handling of common complex procedures, audio-visual perception and motor skills. This seminar is linked to the research carried out in the SIMSKILL experiment. In the Earth Remote Sensing seminar, students learn how to handle payload data for Earth observation and their scientific evaluation. The Flying Laptop, a satellite fully built at the institute and launched in 2017, is used for this course. Finally, the research carried out in the field of electrolysers and fuel cells for space applications at the institute prompted the establishment of a training course. After deepening their knowledge on both electrolysers and fuel cells, the students prepare, carry out and evaluate various experiments. This paper presents the different training courses from our institute and their link to the current research.

The ESA Academy’s Space Systems Engineering Training Course is a unique educational opportunity offered by the European Space Agency’s Education Office. It allows Bachelor, Master and PhD students to learn about the fascinating world of Systems Engineering and its applications within the space sector, while bringing this captivating framework of challenges and satisfaction to life for the participants of the Training Course. During this course, the whole life-cycle of a space project is explored from a System Engineering viewpoint, and students can learn about the challenges of Space Systems Engineering. Moreover, the Systems Engineering process is explored in detail [1]. Taught by ESA experts, the Training Course is delivered through formal lectures, with a heavy emphasis on the interaction with the students. During the course, students take part in group exercises aimed at putting the theory learnt into practice. This paper purposes at giving an overview of the training course, as it took place online on the 12th -20th of July 2021, and at addressing the benefits of the Author’s participation into the Training Course for his studies and future space career

Nowadays, virtual reality (VR) systems gain popularity in various applications ranging from space to entertainment. Education took up this challenge thus promoting virtual reality into the learning environment, first of all, in teaching science and engineering. Courses in humanities, however, are often ignored, though they have a great potential of applying VR techniques to develop students’ soft skills, intercultural communication among them. To bridge this gap, the paper aims at analyzing the demand for VR, the experience in virtual reality and readiness of Master’s degree engineering students for taking courses with immersion into virtual reality, using the example of intercultural communication courses. The authors analyzed recent publications in research journals and conference proceedings on the use of VR tools in higher education paying special attention to engineering curricula. The authors also conducted a survey among 87 MSc students focusing on the degree to which students are familiar with VR and ready to study through immersion into VR. The overall analysis of the survey results revealed that the students have a limited experience of using VR in any applications but most of them are ready for this experience in education. Based on these interpretations of the survey results, the authors made an attempt to develop a draft course to introduce elements of VR into EFL teaching for engineering students. Further research can be done to disseminate the initial experience of VR applications and to update the course developed.

The purpose of this work is to contribute to the debate on the best pedagogical approach to developing undergraduate mechanical engineering skills to meet the requirements of contemporary complex working environments. The paper provides an example of using student-entrepreneur collaboration in the teaching of modules to Mechanical Engineering final year students. Problem-based learning (PBL) is one of the most significant recent innovations in the area of education for the professions. This work proposes to make an original contribution by simulating a real-life entrepreneur interaction for the students. The current literature largely confines simulation-based learning to computer applications such as games. However, this paper argues that role-playing by students interfacing with technology start-ups can also be regarded as “simulation” in a wider sense. Consequently the paper proposes the concept of simulation-action learning (SAL) as an enhancement of PBL and to distinguish it from computer simulation. Yes

Even though astronomy is the oldest science, it is still an open question how to evaluate students’ understanding in astronomy. In spite of the fact that some methods and evaluation tools have been developed for that purpose, the sources of students' difficulties in astronomy are still unclear. This paper presents an investigation of the changes in conceptual frameworks in astronomy among 50 engineering students as a result of learning a general course in astronomy. A special tool called Conceptual Frameworks in Astronomy (CFA), which was initially used in 1989, was adopted to gather data for the present research. In its new version, the tool includes 23 questions and five to six optional answers to each question. Each of the answers characterizes one of the four conceptual frameworks: pre-scientific, geocentric, heliocentric and sidereal. These four conceptual frameworks act as a taxonomical system that enables us to evaluate astronomical understanding. The paper describes the background of the CFA, its development, and discusses its validity and reliability. Using the CFA we were able to: (1) identify the students’ conceptual frameworks at the beginning of the course and at its end, (2) to evaluate the students’ paradigmatic change following the course. It was found that the measure of the students’ improvement (gain index) was g = 0.37. Approximately 45% of the students in the course improved their conceptual frameworks in astronomy and 26% deepened their understanding of the heliocentric or sidereal conceptual frameworks. The CFA can also be applied as an evaluation tool in all schools and institutions that teach astronomy. Key words: astronomy education, conceptual framework, diagnostic tool, engineering students.

Students at the University of Nottingham have been establishing several student-run extracurricular groups to build their own space technology. These include model rockets, CanSat and CubeSat projects, involving students from bachelors up to PhD level across a variety of Departments. These projects have been supported through staff supervision, international collaboration, and access to facilities including a new space-focused laboratory space. Some students have recently benefitted greatly from modules and thesis projects being tailor made to further train them in hands-on space research and enable them to earn credits from participating in these projects. This paper presents their initial findings and products of their work, along with their honest experiences which may be of interest to other new student groups hoping to establish similar programs at their university. Students have had to learn and put into practice a range of new skills and experiences, not normally found within taught course modules, and all of this under their own organisation. While the experiences are hugely valuable, for both professional and personal development, students need to work hard to maintain project longevity and team spirit when faced with difficulties from coursework deadlines, new skill demands and handover to new students after graduation.

The forced transition from fully in-person learning to online methodologies incurred by the proliferation of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a major blow to most organisations worldwide. The aim of the present paper is to analyse the impact of the COVID-19 in ESA educational activities from students' perspective, in order to stimulate the future creation of both online and on-site courses. The participation of the authors in the ESA Academy training sessions covers the period from February 2019 to September 2021, thus experiencing not only both on-site and online courses, but also pre- and mid-pandemic learning experiences and course adaptations due to the impact of COVID-19. The wide range of space education experiences gathered by the authors enables a multi-perspective comparison of a variety of topics involving the ESA Academy training sessions such as networking possibilities, course dynamics and content, motivation induced by the course environment, impact on the future career and professional development of the participants, as well as compared to the academic experience of the students at their home universities. The analysis and comparison of the authors' experiences allow to establish correlations between the learning method (in-person or online) and the specific experience outcomes of attending an ESA Academy training session. Finally, some recommendations are provided to further mitigate the COVID-19 impact on space educational activities.

[EN] This paper analyzes the changes for a degree in Industrial Electronics and Automation Engineering at a Spanish university in the confinements caused by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The purpose was to find out the practices that the faculty university intuitively choose for use in teaching and evaluation, and to check if they were adequate in the emergency situation. The challenges faced by university faculty worldwide following the confinements caused by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic were enormous and have no precedence in the digital knowledge era. The study of the teaching transitions realized allow the university and all agents involved to better reinforce the strong points and to focus improvements on the weak points with the goal of better preparedness for future crises. Three aspects of the transition to online teaching are considered: the changes in the evaluation systems, the preferred modes (synchronous, asynchronous, or bichronous) and the tools most used. According to the results, the evaluation systems enjoyed a level of stability that indicated institutional tools already existed providing online support for successful execution. The interaction between teacher and student dominated the basic training and compulsory course subjects, while asynchronous teaching was more apt for the elective subjects. Text-type teaching resources were chiefly used. While it was true more multimedia types could have been used, the suddenness of the changes as well as the uncertainty around their durations may have contributed to their incomplete development., This work was supported by the Universitat Politècnica de València Project PIME 21-22/167 "El entorno de aprendizaje y la formación de estudiantes de gestión, tecnología e ingeniería".

Learning styles of most engineering students and teaching styles of most engineering academic staff are incompatible in several dimensions. Many or most engineering students are visual, sensing, inductive and active, whereas engineering education is mostly verbal (auditory), abstract (intuitive), deductive, passive and sequential. These mismatches lead to poor student performance, professorial frustration and a barrier to produce many potentially excellent engineers. The modern method of engineering education involves contemporary teaching and learning practices using project and program based learning, work integrated learning and integrative learning approaches. Project-based learning (PBL) is acknowledged as a collaborative, progressive, student-centred, interactive, active and deep learning approach. The paper investigates the learning styles of engineering students, teaching approaches of engineering academic staff, the role of smart technologies and their applications for the implementation of PBL in engineering education at the United Arab Emirates University. Students and academic staff were surveyed to understand their learning and teaching styles respectively. Most engineering students are observed active (57%), sensory (71%), visual (83%) and sequential (68%). Surveyed engineering academic staff exhibited their strong preference to expert, delegator and facilitator style of teaching. Students were observed to use different educational technologies frequently and approximately 52% students were identifi ed using electronic media and technology as their learning resources. Only 22% of students indicated small group work as their learning resources, which indicates lack of collaborative learning of students. Previous studies discovered that PBL approach prefers facilitator style of teaching rather than expert or delegator styles. The paper discusses the improvement of PBL in engineering education through understanding of learning and teaching styles Refereed/Peer-reviewed

This paper describes a research that took place in a University in Rio Grande do Sul, with the aim at verifying levels of comprehension on Complex Numbers in Engineering scholars. The choice of that specific content is justified since complex numbers are the knowledge foundation for the analysis of alternating current circuits, practiced in Engineering courses. In a specific way, this investigation sought to identify and analyze errors committed by the scholars in basic mathematical operations, as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division with complex numbers. The research had a qualitative nature, being characterized as a multiple and holistic case study, whose instrument was a mixed questionnaire and whose analysis method used was Error Analysis. It is concluded that only a few scholars understand basic concepts and are able to operate with complex numbers. That was verified mainly and almost exclusively when considering addition and subtraction operations though. Even academics who had studied complex numbers in previous courses found it difficult to solve multiplication and division operations, and most have not solved these operations. Therefore, seeking to assist engineering professors and academics, a learning object is being created with the purpose of filling these learning gaps. That material aims to provide prior knowledge for the analysis of alternating current circuits and, thus, to help qualifying the processes of teaching and learning in Engineering., Este artigo apresenta um trabalho de pesquisa que se propôs a verificar o nível de compreensão sobre números complexos em acadêmicos de Engenharia de uma Instituição de Ensino Superior do Rio Grande do Sul. Justifica-se a escolha do conteúdo matemático uma vez que números complexos configuram um conhecimento base para a análise de circuitos elétricos em corrente alternada, praticada em cursos de Engenharia. Em específico, esta investigação buscou identificar e analisar os erros cometidos pelos acadêmicos em operações de matemática básica, como adição, subtração, multiplicação e divisão com números complexos. De cunho qualitativo, a pesquisa caracteriza-se como um estudo de caso múltiplo e holístico, cujos dados, produzidos por um questionário misto, foram analisados a partir de proposições da Análise de Erros. Conclui-se que são poucos os acadêmicos que compreendem conceitos e operações básicas com números complexos, tendo sido constatado certo domínio apenas nas operações de adição e subtração. Mesmo havendo, entre os acadêmicos, participantes que estudaram números complexos no Ensino Superior, a maioria deles apresentou dificuldades ou não resolveu as operações de multiplicação e divisão. Diante disso, em busca de auxiliar acadêmicos de Engenharia e seus professores, está sendo criado um objeto de aprendizagem como recurso de apoio para recuperar as lacunas de conhecimento em números complexos. Esse material tem enfoque na análise de circuitos elétricos em corrente alternada, colaborando para qualificar os processos de ensino e de aprendizagem em Engenharia.

The primary purpose of this study is to evaluate the web-based adaptive e-learning application based on the expert-based assessment. There are two aspects of assessment considered in this study, the first one will evaluate the e-learning system in terms of the learning content and its structure, and the second one will focus on the media aspect. The process of evaluation was started by developing the instruments of evaluation by taking into account some related literature. Then, the content validity of the instruments was checked by scientific experts. After that, the assessment was conducted by two groups of experts in a paper-and-pencil format by marking one out of 4 points Likert scale. The result was then analyzed through some justification approaches and indicated that the adaptive e-learning application was categorized acceptable to use in the learning process.

The article looks into the English language needs of engineering students and young graduates at one of the leading technological universities in Russia - NUST MISiS. The authors used a mixed methodology approach to explore how often and in what real-life situations current and former students use the English language. 107 paper questionnaires were completed by master’s degree students in class and the answers were counted; 123 responses were received online from 2015 and 2016 graduates and processed statistically; 17 structured interviews with college administrators and subject professors were recorded and then coded for the main categories. The results demonstrate that despite dramatic changes at NUST MISiS under The Competitiveness Enhancement Program 5-100, good English competence is not a priority, with the majority of young graduates being ‘unsure’ about its benefits for their career and some administrators calling it ‘the least required competence’. However, the English language needs vary across subject departments. Thus, students majoring in new materials and programming use English on a regular basis, while economists and metallurgists might not really need it in both studies and future job. Overall, the most required skill is reading, and the least used ones are oral communication and academic writing in English. The authors discuss how orientation on potential rather than actual needs can affect the ESP/EAP course design in the context of engineering education in Russia.

The expectations, attitudes, engagement, and motivation of students are key elements when designing learning activities. Several studies have been implemented and different strategies and activities have been analyzed to improve the aforesaid aspects of learning content. In the context of the New Learning Context (NLC), this paper presents the findings of two first day of class activities aimed at engaging engineering students in a business and management subject from the very first moment: an empirical study conducted by means of a survey answered by engineering students in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), followed by an interactive activity between students and instructors carried out through a reciprocal interview activity. The survey was performed with the objective of identifying what they ‘liked’ and ‘disliked’ on their first day of class of a business subject. The findings are presented and compared with previous studies and have proven to be mostly consistent with previous academic work. Finally, a reciprocal interview activity was chosen to potentially enhance the students’ engagement and motivation. According to the feedback received, this activity was positively valued by the students.

A professional course like engineering strives to get maximum number of its students placed through campus interviews. While communication skills have been added in all the engineering courses with the aim to improve their performance in placement, the syllabus mostly concentrates on the development of four language skills. The students are not made aware of the employability skills and their significance. the increasing competition makes it imperative that apart from a regular degree certain skills are required by engineers. Industries while advertising for various posts even mention essential skills required along with the essential qualification. However skills and the significance of skills while applying for jobs or while facing interviews is a topic which is rarely given consideration while preparing for job interviews or while entering the job market. This paper intends to enlist the importance of skills and why students need to be aware of the skills they possess and how they can work on packaging their candidature around a few skills. Different profession requires different skills and if students identify their skills or acquire certain skills they can unquestionably have an added advantage in the interview and placement. Hence, this paper intends to enlist the skills, the importance of skills, ways to create awareness of individual skills specifically in engineering students who will step into the industry in near future.

This research addresses some personalization aspects of education in electrical engineering. Its goal is to help students and educators evaluate the complexity of the disciplines they have chosen for studying and optimize the order of the learned courses and topics. A new instrument, namely, an educational thesaurus, is presented and its assembling procedure is shown. The offered educational thesauri implemented in the labs and integrated in the exercises have become smart platforms suitable for design and management of the students’ individual knowledge domains. The ontology-based Web manuals in Electronics and Power Electronics for the Bachelor study cycle have been introduced. An example of ontology graph to be applied within the Master study cycle has been developed and explained in the paper. According to the authors’ investigation, the decrease of stress caused by the new educational environment and achievement of success in learning were observed thanks to the individual knowledge domain organization proposed in this study.

Within the framework of globalization, current events are diverse and heterogeneous. The General Coordination of Technological and Polytechnic Universities in Mexico (CGUTyPM) adopted a competency-based educational model with the objective of preparing professionals not only with the necessary knowledge but also with adequate skills, attitudes, and values needed in the global economy. With the aim of complementing the necessary training of future engineers, academic programs of Mexico’s polytechnic universities have integrated into curricula courses in human development that address generic competencies. Development of competencies for students is complicated by the fact that within a globalized society it is necessary to learn profession-specific competencies in addition to generic competencies. However, in higher education, profession-specific competencies are commonly assumed to be of greater importance, and generic competencies are not prioritized. This paper presents the authors’ research findings detailing responses from 150 students in different engineering programs. For analysis, a cross-sectional descriptive methodology was employed, using a questionnaire completed by student participants. The results show a clear need for explicit integration of the generic competencies into general curricula in particular, those of basic professional knowledge, problem-solving, commitment to ethics (honesty) and responsibility. The authors conclude that the continued teaching of the generic competencies at the university level is essential to student learning and provides students with strategies for adapting to the ever-changing environment of a labor sector situated in a globalized world.

Higher education in Spain has to deal with constant troubles and uncertainties due to the economic crisis, high rates of unemployment in young people, lack for study habits in secondary school and legal fluctuations. This uncertain environment does not foster student effort and it is behind the important rates of abandon in higher education. The Bologna Process was thought to create a new paradigm in higher education in the European Union. However, the changes came from the top (governments) to the bottom (lectures and students) so they were not properly supported by specialized training oriented to lecturers. It did not include the appropriate changes in lower education stages (secondary education) to prepare student when facing University. Therefore, in the past decade several new teaching methodologies have appeared to deal with student demotivation and to fight against dropouts. Those methodologies try to keep the students engaged during the whole course paying more attention to their learning process, attitudes, motivations and expectations. Consequently, in this paper, we present a four-year experiment whose main objective is to keep students engaged during the whole year and to foster their motivation in order to increase their learning outcomes. The experiment is based on the application of gamification to the assessment process emulating a traditional platform video-game, like Super Mario. The results show that this experiment was positive for most students who achieved good marks and good rates of task completion.

Online learning platforms provide an opportunity to better understand students' weaknesses by tracking both their learning behavior and knowledge. This information can then be used to assist teachers in making instructional decisions and to further guide those who are at risk of failure. In this paper, we tracked student learning data from a C++ programming course over a whole semester of their freshman year via the Trustie platform. A total of 17,854 code submissions were collected. We then used CppCheck, SonarQube and Trustie to capture the quality characteristics and submission characteristics of the code, including lineOfCode, cyclomaticComplexity, codeSmell, syntacticError, averageScore, submission, and logicError, and analyzed the impact of code quality on the assignment work results. Several factors were discovered that we believe can help teachers to develop more effective teaching strategies.

La decisió d’emprendre un doctorat no és senzilla. Mentre que la durada i la intensitat de l’esforç necessaris per a assolir-lo es poden determinar raonablement bé, els beneficis professionals que es podrien aconseguir són difícils de conèixer, ja que depenen de les possibilitats d’inserció laboral dels futurs doctors. L’objectiu principal d’aquest article és proporcionar algunes dades sobre les perspectives laborals actuals a Catalunya dels doctorats en les àrees de tecnologies industrials, tecnologies de la informació i la comunicació (TIC), i arquitectura, construcció i enginyeria civil. A partir de les enquestes d’inserció laboral dels doctors que fa l’Agència per a la Qualitat del Sistema Universitari de Catalunya (AQU), l’article s’endinsa, per a cadascuna de les tres àrees esmentades, en el lloc de treball dels doctors, la necessitat de tenir la titulació de doctor per a accedir-hi i per a fer la feina que hi fan, el grau de satisfacció amb els estudis i amb la feina, i la valoració de la decisió de fer el doctorat que van prendre en el seu moment. Les dades que es presenten poden ser útils per als graduats que estiguin valorant seguir un doctorat en les àrees indicades. També poden interessar als responsables dels programes de doctorat, de cara a decidir l’orientació de la recerca que es duu a terme i el contingut de la formació associada. The decision to pursue a doctorate is not an easy one. While the duration and intensity of the effort required to achieve it can be reasonably conceived, the professional benefits that may be achieved are difficult to determine beforehand, as they depend on the employment opportunities of the future doctoral degree holders. This paper seeks to illustrate current job prospects in Catalonia for doctorate holders in the areas of industrial technologies, ICTs, architecture, construction, and civil engineering. Based on the surveys on access to the labour market for doctors carried out by the Catalan University Quality Assurance Agency (AQU Catalunya), for each of the three areas we delve into the workplace of doctoral degree holders, the reasons why a doctorate is needed to access it and to perform the associated tasks, the degree of satisfaction of doctorate holders with their studies and position, and the evaluation of their decision to take a doctorate. The information presented here may be useful for graduates who consider taking a doctorate in the above-mentioned areas. It may also be of interest to doctoral program managers, allowing them to prioritize the orientation of research in their programs and to better define the contents of the associated training.

BADGE: Global competence for sustainable internationalisation in engineering education This paper presents a new Erasmus+ funded project, Becoming a digital global engineer (BADGE2020). The project is a three-year collaboration between language and communication teachers at14 technical universities and engineering departments in 12 countries, with partners representingindustry, consultants, educational organizations and students. The rationale behind the project isthe recognition of two facts: the ever-increasing need for global competence among engineeringgraduates and professionals (Parkinson 2009, OECD 2018), and the need to boost and adjustcommunication and language for specific purposes (LSP) teaching to better support sustainableinternationalisation, acknowledging multiculturality and multilingualism.The project was initiated from within a larger network of language and communication teachers attechnical universities in Europe (GELS 2020), established in 2015 to “enhance future engineers’language skills in order to prepare them for the increasingly challenging demands of a globalisedmarket”, and is divided into 8 intellectual outputs: communication course for future engineers,sustainable writing skills for engineers, e-communication skills, global competence andentrepreneurship, podcasting and video casting architecture, soft skills for engineering students,and global competence through IT and serious games.Working in 8 transnational teams, we will develop learning material ranging from course syllabiand exercises, to handbooks and pods, to be made freely available for download and localmodification as open educational resources. Furthermore, the material will be connected to asystem of digital badges that can be used as a supplement to official degree diplomas. References BAGDE (2020) The Badge Project www.thebadgeproject.eu, accessed 2020-03-25 GELS (2020) The GELS network www.clic.eng.cam.ac.uk/news/GELS, accessed 2020-03-25 OECD (2018) Preparing our youth for an inclusive and sustainable world. The OECD PISAglobal competence framework www.oecd.org/education/Global-competency-for-an-inclusiveworld.pdf, accessed 2020-03-25 Parkinson, A. (2009) “The Rationale for Developing Global Competence” Online Journal forGlobal Engineering Education: Vol. 4: Iss. 2, Article 2.digitalcommons.uri.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1018&context=ojgee, accessed 2020-03-25 Note on authorship As equal authors and in alphabetical order: Katja Auffret (IMT Mines Albi-Carmaux, École Mines-Télécom,France), Teresa Geslin (Université de Lorraine, France), Ivana Jurković (Veleučilište u Bjelovaru, Croatia), BjörnKjellgren (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden), Freddi Maria (Università degli Studi di Pavia, Italy), SaulePetroniene (Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania), Jamie Rinder (KTH Royal Institute of Technology,Sweden), David Tual (Cambridge University, United Kingdom). QC 20210906 BADGE (Erasmus+)

—“Transfer shock” is a well-known phenomenon during the process of articulation, when students move from short-cycle applied programs to more academic longer-cycle study programs. In the US context this problematic transition has been observed in students transferring from community colleges into the traditional university system. In Ireland’s binary higher education structure, one set of institutions, known as Institutes of Technology (IoTs) allow for this transition to take place entirely within individual institutions. This paper is part of an ongoing investigation into one such IoT, where engineering students who achieve high grades at the end of 3-year (so-called Level 7) “ordinary degree” programs frequently transfer into the 3rd year of 4-year Level 8 “honors degree” programs, with surprisingly successful outcomes. One surprise derives from the fact that the students who enter Level 7 engineering programs are deemed at the outset to be academically less able, particularly in mathematics, than those who go directly into Level 8 programs from secondary school. Relatively little work has been done on this transition to date. In the 3rd and 4th year of many honors engineering programs within this institution it is not unusual to have 30-50% of the students coming from an ordinary degree background, the majority from within the institution itself – with others transferring from other IoTs in Ireland. Previous research has shown that students from this background initially struggle in the 3rd year of the honors degree program when compared with students who have proceeded directly through the honors program, before going on to successfully graduate. Can this be attributed to ‘transfer shock’; even though most of these students are continuing in an institution and with faculty that they are already familiar with? In order to examine this phenomenon we interview students from several engineering disciplines at various points in this transition. We explore the perceptions of the students regarding this transition and, based on the information coming from the interviews, we conduct a large scale survey to be administered to articulating students across engineering programs in the institution. The preliminary results of this survey are also presented here.

Problem. Modern higher education puts forward new requirements to the process of training future professionals whose competitiveness is determined not only by deep professional knowledge and skills of their flexible application but also by readiness to solve professional problems in a foreign language environment, ability to easily integrate into the European educational space.Goal. The goal of the present paper is to study modern approaches to teaching a foreign language to engineering students and their implementation in teaching students majoring in "Materials Science" of the Mechanical Faculty of Kharkiv National Automobile and Highway University. Methodology. The purpose of the present research and specifics of the object under study determined using synchronous-descriptive method with elements of comparative analysis which contributed to the comprehensive study of the problem. Results. At the present stage of the development of higher engineering education, system-structural principle of teaching in combination with a communicative approach, as well as an interdisciplinary approach should be recognized as the leading methods of teaching a foreign language to students of non-languistic specialities. Originality. A new textbook “English for Welding Engineers”written for students majoring in "Materials Science" of the Mechanical Faculty of KhNAHU has been presented and described for the first time. Practical value. Practice proves that a properly selected professionally-oriented authentic text together with a set of lexical and grammatical exercises developed on the basis of this text play a significant role in teaching a foreign language for professional purposes, contributing to the diverse and holistic formation of the students’ linguistic and professional competencies. In order to successfully complete these tasks, teachers of the Department of Foreign Languages of KhNAHU have created a new textbook “English for Welding Engineers” and continue their work on writing and updating other educational materials for students of all faculties and specialities., Аннотация. В статье рассмотрены основные современные подходы к преподаванию иностранного языка студентам технических специальностей, проанализировано их внедрение в новом учебном пособии по английскому языку English for Welding Engineers, предназначенном для студентов технического вуза специальности «Материаловедение», описана структура и основные характеристики пособия., Анотація. У статті розглянуто основні сучасні підходи до викладання іноземної мови студентам технічних спеціальностей, проаналізовано їх запровадження у новому навчальному посібнику з англійської мови English for Welding Engineers, призначеному для студентів технічного ЗВО спеціальності «Матеріалознавство», описано структуру та основні характеристики посібника.

Lean Thinking is a philosophy which principles were redesigned from Toyota Production System (TPS) by Womack and Jones of MIT. Currently, Lean Thinking principles are taught in the academy and are applied in all sectors, from production to services. Services is what is provided to students in a university. Teachers provide a service to them, and they are the clients of this service. As so, teachers want to provide the best service, adding value to the client product. In order to do so, they search for new methods that create flow in the way students learn what they need to learn. Lean Thinking have been providing tools to the classroom to obtain such flow. This paper intends to present a tool, an A3 report, which was used by engineering students to analyze, interpret and report a published case study. This was a team assignment task among others. This task was assessed as a component for the final grade of a course of third year of Master Integrated of Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM). The presentations, A3 reports and discussions results were analyzed and compared using Bloom taxonomy levels and 3H taxonomy to infer about students learning. Main findings obtained were very positive., FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia(UIDB/00319/2020)

Blended learning in higher education has already become an indispensable tool in both university staff and students’ daily life. A number of definitions of blended learning have been developed. However, these definitions mostly focus on the synergy of traditional and online instruction, thereby these definitions lack its main notion - blended learning. These othersided definitions do not contribute to the qualitative blended learning for the improvement of students’ learning achievements. Aim of the present paper is to analyze and work out the definition of blended learning underpinning analysis of quality of blended learning for the improvement of students’ learning achievements. The meaning of the key concepts of blended learning and students’ learning achievements is studied. Moreover, the logical chain of analysis is shown: blended learning → students’ learning achievements → empirical study within a multicultural environment. The results show that students’ learning achievements after having been implemented the blended learning process have been enhanced. Directions of further research are proposed. The novel contribution of the paper is the definition of blended learning worked out by the paper’s authors.

International audience; Among the many pedagogical strategies for improving students' motivation, life skills, and know-how, project-based learning is often cited as an example. It is in this context that a challenge entitled "New digital processes for the plant of the future" was launched in 2019 for Master's students learning in the field of "mechatronics". Seven teams formed randomly with last year students of the HEI graduate school of engineering, therefore, they took part in this challenge. The technical issues to be addressed were vast because they had to meet certain needs and services dedicated to issues related to the digital industry or industry 4.0. This paper details the pedagogical strategy that has been adopted, the technical specifications and the planning to be respected. It also proposes some significant results. A measurement tool concerning the efficiency of the method has also been implemented. According to these results, we refine our feedback on the challenge and thus refine our educational policy.

This paper describes a research that took place in a University in Rio Grande do Sul, with the aim at verifying levels of comprehension on Complex Numbers in Engineering scholars. The choice of that specific content is justified since complex numbers are the knowledge foundation for the analysis of alternating current circuits, practiced in Engineering courses. In a specific way, this investigation sought to identify and analyze errors committed by the scholars in basic mathematical operations, as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division with complex numbers. The research had a qualitative nature, being characterized as a multiple and holistic case study, whose instrument was a mixed questionnaire and whose analysis method used was Error Analysis. It is concluded that only a few scholars understand basic concepts and are able to operate with complex numbers. That was verified mainly and almost exclusively when considering addition and subtraction operations though. Even academics who had studied complex numbers in previous courses found it difficult to solve multiplication and division operations, and most have not solved these operations. Therefore, seeking to assist engineering professors and academics, a learning object is being created with the purpose of filling these learning gaps. That material aims to provide prior knowledge for the analysis of alternating current circuits and, thus, to help qualifying the processes of teaching and learning in Engineering. Este artigo apresenta um trabalho de pesquisa que se propôs a verificar o nível de compreensão sobre números complexos em acadêmicos de Engenharia de uma Instituição de Ensino Superior do Rio Grande do Sul. Justifica-se a escolha do conteúdo matemático uma vez que números complexos configuram um conhecimento base para a análise de circuitos elétricos em corrente alternada, praticada em cursos de Engenharia. Em específico, esta investigação buscou identificar e analisar os erros cometidos pelos acadêmicos em operações de matemática básica, como adição, subtração, multiplicação e divisão com números complexos. De cunho qualitativo, a pesquisa caracteriza-se como um estudo de caso múltiplo e holístico, cujos dados, produzidos por um questionário misto, foram analisados a partir de proposições da Análise de Erros. Conclui-se que são poucos os acadêmicos que compreendem conceitos e operações básicas com números complexos, tendo sido constatado certo domínio apenas nas operações de adição e subtração. Mesmo havendo, entre os acadêmicos, participantes que estudaram números complexos no Ensino Superior, a maioria deles apresentou dificuldades ou não resolveu as operações de multiplicação e divisão. Diante disso, em busca de auxiliar acadêmicos de Engenharia e seus professores, está sendo criado um objeto de aprendizagem como recurso de apoio para recuperar as lacunas de conhecimento em números complexos. Esse material tem enfoque na análise de circuitos elétricos em corrente alternada, colaborando para qualificar os processos de ensino e de aprendizagem em Engenharia.

This paper aims to diagnose Romanian engineering students in relation to their migration intentions, motivations, and destinations, and to predict the magnitude of migration in the polled population. It presents the results of a quantitative study based on a questionnaire survey consistent in terms of number and structure of variables and responses. The online questionnaire was self-administered by 1782 students from the five major technical Romanian universities, which are the main providers of the highly skilled labor force in the area of engineering. Regression analysis was carried out to correlate the drivers of migration and the potential for real migration. According to the results, Romanian students from technical universities are inclined to migrate in a significant proportion, the economic factor being the main migration driver. The predictive model built on the logistical regression and the collected data accounts only partially for the variations of the variable decision to migrate, so further research is needed. The analysis of the students&rsquo, mindset can prove useful to understand the future interactions between the new graduates and the labor market, to develop regional and national policies regarding human capital, and to root development plans towards sustainable economic growth in solid databases concerning the engineering profession.

This paper explains the design and psychometric quality of a battery of multiple-choice quiz as formative e-assessment for teaching differential equations. It was a preliminary experiment conducted inside a second course of calculus (Mathematical Analysis 2) for about 200 students in Managerial and Electronic Engineering at University of Udine. A survey was also administered to evaluate the appreciation of the students about the quizzes. From the survey, we found out that the quizzes were well chosen, and they discriminated adequately between higher and lower student subject knowledge. Moreover, they helped students to find gaps in their preparation and to keep up with the lessons., Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Technology in Mathematics Teaching – ICTMT 14: Essen, Germany, 22nd to 25th of July 2019, p. 197

In recent years, the University of Windsor has seen a significant increase in international student enrolments, especially in the graduate engineering programs. Previous studies indicate that international students often have difficulties in developing information literacy skills. Furthermore, many engineering students lack library research skills essential for succeeding in academic study. However, there is a scarcity of studies focusing on information literacy instruction for international engineering students and existing research in this area seldom utilizes statistical analysis methods to determine the effectiveness of the instruction. This paper aims to fill in the literature gap by examining the impact of an information literacy session geared towards international graduate engineering students at the University of Windsor. Statistical analysis of the paired pre-post survey tests reveals that the session has significantly improved the students' understanding of certain aspects of information literacy, including searching and locating information, but not the areas of identifying and evaluating information. Further instructions and additional support integrated into graduate seminars or other classes as well as offered outside of classrooms will be beneficial to these students, particularly in the areas of identifying information, evaluating information, finding scholarly sources, and other more advanced information literacy topics.

Spoken proficiency in English has become indispensable in engineering industry. It is expected of an engineering student to possess requisite spoken proficiency for his/her career growth prospects.The paper focuses on the impediments in the speaking skills of the engineering students and also finds the ways to improve students’ speaking skills using task-based pedagogical design. The article further investigates the factors that affect the speaking performance of the ESL learners. This article explores the pivotal role played by the pedagogical intervention in the classroom in enabling the learners to overcome the constraints in speaking. The participants of the study chosen for control and experimental group were first year civil engineering students comprising 38 in each group respectively. T-test was used to compare the performance of the students in control and experiment groups. The cross tabulation was also computed to know the scoring pattern of the spoken components in the assigned tasks. The results revealed that there was a significant level of improvement in the oral proficiency of the experimental group.

It is commonly known that humour has an implication on the process of teaching and learning. However, there is still limited study done on the implication of humour in teaching and learning engineering courses. This paper studies the perception and experience of engineering lecturers and students towards the incorporation of sense of humour in the teaching and learning of engineering courses. Online and offline surveys were conducted on the students and lecturers from the school of engineering, Taylors’ University respectively. Several interesting insights were drawn from the responses with the general consensus from both students and lecturers that humour helps in enhancing the teaching and learning process. Real case examples of how the lecturers deliver their lectures with humour were also presented.

Our diverse team of educators at Colorado State University are redefining what it means to teach and learn in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Supported by a five-year “RED” grant from the National Science Foundation, we are, in effect, throwing away courses to overcome the challenges of the current engineering educational system. Approaching the degree from a holistic perspective, we no longer view our program as a set of disparate courses taught by autonomous (and isolated) faculty, but as an integrated system that fosters collaboration among faculty and students. This paper describes our new organizational and pedagogical model, which emphasizes knowledge integration and interweaves thematic content threads throughout the curriculum. We also share our process for implementing the new approach, along with the successes and challenges that we have experienced along the way. Through this project, we strive to become a catalyst for change in engineering education.

Contribution: This paper reports engineering students ’ practical epistemic cognition by studying their interactional work in situ. Studying “epistemologies in action” the study breaks away from mainstream approaches that describe this in terms of beliefs or of stage theories. Background: In epistemology, knowledge is traditionally seen as “justified true belief,” neglecting knowledge related to action. Interest has increased in studying the epistemologies people use in situated action, and their development of epistemic fluency. How appropriate such approaches are in engineering and design education need further investigation. Research Questions: 1) How do students in the context of a design project use epistemic tools in their interactional work? and 2) What are the implications of the findings in terms of how students’ cognitive and epistemological development could be conceptualized? Methodology: A collaborative group of six students were video recorded on the 14th day of a fifth-semester design project, as they were preparing for a formal critique session. The entire, almost 6 h, session was recorded by four video cameras mounted in the design studio, with an additional fifth body-mounted camera. The video data collected was analyzed using video ethnographic, conversation analysis, and embodied interaction analysis methods. Findings: The results show that the students use a wealth of bodily material resources as an integral and seamless part of their interactions as epistemic tools, in their joint production of understanding and imagining. The analysis also suggests that students’ epistemological and cognitive development, individually and as a group, should be understood in terms of developing “epistemic fluency.”

This work-in-progress research to practice paper analyzes how previous personal, social and academic variables converge in the explanation of students' academic performance, during the 1st year of Engineering courses. A sample of 737 1st year students of Engineering courses in a Portuguese public university was considered. Students age ranging from 16 to 41 years old (M = 18.29, SD =2.01), having entered the university with a GPA ranging from 154.6 to 200.0 (M =154.60, SD=18.10). Two measures of academic achievement were taken into account in this study: the number of subjects/curricular units successfully completed at the end of the 1st semester, and the average of the marks obtained in the approved curricular units at the end of the 1st year. In terms of predictors, we considered sex, age, parentś academic education, course and university option and access GPA. The regression analysis shows that GPA and sex have a higher impact on academic achievement. These data deserve attention from institutions and professors since some students access their courses without the necessary level of academic competencies, motivation and vocational career definition which justifies the need for diagnosing and levelling students' background and personal characteristics. It is also important because several students are not in their first option institution/course, which also impacts their adjustment process to the University., This work is financed by Project UID/CTM/00264/2019 of 2C2T – Centro de Ciência e Tecnologia Têxtil, and by CIEd–Research Centre on Education, project UID/CED/01661/2019, Institute of Education, University of Minho, through national funds of FCT/MCTES-PT.

В статье обсуждаются вопросы непрерывности формирования иноязычных письменных речевых навыков при обучении студентов инженерных специальностей. Актуальность исследуемой проблемы связана с возросшим требованием к публикационной деятельности вузов, стремящихся повысить свои позиции в мировых рейтингах. Однако, академическое письмо, стоящее в центре западного университетского образования, находится в стадии становления в российских университетах. Показано, что детальная кодификация элементов содержания и требований к уровню подготовки выпускников школ по владению письменными речевыми навыками на иностранном языке уступает место достаточно общим формулировкам соответствующих компетенций в ФГОС 3++ разных инженерных направлений подготовки в бакалавриате и магистратуре, предоставляя вузам возможность самим определять приоритеты. Описываются и анализируются результаты экспериментального обучения бакалавров 2 курса в односеместровом курсе академического письма и обучение магистрантов 1 курса письменному аспекту дисциплины «Иностранный язык в профессиональной деятельности», включавшего написание элементов научной статьи на английском языке. Анализ итоговых письменных работ и результатов анкетирования позволяет заключить, что не удается осуществить в полном объеме преемственность в обучении письму на английском языке на этапах средняя школа – бакалавриат – магистратура. Приводится анализ причин этой ситуации и намечаются возможные пути ее решения., The paper deals with the problem of teaching engineering undergraduate and graduate students of SPBPU academic writing skills in English. Although students were taught writing being at school both in native and foreign languages most of them show poor skills at university. Comparison of the requirements for competence in this type of speech activity at secondary school in Russian and foreign languages, as well as in foreign languages at SPBPU is given. Students’ estimation of their writing skills was obtained through the questionnaire. The research showed that it differs from objective assessment of the actual level of writing competence in a foreign language. The observation of problems in teaching engineering students academic writing skills is presented. One of the hindering factors is taking for granted the continuity in teaching a foreign language declared by Federal State Educational Standards (FSES) of Russia. The practice of teaching at University level makes us state that it is not always achieved, which is especially true for writing skills in a foreign language students demonstrate. We will consider what can be done within the University course for engineering students to bridge this gap and develop students’ writing skills.

The retention and success of engineering undergraduates are increasing concern for higher-education institutions. The study of success determinants are initial steps in any remedial initiative targeted to enhance student success and prevent any immature withdrawals. This study provides a comprehensive approach toward the prediction of student academic performance through the lens of the knowledge, attitudes and behavioral skills (KAB) model. The purpose of this paper is to aim to improve the modeling accuracy of students’ performance by introducing two methodologies based on variable selection and dimensionality reduction. Scopus

This paper presents the didactic problem based learning method in general use at Aalborg University as applied to Electric Mobility. Advantage is taken of this method to link student learning to current research projects. This offersadvantages to the students and the researchers. The paper introduces the subject, presents the research of the Department of Energy Technology and describes the relevant syllabus. It continues to present a range of titles of previous research linked student project projects, and to fill in some of the detail, an example of such a student project. The paper discusses some advantages and drawbacks of this method, and concludes on the usefulness of applying the method.