Claudius Terkowsky

Developing Tele-Operated Laboratories for Manufacturing Engineering Education. Platform for E-Learning and Telemetric Experimentation (PeTEX)

The aim of the PeTEX-project is to establish an e-Learning platform for the development, implementation, and delivery of educational training programs in the field of manufacturing engineering. The PeTEX team designs both: a technical platform for eLearning based on â??Moodle

Platform for e-Learning and Telemetric Experimentation (PeTEX). Tele-operated laboratories for production engineering education

The development of tele-operated experimentation and its provision to distance learners opens new dimensions of knowledge acquisition, particularly where experiments are the core elements of engineering education. The finalized EU-funded project PeTEX-Platform for e-Learning and Telemetric Experimentation has developed a prototype of an e-learning platform based on Moodle for the design and implementation of educational and training programs in the field of manufacturing engineering. The principle goal of this project was to establish individual and group oriented learning for different target groups like students and professional workers within a platform-system able to sustain a multi-country learning community. Hence, an educational model was designed which integrates the tele-operated experimentation platform with teaching content and learning activities in order to support a successful learning walkthrough for different target groups.

PeTEX@Work: Designing CSCL@Work for Online Engineering Education

This chapter reflects on the finalized EU-funded project PeTEX-platform for e-Learning and Telemetric Experimentation aimed at designing and prototyping a CSCL platform-system for developing, implementing, and delivering educational and training programs in the field of manufacturing engineering. The main challenge for the PeTEX project team was to transform actual laboratory test beds, domain specific content and social interaction modes into a web-mediated socio-technical system in order to bring together learning and workplace as CSCL@Work. The designed learning system is based on Moodle and includes distributed tele-operated experimentation facilities, educational content and socio-technical affordances to provide the basis for an international large-scale online learning community. For this purpose the project team developed and established new collaborative learning approaches for students and professionals within the ICT-based system. This chapter gives an overview on the fundamental theoretical principles as well as important steps and results of the participatory design approach applied during the project’s lifetime. It concludes with a set of new tasks and challenges to be considered in future systems.

Experiential remote lab learning with e-portfolios: Integrating tele-operated experiments into environments for reflective learning

The use of laboratories in Higher Engineering Education is an adequate opportunity to implement forms of experiential learning like research-based learning in material sciences. Introducing remote laboratories gives the opportunity to the student to do self-directed research and by that having own and unique learning experiences. Recently finished research projects e.g. like the PeTEX project implemented research-based learning by deploying real laboratory equipment without being physically in the laboratory but having access via the internet. The question in this context is how the student can document his/her own learning processes on the one hand and how the teacher can guide the student through these processes on the other. The proposed solution in this paper is an e-portfolio system on the basis of a personal learning environment. With e-portfolios the student is able to individually and collectively document and reflect what he has been doing and can share his outcomes with others. The paper outlines the important role e-portfolios as personal learning environments can play to experience remote laboratory work and to foster the creative attitude.

Fostering the Creative Attitude with Remote Lab Learning Environments An Essay on the Spirit of Research in Engineering Education

Creativity has been proclaimed to be one of the most important 21st century skills. Facing tremendous problems, creativity and innovation were seen as key factors of a knowledgebased society able to cope with ongoing and future problems. As Engineers are addressed to play an important role in facing these challenges, the question arises in which way universities could contribute to educate creative engineers. This slightly provoking essay inducts possible boundary conditions and constraints of fostering creativity in engineering education. Moreover, it presents first results from a smallsample pre-study on higher engineering education curricula, conducted in the funded German project “ELLI – Excellent Teaching and Learning in Engineering Education”, which suggests a lack of creativity education in the examined curricula. Furthermore, a descriptive analysis of the didactic approach of the finished EU-project “Pe-TEX – Platform for E-Learning and Telemetric Experimentation” provides information about possibilities of fostering the creative attitude in engineering education by means of remote labs. Finally, the essay resumes with future tasks for the ELLI project and open questions addressing relevant future educational and socioeconomic impacts, regarding the role of creativity in engineering education and the professionalization of engineers.

Where have all the inventors gone? Fostering creativity in engineering education with remote lab learning environments

Creativity has been proclaimed as one of the key 21st century skills. Facing tremendous problems, creativity and innovation were seen at the key factors of a knowledge-based society, able to cope with ongoing and future problems. Engineers play an important role in addressing these challenges. Their ideas, their inventions, their creativity have brought Europes prosperity, and it will depend on their inventions and creativity to ensure that progress in the future. This raises the question in what way universities contribute to educate creative engineers nowadays. The slightly provoking essay will present results of a pre-study on fostering creativity in higher engineering education, conducted in the funded German project: “ELLI-Excellent Teaching and Learning in Engineering Education”, and will discuss the remote lab approach of the finished EU-project “PeTEX-Platform for E-Learning and Telemetric Experimentation” as good practice example. It resumes with open questions addressing relevant future educational and socio-economic impacts.

Bringing Remote Labs and Mobile Learning together

Within (remote) laboratories in Engineering Education students have the chance to do own experiments and by that gain own experiences in their learning processes. Apart from technical questions, one of the most intriguing aspects in this context is how students can document their learning process and show to others (teachers and/or other students) what they have achieved. Another aspect concerns the question of learner’s mobility during the learning process. If the laboratory can be accessed remotely, why do we constrain learners in their level of liberty by forcing them to sit in front of a fixed computer to use a location-independent environment for experimentation? Therefore, rendering this environment available for mobile devices is the logical consequence. Furthermore, integrating mobile devices into the course’s technical environment means to take a whole new approach to the teaching and learning process itself. It is especially a question of embedding mobile devices into the users’ workflow (or better “learn flow”) rather than a simple question of accessibility. The following article features an example of how remote laboratories can be linked with mobile devices and e-portfolios, thus creating a unique learning environment helping learners to document their personal learning processes and to exchange them with others while at the same time being flexible in means of time and place. This combination of topics has been realized within one subtask of the project “ELLI – Excellent Teaching and Learning in Engineering Education” at TU Dortmund University.

Entwicklung von Remote-Labs zum erfahrungsbasierten Lernen

In den Ingenieurwissenschaften bietet das Lernen in Laboren ein besonderes Potenzial zum Erwerb auch auserfachlicher Kompetenzen, das in der Regel jedoch kaum genutzt wird. Das Beispiel eines fernsteuerbaren Labors mit einer Lernumgebung, die unterschiedliche Lernpfade einbindet, zeigt, wie erfahrungsbasiertes Lernen in der Hochschule ermoglicht werden kann.

Effects of globalisation on higher engineering education in Germany : current and future demands

ABSTRACT Germany is well known around the world for the strength of its economy, its industry and for the ‘German model’ for higher engineering education based on developing technological skills at a very high level. In this article, we firstly describe the former and present model of engineering education in Germany in a context of the globalisation of the world economy and of higher education, in order to understand how it covers the current demand for engineering resources. Secondly, we analyse the impact of globalisation from a technological perspective. To this end, we describe initiatives for innovation driven by the German federal government and engineering societies, and summarise the first impacts on engineering education and on social competence for engineers. Thirdly, we explore to what extent engineering education in Germany trains engineers in social and intercultural competency to comply with the future demands of the challenge of globalisation.

Integrating Remote Labs into Personal Learning Environments – Experiential Learning with Tele-Operated Experiments and E-Portfolios

The use of laboratories in Higher Engineering Education is an adequate opportunity to implement forms of experiential learning like problem-based or research-based learning into manufacturing technology. The introduction of remote laboratories gives students the opportunity to do self-directed research and by that having their own and unique learning experiences. Recently finished research projects, e.g. the PeTEX project, implemented research-based learning by deploying real laboratory equipment without being physically in the laboratory but by accessing it via the Internet. One essential question in this context is on the one hand how the student can document his/her own learning processes and how the teacher can guide the student through these processes on the other hand. The proposed solution in this paper is a personal learning environment that integrates a remote lab and an e-portfolio system. E-portfolios enable the student to individually and collectively document and reflect what he/she has been doing and to share his/her outcomes with others. The paper outlines the important role that e-portfolios can play as personal learning environments to experience remote laboratory work and to foster creative attitudes.