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There is a risk of student dropout in the field of engineering, particularly in the domain of information technology. To find novel pedagogical and technological solutions to prevent student attrition, we must better understand student experiences regarding their learning and studying processes. This study was conducted within the introduction of a new engineering degree program at the University of Jyväskylä and focused on first-year students. The research questions are: How do IT students experience study burnout at the beginning of their studies? What kind of self-efficacy beliefs do IT students have at the beginning of their studies? How are the self-efficacy beliefs of IT students associated with their levels of study burnout at the beginning of their studies? Student experiences were gathered through a validated survey that measured student self-efficacy beliefs and their experiences regarding study burnout. The results indicate that most students have high self-efficacy beliefs but, at the same time, a few of them experience quite a high study workload stress at the beginning of their studies. Studying the development of the student experiences over time provides an understanding of the relations between the experiences of study burnout and self-efficacy. This knowledge may support the development of novel pedagogical and technological solutions so that students may be provided timely guidance, leading to improved student well-being and ultimately to decreased dropouts in the field of engineering. peerReviewed

Defining the intended learning outcomes is a significant part of curriculum design. Especially,the program-level competence requirements outline the objectives of the education, align the more detailed program structures and content of the curriculum, and create the basis for constructive alignment. Several different bodies aim at defining the goals of engineering programs on different levelsof abstraction.Some of these documents can be considered as statements of the 'minimum threshold'.Respectively, others provide detailed guidelines to support the design of post-secondary programsin specific engineering fields. For example, the CDIO Initiative has defined a general reference syllabus aiming at creating a taxonomy of engineering learning rationalized against the norms of contemporary engineering practice.While designing new engineering programs, it is interesting to study how different universities have documented the intended learning outcomes of their programs in related domains. In this paper, the program-level learning objectives of seven FinnishB.Sc. in Information Technology programs are discussed and reflected withthe CDIO Syllabus based on the information available on the public curriculumdescriptions. peerReviewed

Increasing class sizes forces universities to change their education in ways that allow for independent learning for students. This study looks at a case where blended learning was introduced to alleviate some of the educationally negative consequences of large class sizes. Independent learning requires from the students to become more self-regulated while at the same time they need efficient feedback from lecturers to enact these self-regulated learning activities. In this paper we investigate whether at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) student perceptions of lecturing behaviour is such as to stimulate student’s independent learning and whether self-regulated learning behaviour results in more active engagement with the learning materials.

International audience; This article discusses the tension between quality assurance and quality enhancement in engineering education at a programme level. It acknowledges that accreditation has evolved for many years, but does not agilely support innovation or implement changes in educational programmes. Existing quality assurance systems, institutional collaboration networks, as well as new innovative quality enhancement models and processes are described, contrasted and synthesised. Quality enhancement is analysed based on its function as a source of inspiration and dissemination of good practice. The article reflects on a novel and more collaborative approach to quality enhancement, built on the foundations of specific pedagogical standards and rubrics (e.g. CDIO). One solution leading to real continuous quality enhancement could be flexible and agile evaluation processes. These are founded on measurement and rating frameworks and complemented with quality assurance for engineering education. Incremental enhancement is based on relevant needs identified collaboratively between programmes.

Our paper describes the Nordic project ‘Quality Assurance in Higher Education’. The main goal of the project is to develop and implement a self-evaluation model in the participating Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to support their quality assurance work and continuous curriculum development in the field of engineering. The framework of development is the CDIO self-evaluation model. In this freestyle session we will introduce our results and challenge the audience to evaluate our work with clickers. At the same time we disseminate the project achievements and hopefully provide new ideas and support for quality assurance work on other higher education institutes.

While adopting Information Technology (IT) may have been a goal in itself in the past, during the last decade the emphasis has shifted, and IT has instead become a tool that enables us to realize other needs. This also sets new requirements for IT education: skills in software engineering and computer science alone do not provide students with the professional abilities they will need after graduation. To answer this call, the University of Jyväskylä launched in autumn 2021 a new engineering B.Sc. and M.Sc. degree program in Information and Software Engineering with close ties to the Humanities. The degree program was established on three cornerstones: 1) the ability to implement IT systems, 2) comprehension of the expectations and needs set on technology, and 3) mathematical-logical reasoning. As an introduction to the multidisciplinary studies, the students take a course called Being Human in the Information Society at the very beginning of their B.Sc. studies. This course aims at providing an understanding of the multidisciplinary context in which technology will be developed and applied when addressing the complex challenges of the future. In this paper, we will present the planning process of the new course, and describe the intended learning outcomes, contents, and learning methods of the course. In addition, faculty experiences and student feedback of the first implementation are discussed and reflected upon. peerReviewed

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The engineering education at Aarhus University, Denmark, includes the course Statistics and Design of Experiments (DoE) that encompasses both collaborative and individual learning activities. The choice of examination method is important, as students adapt their learning behavior accordingly. Group examinations align well with collaborative learning and individual examinations are successful in assessing individual learning and detecting free riders. To avoid organizing and exposing the students to two examinations and thus imposing additional undesirable costs, we aimed to develop a single highly structured oral group examination method that addresses both collaborative and individual learning in an organized fashion without increasing demands on academic staff. The oral group examination method described in this study is a three-in-one exam where all group members in a project group are present at all times. First, the students’ collaborative skills were addressed with focus on knowledge application and analysis. Then their individual skills were addressed with focus on basic knowledge understanding. Finally, students were given the opportunity to evaluate their own knowledge and create new knowledge, which includes the pinnacle of Bloom’s taxonomy pyramid. The examination method was tried out with four classes of engineering students (142 in total): two Chemical engineering and two Biotechnological engineering classes in their second and third year. Afterwards, students reflected on their perception of the exam in a survey. In summary, the examination method embraced assessment of both collaborative and individual learning and provided time for in-depth discussions with all group members, in the project group, on a high taxonomic level. We encourage other educators to explore this examination method. The present study includes a “ready-to-implement” protocol and a “ready-to-use" Student Scoring Sheet to keep track of the contribution of each student. The engineering education at Aarhus University, Denmark, includes the course Statistics and Design of Experiments (DoE) that encompasses both collaborative and individual learning activities. The choice of examination method is important, as students adapt their learning behavior accordingly. Group examinations align well with collaborative learning and individual examinations are successful in assessing individual learning and detecting free riders. To avoid organizing and exposing the students to two examinations and thus imposing additional undesirable costs, we aimed to develop a single highly structured oral group examination method that addresses both collaborative and individual learning in an organized fashion without increasing demands on academic staff. The oral group examination method described in this study is a three-in-one exam where all group members in a project group are present at all times. First, the students’ collaborative skills were addressed with focus on knowledge application and analysis. Then their individual skills were addressed with focus on basic knowledge understanding. Finally, students were given the opportunity to evaluate their own knowledge and create new knowledge, which includes the pinnacle of Bloom’s taxonomy pyramid. The examination method was tried out with four classes of engineering students (142 in total): two Chemical engineering and two Biotechnological engineering classes in their second and third year. Afterwards, students reflected on their perception of the exam in a survey. In summary, the examination method embraced assessment of both collaborative and individual learning and provided time for in-depth discussions with all group members, in the project group, on a high taxonomic level. We encourage other educators to explore this examination method. The present study includes a “ready-to-implement” protocol and a “ready-to-use" Student Scoring Sheet to keep track of the contribution of each student.

Enhancing courses with technology in a manner that supports students’ learning, has clear underlying pedagogical values and is aligned with a university strategy for course development is far from trivial. This paper describes and evaluates a Learning Design approach to such a process — a process that was initiated by a university strategic goal of providing more and better use of technology for education. At the heart of the process is the Learning Design educational development methodology. The paper discusses the tensions between the goals of the process: learning activities supporting students’ learning and the university’s overall strategic goal regarding technology. We find that although tensions exist, they do not hinder the design of better teaching using technology, and we conclude that Learning Design is a useful methodology to address these tensions.

This paper will evaluate the effects of new learning spaces for mixed on-campus and online students. In 2015, the Electronics Engineering study programme at Aarhus University School of Engineering (ASE) in Herning decided to provide an online learning option in addition to the traditional classroom instruction. Consequently, the flipped learning approach was introduced in both the online and on-campus teaching, allowing online students to join the classroom teaching synchronously and asynchronously. However, due to a high dropout rate, various initiatives for improving online student retention have been implemented since 2016, and despite heavy legislation affecting the university, which makes it almost impossible to work full-time while also studying full-time, the majority of the 2016 online student intake is still actively engaged. A number that continues to increase with the 2017 and 2018 intakes. From 2016-2017, data was collected and evaluated to gain further insight into what it is like to be an online student. The findings have led to new strategies for collaboration, student-centred learning and optimised learning spaces for how we conduct flipped learning at ASE in Herning. Some of the new strategies have been introduced to the 2018 student intake; among these are Slack and RealTimeBoard. Likewise, new ways of team collaboration, where the students sit in their teams at round tables, have been implemented. Each team consists of a mix of on-campus and online students, and the lecturers connect to the students’ (virtual) workspaces via an iPad, thus combining a physical and virtual experience in the learning space. Conclusion is that organising the classroom with round tables together with RealTimeBoard supports the strategy of creating a more modern classroom with a student-centred approach to learning and a better integration of on-campus and online students, while Slack was not considered an appropriate ‘candidate’ for a modern communication platform.

In this paper a framework of key competencies for sustainability defined by UNESCO is used to evaluate the relevance of the CDIO Syllabus for promoting engineering education for sustainable development. The evaluation is performed in two steps. First, topics, terms and concepts in the CDIO Syllabus that corresponds to the different UNESCO key competencies are identified. The second step is a qualitative discussion where areas of strong mapping are highlighted and aspects that could be better visualized or strengthened in, or added to, the Syllabus are identified. Differences in definitions of various concepts between the CDIO Syllabus and the UNESCO key competencies and the overall relation between the two frameworks are discussed. It is concluded that the CDIO Syllabus is rather well aligned with the UNESCO framework, however several opportunities (not to say needs) for strengthening the Syllabus in relation to the key competencies are identified. The UNESCO key competencies are found to be useful instruments for scrutinizing and updating the CDIO Syllabus. Other opportunities for knowledge and methods transfer between the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) domain and the Engineering Education domain are identified. The paper is proposed to be used as basis for updating the CDIO Syllabus into a version 3.0 for maintaining its relevance in a changing world. Part of proceedings ISBN 978-877507459-4QC 20190909

Whenever an ultrasonic wave encounters a boundary between two media it is partially reflected and refracted, as any acoustic wave would be. Unlike light, the wave also undergoes mode conversion so that in the general case a single incident wave could produce two reflected waves and two refracted waves. The angles which define the path of the wave are determined by Snell’s law and are easily calculated. The relative amplitudes, on the other hand, require quite complicated formula when the angle of incidence is anything other than 0 degrees. This problem gets compounded when the angle of the incident wave goes beyond the first critical angle. At this point the angle of the refracted wave becomes imaginary and the equations to calculate the relative amplitudes become complex. This paper describes a tool that has been developed, using a spreadsheet, which performs the calculations for all incident angles. The user selects the media and the type of incident wave and the resulting waves are shown graphically as well as numerically. The tool was developed primarily as part of an undergraduate course on ultrasonic testing, but could be used more widely.

The evaluation and assessment of engineering programmes is a big issue, and there exist many concepts and methods. This paper deals with the assessment methods which can be used when assessing the knowledge, skills and competences developed in projects using PBL (problem based and project organized learning) pedagogical approaches. The experience of assessing first year projects from the Medialogy education at Aalborg University and third year projects from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at University of Minnesota, Duluth are presented, and the different methods discussed. The conclusion is that process as well as product has to be assessed in a way which evaluates all aspects of students’ learning outcomes.

The paper aims at one of the problems many of the new multidisciplinary engineering educations encountered when teaching technical topics to students who are neither technically skilled nor aspired to learn these. The research continues and extends a study that has been done over a period of five years and tested on over 400 students at the bachelor part of the relatively new multidisciplinary engineering education Medialogy at Aalborg University Copenhagen. The author successfully found a number of pedagogical approaches for teaching technical topics to the challenging diverse students. The gap between technical and artistic minded students is, however, increased once the students reach the sixth semester. The complex algorithms of the artificial intelligence course seemed to demotivate the artistic minded students even before the course began. This paper will present the extensive changes made to the sixth semester artificial intelligence programming course, in order to provide a highly motivating direct visual feedback, and thereby remove the steep initial learning curve for artistic minded students. The framework was developed with close dialog to both the game industry and experienced master students, so the contend directly links to the demands of the students future challenges.

The CDIO Initiative is going through a process of reconsidering and updating the CDIO approach for engineering education development. Previous work resulted in substantial updates of the twelve CDIO standards and the introduction of “optional” CDIO standards. This paper reports on a similar review and update of the CDIO Syllabus to version 3.0. It has been developed by a working group consisting of four sub-groups and iterated and refined guided by feedback from the whole CDIO community. There are mainly three external drivers that 18 Proceedings of the 18th International CDIO Conference, hosted by Reykjavik University, Reykjavik Iceland, June 13-15, 2022. motivate the changes: sustainability, digitalization, and acceleration. There is also an internal driver in the form of lessons learned within the CDIO community, from using the Syllabus in curriculum and course development. Approximately 70 updates are proposed, amongst them three additions on the X.X level, namely 1.4 Knowledge of Social Sciences and Humanities, 3.1 Teamwork and Collaboration, and 5.3 Research. peerReviewed