Engaging Engineering Students in the Educational Process Using Moodle Learning Environment

Modern pedagogical practice emphasizes the use of technology as an opportunity to personalize the learning process and the need to take into account students' new needs. The purpose of this chapter is to offer a model of presenting online learning materials in mathematics that involves students in a continuous learning process. This model consists of textual materials, video materials, and tests in Moodle virtual learning environment (VLE). Textual materials include short theoretical materials with examples, self-control exercises, and worksheets with step-by-step solutions. The model includes five different types of videos: mini-lectures, problem solving walkthroughs, instructional videos, interactive videos, and individual videos. The testing system includes training, control, and bonus tests. Creating all parts of the model requires the use of specific didactical techniques. The students' feedback to this model has been highly positive.

Towards a Flipped Classroom Based on a Context-Aware Mobile Learning System (FC-CAMLS)

The approach proposed in this chapter called flipped classroom based on context-aware mobile learning system (FC-CAMLS) aims to provide learners with an adapted course content format based on their feedback and context. The latter has a significant influence on multimedia content in adaptive mobile learning. The contribution was applied in the context of the flipped learning in order to manage the heterogeneity of context imposed by this approach. Firstly, the authors present a quantitative analysis by means of structural equation modeling to analyze the causal relationships of knowledge, skills, and motivation with students' satisfaction. Secondly, they confirm that the proposed flipped classroom has positive effects on students' knowledge, skills, and motivation. Finally, the research provides useful results that the use of the context dimensions and learner feedback in adaptive mobile learning is more beneficial for learners especially in the flipped classroom.

Cultural Awareness and Distance Communication

This chapter reflects upon technology-mediated projects used to discuss and foster cultural awareness and proposes a methodology to be implemented in international, educational environments where communication could easily be hindered by cultural dissimilarities leading to conflict. More specifically, it seeks to answer two main questions, namely, whether technology is an aid or an obstacle in effective communication between students that never meet face-to-face and which obstacles, generated by technology-mediated communication in virtual teams, affect the intended outcome and how. These questions were raised during the participation of the authors of the chapter over a number of years in the Trans-Atlantic & Pacific Project, where the complex process of learning-by-doing was achieved through peer interaction and the completion of realistic collaborative activities performed by North American and Portuguese students, prospect technical writers, and translators, respectively.

Learning Hypothesis Testing Through a Project Work Methodology

The study described in this chapter is relates to learning hypothesis testing among students from engineering degree using technology and work project method. This project involved 31 students from the Informatics Engineering Degree responding to a small self-assessment survey applied in the four phases of project implementation. Beyond this, the authors collected data about the project reports and from a questionnaire related with students' perceptions about of the developed project. These last two types of data were obtained after the completion of the project work. Analysis highlighted that the most of students appreciated a lot the methodology adopted in the learning of hypothesis tests. However, some students reveal that they experienced some difficulties in the use of R software and in some dimensions of statistical reasoning, especially in the case of knowledge of statistics in project context.

Low-Cost Videos for Learning Mathematics by Teaching

Technology plays an important role in everyday life and can be used in education. Video is a source of material that can play an important role in the teaching and learning field. Using videos engages students, aids student retention of knowledge, motivates interest in the subject matter, and illustrates the relevance of many concepts. In this chapter, the authors describe two teaching experiences involving videos, where the students made a video about solving a concrete mathematical problem. In this video, the students should explain the problem resolution to their colleagues (playing the role of teacher). The results of the impact of this kind of project in the students' motivation are also presented.

Continuity in the Development of Technical Thinking

This chapter addresses the development of students' technical thinking using modern technological tools. The aim of the chapter is to show for academics of technical subjects how to increase the efficiency of the learning process with the help of ICT according to the realization of the requirements of the basic principles of didactics. Emphasis is placed on the need for consistency between general education and higher education institutions (HEI) in designing and developing technical thinking and the structure of the technical thinking and its components and how different components of thinking vary in different learning methods. The use of virtual and augmented reality learning environments to enhance student interest and learning motivation and to develop spatial thinking is discussed. Many didactic opportunities and economic advantages of using a web based remote laboratory (RL) and virtual laboratory (VL) are discussed.

Use of Digital Objects for Improving the Learning Process

Effective integration of virtual technologies is aimed at improving the quality of education. It is very important to form trends of study at the initial stage of education. This document presents the first steps in the project “Development of a Virtual Learning Environment in Technical Higher Education,” jointly funded by the Erasmus program, which includes institutions from four countries: Estonia, Lithuania, Turkey, and Poland, for 24 months. It aims to create a digital house simulator and a set of training materials for construction specialties freshmen. The tasks of this simulator are to give a learner the opportunity to independently obtain knowledge about the details of the structure through the internet without special equipment. Learning through the virtual house model will help students develop spatial thinking, which is necessary for success in graphics and engineering in general. This, in turn, will increase their professional competence, since spatial visualization refers to the curriculum for all industrial technologies and engineering programs.

Mathematics Exercise Generator

Nowadays, the process of teaching and learning is changing from a traditional model in which teachers were the source of information to a model in which teachers appear as advisors who carefully observe students, assist in the selection of information by identifying their learning needs, and support students in their autonomous study. In this chapter, the authors describe an approach used in curricular units of first year in science and engineer degrees, which results from a connection of three projects born in University of Aveiro—MEGUA, SIACUA, and PmatE—and the interconnections of their informatics platforms. Although any scientific area besides mathematics can use this tool, the authors focus in a case study using an example on a specific topic of calculus courses for first year students on Engineering: Sequences and Series of Functions. The methodology described allows teachers to achieve further goals on learning strategies and students to have enough material to practice.

Modern Technologies Used in Education

This chapter gives an insight into technologies that can improve the learning experience of the students in higher education and increase their academic results. The authors look at online learning technologies like the massive open online course and how they can be used to flip the classroom in order to get higher student engagement and satisfaction. Methods like problem-based learning and active learning are also addressed together with ways of increasing student motivation like gamification. The use of social media in education is also addressed. In the second part, the authors share their experience with using some of these technologies. Although these technologies have become widely available, each teacher needs to find the right tools and methods specific to his/her own class and use them accordingly.

Efficacy of the Flipped Classroom to Teach the Digital Storytelling Process

The flipped classroom can be used to encourage teachers to prepare their own stories for their students and connect with peers to build their own collaborative learning spaces. Teachers can create digital storytelling from the content or have their students do it to demonstrate their understanding of the content. The greatest benefit in the flipped classroom may be found when students may be given assignments in which they are asked to research a topic, look for pictures, record their voice, and then choose a particular point of view. This chapter explores storytellers' experiences of digital storytelling (DST) through a flipped classroom approach. A mixed research method was employed, using multiple sources of data collection, including pre-and post-tests, perception of flipped learning experience questionnaire, the teachers' in-class observations, and semi-structured focus-group interviews. The results revealed that the flipped classroom not only enhanced the participants' motivation, making them more active, but also significantly improved their ability.