Search

Contribution: This research study deploys three serious games with various topics in an entry-level C Programming module and investigates students’ learning outcomes. The study also explores whether learners belonging to different subgroups benefit more from the use of serious games than their peers. The subgroups are formed based on learner demographics that capture learners’ attitude toward school or STEM subjects, their previous educational performance and gender. Background: Despite the latest rapid economy growth in the ICT sector, many European countries are facing the challenge of retaining students in STEM-related subjects, which could lead to unfilled vacancies in the ICT job markets in the near future. Serious games have been utilized in the classrooms of many STEM subjects to improve students’ learning experience and learning outcomes, and potentially encourage their engagement with STEM-related industries. While some prior works had assessed the effectiveness of serious games in improving students’ learning outcomes, little research has been done to investigate the impacts among students with different previous educational background and performance, attitude, and gender. Research Questions: 1) Do the proposed serious games improve students’ learning outcomes? and 2) Do students with certain previous educational performance, learning attitude, and/or gender benefit more than others from the use of serious games? Methodology: To thoroughly study students’ learning outcome, a large-scale pilot was deployed as part of the first-year undergraduate C Programming module at Dublin City University, Ireland. A multidimensional pedagogical assessment toolkit was utilized. In particular, a demographic questionnaire was carried out before the pilot began, based on which students were divided into different subgroups in terms of educational ability, initial attitude to school, attitude toward learning STEM subjects, and gender. Pre- and post-tests were conducted right before and after playing each game. For students belonging to each subgroup and for all students, the average pre- and post-test marks related to each game were compared, while paired-sample $t$ -tests were also conducted to assess the statistical significance of knowledge gain. Findings: Statistically significant knowledge gains were observed in all three games for all students. The students with good previous educational performance or strong attitude toward attending school and learning STEM subjects, tend to gain more by using serious games, as they obtained statistically significant improved learning outcomes in all three games. The students with average starting points, although performed better in the post-test than in the pretest in all games, they achieved statistically significant improvements in some cases only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a graduate course project on computer vision. The aim of the project is to detect and recognize traffic signs in video sequences recorded by an on-board vehicle camera. This is a demanding problem, given that traffic sign recognition is one of the most challenging problems for driving assistance systems. Equally, it is motivating for the students given that it is a real-life problem. Furthermore, it gives them the opportunity to appreciate the difficulty of real-world vision problems and to assess the extent to which this problem can be solved by modern computer vision and pattern classification techniques taught in the classroom. The learning objectives of the course are introduced, as are the constraints imposed on its design, such as the diversity of students' background and the amount of time they and their instructors dedicate to the course. The paper also describes the course contents, schedule, and how the project-based learning approach is applied. The outcomes of the course are discussed, including both the students' marks and their personal feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A geometrical approach to teaching and learning vector calculus and analysis as applied to electromagnetic fields is proposed for junior-level undergraduate electromagnetics education. For undergraduate students, electromagnetics is typically the most challenging subject in the Electrical Engineering curriculum, and the most challenging component of the subject is the application of vector analysis to electromagnetic field theory and problem solving. According to the geometrical approach, the students are taught to “read” the figure and to “translate” this to equations at all times throughout the computation or derivation, instead of their “crunching” the formulas and numbers without even visualizing the structure. In performing vector manipulations, integrals, and derivatives, the students are taught to always deal with real geometrical entities and quantities (arrows, lengths, angles, points, lines, surfaces, volumes, etc.). They learn to “translate” the geometry and the electromagnetic physics attached to it into mathematical models (equations and symbolic or numerical values) using “first mathematical principles” instead of just “black-box” formulas as a computer would do. As opposed to the traditional formal algebraic approach to vector analysis in electromagnetics, which is very general but also very abstract and dry, the geometrical approach is problem-dependent but also much more intuitive and visual, and as such can do a great deal to increase students' understanding and appreciation of vector analysis and its application to electromagnetic theory and problem solving. This is confirmed by preliminary class testing and assessment of student learning, success, and satisfaction in the courses Electromagnetic Fields I and II at Colorado State University. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An open-source management system of Web-based teaching interventions is presented that can be used in general for science curriculum courses and especially for computer science courses. The proposed solution is called System of Teaching Intelligent Interventions (STII) and facilitates the authoring, deployment, and evaluation of Web-based metaphors. This paper discusses the use of metaphors for assisting students to comprehend the substance of cognitive concepts and their basic background. STII has been applied in a particular educational scenario during the learning process of 228 students attending the course "computer applications." The presentation of results from a pilot evaluation of two metaphors demonstrates the usefulness of the system. The evaluation focuses on the impact of the two metaphors on student learning, and on detecting potential correlations between metaphors and students' groups. STII evaluation conclusions strongly support that multimedia metaphors can be used as an alternative instructional tool to assist students in confronting their cognitive constraints and developing functional understanding of curriculum courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An effective course in switch-mode power supplies (SMPs) should ideally contain an element of hands-on design and experimental work in addition to the study of the theory and simulations. This element should complement the study of the theory of SMPs and simulation of their operation. However, this approach is extremely time consuming and expensive and can only be offered to a very few number of students. This paper details a course structure that is a compromise between a time-intensive and expensive practical approach and a purely theoretical simulation-based course. The proposed course structure reduces the costs and the staffing/space commitments while still maintaining a very strong emphasis on practical design and experimental work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]