Elena Trotskovsky

Accreditation of MOOCs

Abstract Higher education institutions face conflicting challenges; they must equip students with up-to-date knowledge in fields in which knowledge is constantly being renewed, while they also need to guide students to examine reality through broad-based observation and consider different scientific disciplines. They operate within different constrictions such as: learning program boundaries, budgetary constrictions, and lack of accessibility to experts in different areas, and the range of courses offered to students is limited. To cope with these constrictions, Ort Braude Academic College of Engineering opened an experimental program. As part of this program, students were allowed to study MOOC courses under the college’s supervision, and were eligible for accreditation if they completed the courses successfully. Only 15 out of the 600 students offered the program, registered for these courses. Only seven were accepted for the program. This paper describes the background for the college’s decision, the registration process and supervision of students, detailing students’ challenges and achievements in the MOOC courses. Students who completed the MOOC courses reported that they enjoyed meaningful learning, requiring serious efforts in comparison to the courses that the MOOC courses replaced. Given this positive feedback by the students, it was decided to continue with the experiment.

Engineering design projects as a reflection promoter

This article describes examples of reflection documented in a longitudinal research comprising two studies: a three-year three-stage study on technology project-based learning (TPBL) and a three-year two-stage study on engineering thinking (ET). Both studies used qualitative tools such as interviews, active observations, and document analysis. Reflections expressed by 10th grade pupils from eight high schools and 14 post-secondary school students who participated in the TPBL study as well as the reflection findings of experts and undergraduates from the ET study were used. The data analysis indicates that reflection is not generated on its own; it must be fostered. Reflection takes one of three forms: as a reaction to an irregularity or error made when working on the system design; conducted in groups that is inherent to the design process in industry; and from intuition that something may not be quite right, even though preliminary results seem to be correct.

Internship as an Obligatory Requirement for the Degree of B.Sc. in Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Internship is an inseparable part of some curricula such as Medicine, Law, Accounting, Teaching and more disciplines, where internship is a crucial part of the curriculum. This is not the situation when it comes to technological studies such as Electronics. Is there any justification for this? This article reviews ten years experience of implementing internship at more then 130 Hi -Tech. factories and research institutes, as an obligatory requirement for the Bachelor degree in EEE. The paper presents the supporting array and the academic requests. A pilot research investigating characteristics of the internship has been conducted lately. About 100 students and 20 supervisors asked to fill in questionnaires. Until now, 44 students and 13 supervisors answered. The results are presented in this paper.