A Learning Technology Design Course, Deconstructed: Chris Quintana

– Inconsistent transfer policies, lack of articulated syllabi, and subsequent differences on the delivery of comparable courses are a few examples of the obstacles that Ontario students face when trying to change programs. This study sought to develop a framework to support transfer between engineering and engineering technology programs in Ontario using explicit and implicit course outcomes to help develop and define new pathways. Primarily focusing on program expectations in introductory design courses this study compared the content and context of design projects in different institutions and programs across the province. The contextual framework, namely the “Outcome Comparison Framework for Engineering and Technology”, synthesized relevant elements from existing frameworks which can collectively identify the differences in the context of learning in engineering and technology disciplines. This framework looks into disciplinarity, use of tools and design thinking required to successfully finish a design project. We collected design projects from 5 technology programs and 4 engineering programs across the province and coded them based on the content targeted by the project description and the three dimensions of the framework. Content analysis for design courses showed an overall low percentage of alignment between the learning outcomes and the project descriptions across the board. It was found that engineering design courses were more focused on principles of engineering design (problem definition, stakeholder needs, idea generation, decision making) and development of professional characteristics (workplace communication skills, ethics, etc.); but technology design courses, focused on the use of more “hands-on”' skills (building/implementation, troubleshooting, etc.)

Team-based design courses focused on products for people with disabilities have become relatively common, in part because of training grants such as the NSF Research to Aid Persons with Disabilities course grants. An output from these courses is an annual description of courses and projects but has yet to be complied into a "best practices guide," though it could be helpful for instructors. To meet this need, we conducted a study to generate best practices for assistive technology product development courses and how to use these courses to teach students the fundamentals of innovation. A full list of recommendations is comprised in the manuscript and include identifying a client through a reliable clinical partner; allowing for transparency between the instructors, the client, and the team(s); establishing multi-disciplinary teams; using a process-oriented vs. solution-oriented product development model; using a project management software to facilitate and archive communication and outputs; facilitating client interaction through frequent communication; seeking to develop professional role confidence to inspire students' commitment to engineering and (where applicable) rehabilitation field; publishing student designs on repositories; incorporating both formal and informal education opportunities related to design; and encouraging students to submit their designs to local or national entrepreneurship competitions.

This panel paper presents the case for a set of principles for the development of learning technologies accessible to all. Although great advances have been made in the design, implementation and deployment of learning technologies in educational settings, many of these technologies fail to give equal access of the educational material embedded in them to all learners regardless of impairment or learning need. We propose six principles for the design of inclusive learning technologies with the intention of starting a discussion.

What does it mean to design a playful learning tool? What is needed for a learning tool to be perceived by potential users as playful? These questions emerged reflecting on a Participatory Design process aimed at enhancing museum-learning practice from the perspective of primary school children. Different forms of emergent interactions were evident, both during museum visits and while testing a low-fidelity prototype. Deeper reflections on the meaning of enhancing learning through play from a user’s individual perspective was assessed. In this respect, openness and multimodality were evaluated intertwined with design of playful learning tools to enrich non-formal learning and to allow support for individual needs.

This study aims to identify student learner profiles based on a combination of prior knowledge and Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) levels and to analyze the differential impact of an adaptive learning module on knowledge and SRL improvement in each profile. Using a mixed-methods explanatory sequential design, 92 undergraduate physics education students were selected through purposive sampling. K-Means cluster analysis was applied to form learner profiles, followed by a six-week pre–post intervention and qualitative interviews. The results identified three learner profiles (Proficient-Autonomous Learner, Resilient-Developing Learner, and Proficient-Fragile Achiever). The result showed that the adaptive module significantly improved Results showed significant knowledge gains across profiles, while SRL improvements differed significantly. The Proficient–Fragile Achiever group demonstrated the largest SRL gain (p < .001; large effect size, d > 0.80), associated with more frequent scaffolding support. In conclusion, the effectiveness of adaptive modules is highly dependent on learner profiles, with the most significant benefits in their ability to provide external support for building self-regulation skills. These findings imply that learning technology design should incorporate SRL as a key variable for personalization, and institutions can utilize these platforms as intervention tools for students with weak learning independence.

In this paper we explore the use of text processing technology for on-line assessment in an engineering design project class. We present results from a 5-week classroom study in a capstone engineering design course in which we explore the potential benefits of such technology for student learning in this context. Furthermore, we present results from ongoing work assessing student productivity based on features extracted from their conversational behavior in the course discussion board. While we found that typical shallow productivity measures such as number of posts, length of posts, or number of files committed have no correlation with an instructor assigned grade, we can achieve a substantial improvement using simple linguistic patterns extracted from on-line conversational behavior.

This paper presents preliminary results of a currently funded NSF project that is developing and validating an instrument to assess the relationship between project appropriateness in domain relatedness, ambiguity, and genderedness and student efficacy in first-year engineering design courses. Because design is a defining activity for engineers, it is widely adopted as a means to introduce students to engineering. Many engineering schools now have first-year engineering courses, which feature engineering design learning in team-based settings. From a student’s perspective, motivation and self-efficacy may decrease when (1) the project domain (e.g., electrical engineering) is not directly related to their chosen major (e.g., chemical engineering), (2) the projects are perceived to be overly complex and ambiguous vis-a-vis student preparation, and (3) skewed toward a particular gender (e.g., masculine or feminine oriented). With this work, we aim to assist engineering design instructors in refining content to achieve higher retention rates.

This paper describes a novel format for a proposed Capstone engineering design course that combines industrial experience with international collaboration and uses distance learning as a pedagogical tool. The course is designed for programs in the Industrial Engineering Departments at the University of Pittsburgh and the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) in Monterrey. The team for the design project has two students from each institution and is conducted at an industrial concern whose location alternates between Mexico and the US each year. Project responsibilities are divided between the two sets of students and a faculty supervisor at each institution works with the two groups which stay in close contact with each other by means of electronic mail, the Internet and distance learning technologies. During the last week of the term, the members of the team at the remote location join their teammates to put the finishing touches on the project and to make the final presentation to the faculty and the industrial client. This paper explains the proposed program in detail.

Game based-learning methods are largely adopted in many academic fields. The multi-dimensional virtual reality based learning games help the learners to understand the problem dynamics effectively and to construct optimal solutions for them. This shows that games help learners in problem solving and enhancing their performance. Still the implementation of game-based learning is new to software engineering learning. Therefore, there is a need to design multi-dimensional game-based learning environments for teaching and learning software engineering courses and to support it with empirical evidence. To fill this research gap, this paper aims to introduce a multi-dimensional (3D) game for learning object-oriented analysis and design course. This game basically emulates the real-world projects handed over to students as a part of object oriented analysis and design course. The empirical investigation showed that by using the proposed 3D game students learned through practical experience and it eventually helped to enhance their learning outcome, knowledge on the concepts of software process, and proved conducive in timely completion of the project.

The integration of equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (EDIA) in engineering education is often overshadowed by traditional engineering ideologies that prioritize technical work and objectivity. Our research aimed to understand how learning equity-based design affected students' perceptions of inclusivity in their learning environment and the quality of their design work. The Design Thinking curriculum was enhanced to integrate EDIA principles and the Liberatory Design framework. We hypothesized that these design courses would positively impact students' equity-based design competencies and sense of belonging in engineering. Data were collected via post-course surveys and reflection assignments. Survey results from six participants indicated positive impacts on students' perceptions of inclusivity and agency for social change. Thematic analysis of reflection assignments revealed a link between self-awareness, inclusive design, and empowerment to challenge societal norms. Despite the study's exploratory nature and small sample size, findings suggested that engaging in equity-based design approaches fostered inclusive learning in engineering education.

Innovation is about continuously pursuing better, more efficient solutions, and organizations allocate vast resources to achieve this goal. One challenge is the access to and exploitation of information, as teams attempt to harness existing knowledge to design solutions efficiently. This article is concerned with two of the earliest stages of the concept development process, information gathering and idea generation. Information gathering and idea generation can be enhanced to find hints for more innovative or diverse concepts for engineering solutions by the use of data mining tools and techniques to exploit patent data. A case is presented where teams of engineering students, in the context of a higher education course for innovation and technological design, explore data from domain specific patents to develop innovative solutions. The findings indicate that the use of data can be advantageous for team creativity, as it helps identify potential solution elements, materials and current technologies.

The face to face learning process focuses on teacher-centered learning (the center of the learning activity is on the teacher or lecturer – the students just notice and listen the lecturer’s explanation), it is the reverse of student-centered learning (students’ active participation). The changing of learning model from teacher-centered approach into student-learning center should be conducted to increase the students’ active participation in System Design and Analysis course. The research methods to improve students’ softskills competency through studentcentred learning were (a) making lecturer team who taught System Design and Analysis course (b) reviewing the syllabus of lecturing unit (c) developing a learning model of student learning center to maximize the students’ hardskills and to stimulate their softskills (d) conducting socialization of new revised syllabus of lecturing unit that covered softskills competency, of which it had been validated by the university party (e) implementing the learning process with the student-learning center approach by using syllabus of System Design and Analysis which covered softskills competency. By implementing the model of student learning center on System Design and Analysis learning process, it was expected to be able to maximize the understanding of hardskills, technology for analysis and information system design as well as to stimulate the student’s intrapersonal and interpersonal skills (softskills), who completed the course. Keywords: softskills competency, student-centred learning, System Design and Analysis,

This paper describes an exploratory case-study of information retrieval practices in one specific discipline, materials science and engineering. In particular, we examine how do the information retrieval practices of practicing professionals compare to those of undergraduate seniors? The preliminary findings provide provisional insights into the concrete retrieval skills students have and need, and suggest teaching practices (particularly in design courses) faculty can employ to help students build such skills.

Application of fracture mechanics methods in safety analysis of piping components in subcreep and creep behavior

The purpose of this study is to examine the learning experiences of pre-service science teachers on educational robotic applications. Within the scope of this study, both block-based coding and robotic coding activities were carried out. In this study, case study, one of the qualitative research designs, was used. The research was carried out within the scope of Technology and Project Design course in Gazi University Department of Science Education. The research group of the study consists of pre-service science teachers of the Department of Science Education (n=46). A structured interview form was developed by the researchers to collect pre-service teachers' views on the activity. In order to analyze the data obtained from the interviews, descriptive content analysis was made and categories related to student thoughts were created. To ensure the reliability of the categories, 2 field experts analyzed the codes separately and Krippendorff’s alpha is used for the reliability of the analyzes. It was calculated as .81. It is seen that the majority of pre-service teachers have not participated in a robotic coding course or such an activity before. So, it is found that such a course creates significant positive contributions to them.