Potential of Adaptive E-Learning for Knowledge Heterogenous Groups of Students in Engineering Design Education

In Engineering Design education, huge numbers of students are a challenge in university teaching, especially since the students have an initially heterogeneous level of technical knowledge, which influences their acquisition of competences. In frontal classroom lectures, individual deficits can hardly be addressed and in self-study phases, students find it difficult to remedy these independently. Therefore, students with prior technical experience achieve better final module grades. This paper examines the extent to which heterogeneity in prior experience can be compensated by using an adaptive e-learning environment for the self-study time. For this purpose, students are provided with a prototypical implementation of an adaptive e-learning environment for the self-learning phase. The feedback of the users and their examination results are statistically evaluated with respect to the gain of knowledge. [For the full proceedings, see ED636095.]