Valerie Stehling

Teaching Professional Knowledge to XL-Classes with the Help of Digital Technologies

How can the systematic use of digital technologies affect a lecture of 1500 or more students? Moreover, to what extent will it affect the learning outcomes of the students? At RWTH Aachen University, subjects like Mechanical Engineering have to cope with a very high number of students each semester – currently the number lies at approximately 1500 with an estimated increase up to 2000 in the next semester. In order to create an interactive learning environment despite these difficult conditions, the IMA/ZLW&IfU (Institute of Information Management in Mechanical Engineering, Center for Learning and Knowledge Management and Assoc. Institute for Management Cybernetics) of the RWTH Aachen University is currently developing a pilot scheme that includes the application of Audience Response Systems in lectures with such large numbers of student listeners. The implementation of the described system demands a redesign of the lecture with special regards to the content. Questions have to be developed that allow the students to interact with the lecturer as well as each other. This variety of questions ranges from multiple-choice questions to the inquiry of calculation results etc. When giving students the chance to actively take part in a lecture of the described size by answering questions the lecturer asks with the help of technical equipment – which could in the easiest case be their own mobile phones – the lecturer creates a room for interaction. In addition to that he has the chance to get an immediate insight into the perceived knowledge of his or her students. This in turn enables the lecturer to react to obvious knowledge gaps that obstruct successful learning outcomes of the students. An additional benefit hoped for is that the attention of the students – which is a difficult issue for lecturers that face lectures with such a large number of students – might be kept at a higher level than average. The described redeployment of a lecture of the mentioned size is expected to bring about an enhancement of the quality in teaching of professional knowledge. The presumptions made in this paper will be surveyed and thoroughly analysed during and after the realization of the project. Fig. 1: Large Class at RWTH Aachen University (http://www.taz.de/!86786/)

Chances and risks of using clicker software in XL engineering classes - From theory to practice

Teaching and learning in XL-classes is a huge challenge to both lecturers as well as students. While lecturers face the difficulty of speaking to a mostly loud and very heterogenic audience, students often lack the opportunity of being an active participant in class. To counteract these difficulties and give the opportunity of immediate feedback, an audience response system has been introduced in the class of information technology in mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen University.

Please Vote now! Evaluation of Audience Response Systems : First Results From a Flipped Classroom Setting

Many University lecturers in Germany face the challenge of teaching very large classes, sometimes including 1000 or even more students. They often have to cope with a very high level of noise, bad room conditions, an extremely low level of participation as well as interaction and feedback. Some lecturers therefore try to overcome these challenges by using technology in their classroom. Previous research has already focused on evaluating the use of audience response systems (ARS) in a traditional but very large engineering lecture. This sort of technology has proven to be an effective tool in order to e. g. increase student motivation, give them additional support in the learning process and on the other hand give the lecturer feedback about the students’ learning progress as well as possible crucial points of the lecture. This paper, however, goes one step further. It analyzes the use of ARS in a flipped classroom setting of a large engineering lecture for first-year-students. After having completed almost two thirds of the flipped classroom lecture, students were being questioned about their experiences and opinions about the use of ARS in this particular educational setting. The standardized questionnaire included questions issuing e. g. comprehension, motivation, frequency, enjoyment, interaction, involvement as well as usability aspects. First results show that e. g. the majority of the students feel that clicker questions foster their comprehension, motivate them to be attentive and increase the quality of the lecture. When comparing the results to findings from previous research in a traditional lecture, however, one thing becomes apparent: The evaluation of the use of ARS in the in a flipped classroom setting has turned out to be slightly less positive than that of the traditional lecture. This finding will be particularly discussed and may even call for further research in the designated field of interest. In a first step, the lecture itself will be described considering content, background and general settings. Subsequently, the survey instrument and methodology will be presented. In a third step, the results of the survey will be presented and discussed. Finally, further research fields will be identified.

What Are Teachers’ Requirements for Remote Learning Formats? Data Analysis of an E-Learning Recommendation System

Teachers often have their own professional requirements for e-learning systems. However, these are often only subliminal known. In times of Industry 4.0 and AI, teachers e.g. in engineering are also confronted with the need to teach increasingly complex concepts. Those are only two of the reasons why an e-learning recommendation system has been developed to support teachers in choosing an e-learning format. To better understand the perspective of the teachers, the central question is: What are the teachers’ requirements for the e-learning formats examined here? After a introduction to the recommendation system, the analysis of the collected data is explained. Based on recommendations given in the past, we examine which requirements have led to a clear recommendation or to the advice against individual formats. Among the formats considered here, virtual reality and simulations are the most recommended on average, as they are best suited to the teacher’s requirements. Subsequently, the profound results in the areas of virtual laboratories, virtual reality, simulations and gaming-based solutions will be presented and discussed. However, the results also show how diverse the requirements are. The recommendation for e-learning developers and companies is therefore: e-learning solutions should be adaptive for teachers and students. Finally, it can be concluded that in the future teachers will have to use a mix of different e-learning solutions in order to be able to teach the increasingly complex world of tomorrow.

Fostering social construction of knowledge in hybrid teams by augmented reality

New instructional and collaborative technologies (e.g. Augmented Reality (AR) and robots) are prototypically used in educational contexts like the social construction of knowledge. They foster collaboration due to their interactive nature [1]. Future professionals of industrial contexts, however, do not only need to develop technical knowledge but also media/technology competences in terms of the efficient use of technologies like AR in both learning and working contexts. Human-centred factors in the collaboration with robots, i.e. human-robot interaction (HRI), in learning contexts, e.g. the social construction of knowledge in such hybrid teams, however, still is a field hardly researched on [1, 2, 3]. The combination of developing prospectively essential competences like HRI skills and media/technology literacy in using AR for learning/instruction purposes actively prepare learners for an employment market that is characterised by a comprehensive digitalisation and interconnection (i.e. industry 4.0). Moreover, social construction of knowledge is assumed to be a new challenge in terms of the emergence of industry and knowledge societies. As a consequence, this concept paper aims to offer some insight into the topic. First, it presents results of a meta-analysis of literature on the use of AR as digital instruction on HRI social construction of knowledge. On this basis, the paper provides a three-step mixed methods approach for investigating the effect of digital instructions in HRI learning contexts by means of an empirical-experimental study design.

Request for Comments: Proposal of a Blockchain for the Automatic Management and Acceptance of Student Achievements

Staying abroad during their studies is increasingly popular for students. However, there are various challenges for both students and universities. One important question for students is whether or not achievements performed at different universities can be taken into account for either enrolling at a foreign university or for completing the studies at their home university. In addition to university achievements, an increasing proportion of the 195 million students worldwide increasingly receive certificates from MOOCs or other social media services. The integration of such services into university teaching is still in the initial stages and presents some challenges. In this paper we describe the idea to manage all these study achievements worldwide in a blockchain, which might solve the national and international challenges regarding the recognition of student achievements. The aim of this paper is to encourage discussion in the global community instead of presenting a finished concept. Some of the open research questions are: How to ensure student data protection, how to deal with fraud and how to deal with the possibility that students can analytically calculate the easiest way through their studies?

Designing Hands-On Robotics Courses for Students with Visual Impairment or Blindness

School laboratories let students playfully experience the fundamentals of, for example, robotics, computer science, and technology-related topics. By working with LEGO Mindstorms, secondary school students get a chance to learn on a cognitive, emotional, and haptic level and gain experiences with the aid of even more advanced robotics. However, due to an impairment or lack of sight, it is hardly possible for some students to fully participate in a programming process or in building a robot. To overcome this unintentional discrimination, the interdisciplinary student laboratory “RoboScope” at RWTH Aachen University has teamed up with a group of experts to develop a barrierfree robotic course. Since then, the course has been tested and implemented based on concurrent evaluations and frequently held at RWTH and several other German schools. The presented work covers an overview of different kinds of visual impairment and lab settings and the development cycle of the courses at RWTH from design to testing, implementation, and further development regarding the evaluations. Evaluations show that students who are visually impaired or blind appreciate the opportunity to participate in the field of robotics. An insight into the evaluation concept that differs from “regular” courses in the “Roboscope,” as well as the results are used for further development.

Access all Areas: Designing a Hands-On Robotics Course for Visually Impaired High School Students

In recent years, student laboratories have been established as effective extracurricular learning areas for the promotion of educational processes in STEM fields. They provide various stimuli and potentials for enhancements and supplements in secondary school education (Reuter Sebastian et al.: Robotic Education in the DLR_SCHOOL_LAB RWTH AACHEN. Proceedings of the International Technology, Education and Development Conference INTED 2015, in Process (2015)). Most courses, however, do not offer full accessibility to all students. Those who e.g. suffer from visual impairment or even sightlessness find themselves not being able to participate in all tasks of the courses. On this account, the Center for Learning and Knowledge Management and Institute of Information Management in Mechanical Engineering at RWTH Aachen University have redesigned one of their robotics laboratory courses as a first step towards accessibility. This paper presents the work in progress of developing a barrier-free course design for visually impaired students. First feedback discussions with the training staff shows that even little changes can sometimes have a huge impact.