scholarly journals Virtualizing Project-Based Learning: An Abrupt Adaptation of Active Learning in the First Days of the COVID-19 Pandemic, with Promising Outcomes

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 363
Author(s):  
Marco Antonio Carvalho Pereira ◽  
Luísa Miranda Nunes da Costa Ignácio ◽  
Cristiano E. Rodrigues Reis
Keyword(s):  
Active Learning ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Adjustment Process ◽  
Positive Outcomes ◽  
Engineering Curriculum ◽  
First Semester ◽  
The Past ◽  
Case Evaluation ◽  
Abrupt Changes ◽  
The University

Project-based learning (PBL) is renowned as an active learning practice that promotes the application of the accumulation of knowledge through real-world and often open-ended problems. This work assesses a case evaluation of an introductory PBL course in a typical industrial engineering curriculum in Brazil. This course is taken during the first semester, in which students must develop solutions for a single given problem through weekly meetings. The case presented herein highlights the forced abrupt virtualization of the learning process, which imposed an unprecedented scenario on the students and instructors, especially with regard to this course, which is based primarily on presented discussions and activities. The first weeks of class following the abrupt virtualization of activities encountered misinformation and a lack of clarity about the adaptation of the activities. Fortunately, through rapid iterations, the adjustment process resulted in time invested by the students and classes, with an active discussion, using the tools made available by the university. This work aims to present the forced abrupt changes applied to this first-semester course, highlighting the challenges faced, and the positive outcomes obtained and observed by both the students and the instructor, and to make a comparison to the evolution of the course over the past years.

Dealing With Student Profile Diversity in an Industrial Engineering and Management Program: PBL vs “Non-PBL”

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anabela C. Alves ◽  
Francisco Moreira ◽  
Celina P. Leão
Keyword(s):  
Management Program ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Industrial Engineering ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Student Profile ◽  
The University ◽  
Transfer Mechanisms ◽  
Pbl Model ◽  
Distinct Approach

The Integrated Master in Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) program has been implementing Project-Based Learning (PBL) for more than 15 years in the first year, first semester. The IEM program is currently attracting students from different programs, using transfer mechanisms, who normally already have passed some of the courses on their original program. Additionally, this program also attracts a number of students already working in some companies. These students are a bit older and their profile is also distinct from that of their fellow colleagues, which enter the university using a regular national ingress process. Thus, distinct situations are identified that demand a different learning approach. The teachers have come-up with one such distinct approach and called it “non-PBL”, since the PBL model is structured in a way that students must have a specific profile, namely, to be first-year IEM student and enrolled a similar set of curricular units. With this in mind, this paper presents these situations, and describes the solution found to address this diversity. The solution must promote similar competences on both PBL and “non-PBL” students. A heavier workload is imposed on the teachers, given that the number of “non-PBL” teams formed can be as much as the number of PBL teams. Nevertheless, the results demonstrate that the “non-PBL” students successfully conclude the first year and that they value the solution proposed, in spite of the difficulties raised with this process.

scholarly journals Van Tomb Raider naar de toekomst: de ontwikkeling van een archeologische tentoonstelling

Paleo-aktueel ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Anne Ponten
Keyword(s):  
Learning Experience ◽  
Public Outreach ◽  
Master's Students ◽  
First Semester ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
University Museum ◽  
The University ◽  
Academic Year ◽  
The Way

From Tomb Raider to the future. The development of an archaeological exhibition. During the first semester of the academic year 2019/2020, master’s students of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA) of the University of Groningen collaborated with staff of the University Museum to create the exhibition DIG IT ALL, showcasing research of the GIA. This contribution is based on an interview the author had with Arjen Dijkstra, head of the University Museum, in which Dijkstra reflected on the cooperation between the archaeology students and the museum. According to Arjen, the collaboration was a complex but rewarding project, even if some guidance was initially needed to get everyone on the same page. All in all, the project resulted in a valuable learning experience for everyone, especially the students, and, according to Dijkstra, it revealed some unique features of the archaeological profession, for instance, the way archaeologists interact with human remains and, more generally, the way they view the past. Collaborations with scientists are never perfect, according to Dijkstra, and the museum had indeed experienced less fruitful collaborations than the current one. Scientists tend to have difficulty in adapting to the specific demands of a museum when presenting research. Fortunately, this was not a problem with the DIG IT ALL project. Dijkstra highlighted that the archaeologists had already put a lot of effort into public outreach, and he encourages the GIA to keep doing this in the future.

Different by design

2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 219-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Mike Martin ◽  
Renate Fruchter ◽  
Humberto Cavallin ◽  
Ann Heylighen
Keyword(s):  
Formal Education ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
University Of California ◽  
International Context ◽  
Architectural Practice ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The University ◽  
Engineering Schools

AbstractIt is generally known that architectural practice relies heavily on the interactions between architects and other professionals. However, during their formal education, most students attending architecture schools, and engineering schools for that matter, get very little (if any) exposure to decision making in conditions that involve expertise and/or worldviews beyond those reflected and valued by their own discipline. In the past 10 years, a project-based learning initiative was developed between the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University in an international context involving several other universities around the world. Throughout this experience, we have identified several issues that have shown to be crucial to these interactions. This paper elaborates on three key issues: improvement of communication skills, empowerment through developing strategies of leadership, and recognition of own and others' worldviews. We also make the case to include experiential educational situations that can introduce these aspects into the academic curricula of architecture and engineering schools.

scholarly journals Managing PBL difficulties in an industrial engineering and management program

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 586 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anabela Alves ◽  
Rui Sousa ◽  
Francisco Moreira ◽  
M. Alice Carvalho ◽  
Elisabete Cardoso ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Active Learning ◽  
Student Assessment ◽  
Management Program ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Industrial Engineering ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Engineering Programs ◽  
First Semester ◽  
New Perspective

Purpose: Project-Based Learning (PBL) is considered to be an active learning methodology which can be used to develop both technical and transversal competences in engineering programs. This methodology demands a great deal of work effort from the students and also from the teachers and it requires a meticulous plan and a well-managed project as well. These activities go far beyond the normal activities in traditional lectures, enabling to outpace the difficulties that spur along the way that may be both complex and demotivating. This methodology has been implemented in the Integrated Master Degree on Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM), at one public university in Portugal, since the 2004/2005 academic year. The aim of this paper is to identify and discuss the main difficulties of the implementation of PBL, mainly from the teachers’ perspectives. Additionally, some effective strategies will be recommended to overcome such difficulties.Design/methodology/approach: The perceptions of the teachers were collected through a survey based on six main themes. The participants in the study include eight teachers from the five courses of the first semester of the first year of the IEM program involved in the 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 editions.Findings: Integration of courses in the project; student assessment; growing number of students in each team and the need of physical spaces for them; and compartmentalized knowledge has emerged as the main difficulties. To overcome these difficulties some key strategies were recommended.Originality/value: A new perspective based on course teachers' views and experiences will deepen the understanding of the problems and provide inputs for the development of strategies that may improve the effectiveness of PBL and introduce changes for its successful implementation. These strategies are intended to be transferable to other contexts, as most of the problems and constraints are common to other active learning approaches.

scholarly journals Creating a project-based degree at a new university in Africa

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurel Staab
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Active Learning ◽  
Educational Program ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
Student Centered ◽  
Global Challenges ◽  
Institutional Vision ◽  
The University ◽  
And Training

African Leadership University (ALU), a network of higher education institutions, opened its second campus in Rwanda in September of 2017. In order to achieve the institutional vision to educate three million young African Leaders before 2050, the University has made efforts to embrace ‘innovative pedagogy,’ designing curricula and training its teaching staff in active learning and student-centered pedagogy. This paper provides an account of the design and inital delivery of a new degree that ALU offers to its students in Rwanda, called “Global Challenges,” a project-based degree that requires students to structure their learning around a project that they self-design that addresses a challenge facing the continent of Africa. The paper is authored by a member of the faculty of the new degree and uses qualitative practitioner-based research to describe the degree and analyse its alignment with the innovative practice of Project-Based Learning (PBL). Analysis of the degree design shows strong adherence to the principles of PBL; however, more research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness and broader impact of this new educational program.

scholarly journals Active learning in digital communications with low-cost software defined radio

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Botella-Mascarell ◽  
Antonio Soriano-Asensi ◽  
Jaume Segura-García ◽  
Sandra Roger
Keyword(s):  
Active Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Software Defined Radio ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Digital Communications ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Theoretical Point ◽  
Recommendations For Practice ◽  
The University

Digital Communications have been traditionally taught in laboratory sessions from a theoretical point of view, using simulation platforms. However, current Academic Accreditation includes the dimension of “what students are expected to be able to do”, which poses the need of decreasing the gap between standard simulated laboratory sessions and more practical and realistic approaches. In this paper, we propose a methodology to enhance the learning of practical aspects related to Digital Communications courses, as well as increasing the student’s engagement, via the use of low-cost software defined radio devices. This methodology has been applied in the Degree in Telematics Engineering at the School of Engineering from the University of Valencia, Spain. With the aim of improving the engagement of both master and undergraduate students, a project based learning methodology has been implemented. In the paper, the methodology is described, several laboratory activities based on the 802.11 standard are presented, and recommendations for practice are given.

scholarly journals Course-based exhibitions: Serendipity in the physical and digital spaces of academic libraries

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 174-188
Author(s):  
Scott Fralin ◽  
Alice Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Active Learning ◽  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Virginia Tech ◽  
University Libraries ◽  
The Past ◽  
Special Collections ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The University ◽  
Digital Spaces

Library exhibition practices vary significantly between institutions, depending on expertise, resources and goals of the individual library. The University Libraries at Virginia Tech have supported and developed two exhibition programmes within the past 6 years, both with a focus on showcasing products and processes from classes around campus rather than library materials and artefacts. While such work is unique, it can provide valuable experiences both for the contributors and for the creators of these exhibitions, as well as those who see and interact with them. In this article, we discuss the history and origins of these programmes, the Course Exhibit Initiative and the Active Learning Curation Program, how they work and the outcomes they strive to achieve. We discuss the workflows that we take to showcase the work of our contributors and demonstrate how these programmes share some outcomes with exhibit programmes based in special collections but have their own unique challenges and opportunities. Finally, we make the case that the output of these two exhibit programmes provides a new experience of serendipity in libraries.

scholarly journals Using Active Learning to Teach Irrigation Concepts in Greenhouse Management

HortScience ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 1003B-1003
Author(s):  
Stephanie Burnett ◽  
Donglin Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Active Learning ◽  
Drip Irrigation ◽  
Plant Production ◽  
Student Experiences ◽  
Irrigation Frequency ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
The University ◽  
Water Waste ◽  
Wilting Point

In the past, horticulture students at the University of Maine have been taught to irrigate plants using only hand irrigation. It is becoming increasingly important to irrigate and fertilize efficiently in commercial greenhouses in order to reduce water waste and nutrient leaching. In 2004 and 2006, greenhouse management or plant production students were exposed to alternate methods of irrigating Dendranthema ×morifolium (chrysanthemum) in greenhouses to train students more effectively in irrigation techniques. In 2004, students measured the quantity of water applied to chrysanthemums once they reached the permanent wilting point from 26 Sept. until 30 Oct. The irrigation frequency generally increased as crops grew, but, the quantity of water applied upon irrigation was not significantly different. This experience provided students with a tangible idea of how irrigation frequency and timing change as crops grow, which could be applied to irrigation timing decisions in the future. In 2006, students grew a crop of chrysanthemums using alternate methods of irrigation (hand watering vs. drip irrigation) and fertilization. Student surveys in 2006 indicated that only 25% of students with previous experience working in a greenhouse or nursery had grown crops using drip irrigation, but all students with prior experience had irrigated by hand. Expanding student experiences with irrigation in the greenhouse uses active learning to instill students with more knowledge of irrigation and provide them with practical skills for irrigating efficiently and conservatively in the future.

Novae in the Magellanic Clouds

1979 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 96-101
Author(s):  
J.A. Graham
Keyword(s):  
Large Magellanic Cloud ◽  
Magellanic Cloud ◽  
Magellanic Clouds ◽  
University Of Michigan ◽  
The Past ◽  
Spectroscopic Information ◽  
Objective Prism ◽  
The University ◽  
Small Cloud ◽  
Low Dispersion

During the past several years, a systematic search for novae in the Magellanic Clouds has been carried out at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. The Curtis Schmidt telescope, on loan to CTIO from the University of Michigan is used to obtain plates every two weeks during the observing season. An objective prism is used on the telescope. This provides additional low-dispersion spectroscopic information when a nova is discovered. The plates cover an area of 5°x5°. One plate is sufficient to cover the Small Magellanic Cloud and four are taken of the Large Magellanic Cloud with an overlap so that the central bar is included on each plate. The methods used in the search have been described by Graham and Araya (1971). In the CTIO survey, 8 novae have been discovered in the Large Cloud but none in the Small Cloud. The survey was not carried out in 1974 or 1976. During 1974, one nova was discovered in the Small Cloud by MacConnell and Sanduleak (1974).

The consolidation of microscopy technology into a university research support facility: Reflections on the 1980's and projections for the 1990's at the university of iowa

1993 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 476-477
Author(s):  
Kenneth C. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Laser Scanning ◽  
Freeze Fracture ◽  
Freeze Substitution ◽  
Research Support ◽  
University Of Iowa ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
The Past ◽  
Research Grade ◽  
The University ◽  
Support Facility

The University of Iowa Central Electron Microscopy Research Facility(CEMRF) was established in 1981 to support all faculty, staff and students needing this technology. Initially the CEMRF was operated with one TEM, one SEM, three staff members and supported about 30 projects a year. During the past twelve years, the facility has replaced all instrumentation pre-dating 1981, and now includes 2 TEM's, 2 SEM's, 2 EDS systems, cryo-transfer specimen holders for both TEM and SEM, 2 parafin microtomes, 4 ultamicrotomes including cryoultramicrotomy, a Laser Scanning Confocal microscope, a research grade light microscope, an Ion Mill, film and print processing equipment, a rapid cryo-freezer, freeze substitution apparatus, a freeze-fracture/etching system, vacuum evaporators, sputter coaters, a plasma asher, and is currently evaluating scanning probe microscopes for acquisition. The facility presently consists of 10 staff members and supports over 150 projects annually from 44 departments in 5 Colleges and 10 industrial laboratories. One of the unique strengths of the CEMRF is that both Biomedical and Physical scientists use the facility.

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