Authors:
Faria, Giovanni and Peres, Michel Fernandes and Neto, Osmar Moreira da Silva and Silva, Carlos Alexandre Gouvea da
Abstract:
In recent years, educators and engineering students have become increasingly concerned with classroom teaching and learning, especially the challenges of improving teaching that are so important to the education of Engineers. One of the biggest challenges is getting students to try and experience hands-on activities quickly and easily understanding. Many universities rely on adequate infrastructure, laboratory availability, and minimum budget to make students experience this experience in practice. For Electrical Engineering students, these challenges are even greater when the use of practical and well-equipped laboratories is required, especially in activities with power systems and electric motors. This paper presents the development and design of a Didactic Workbench for Motor Protection (DWMP) that allows students to simulate different types of three-phase motor failures. In addition to simulating failures, the workbench performs different protection actions of these motors through an Intelligent Electronic Device (IED). Thus, it is expected to assist the student in the learning process to identify, interpret and act on faults and protection of electric motors.
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Authors:
Ferré, María and García-Barroso, Carlos and García-Famoso, Montse and Sánchez, David and Valls, Aïda
Abstract:
Software projects are amongst the most common professional activities of computer engineers. Gaining competences on the design and development of software projects is, however, a complex issue that cannot be tackled within a single subject. In this article, we detail the design and implementation of a teaching methodology that aims at providing a comprehensive simulation of the whole life cycle of software projects throughout the coordination of the practical exercises of subjects of different courses. The proposal consists in developing the same software project in consecutive courses under the perspective of the three main roles involved in the project development: designer, developer and director. In the second course, the students exercise the developer role in teams of 4 people under the supervision of a student of the fourth course, who acts as the director. The director has previously proposed a formal design of the project in the third course (designer role). This methodology has been successfully deployed for 4 years in the Computer Engineering Degree at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili. The results show an improvement of the skills and competences related to the three involved subjects, which include better programming quality, better team coordination and fulfilment of deadlines, as well as a much practical view of the director's role.
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Authors:
Alfaro, Jaime Gutiérrez and Molina, Diego Munguía and Jiménez, Ivannia Valverde
Abstract:
This paper presents a methodology for conducting and systematizing educational activities to accomplish two objectives: (a) disseminate the role of free technologies in society among primary school children through the implementation of free cartography workshops; (b) contribute to the comprehensive formation of Computing Engineering students, specifically in the development of soft skills and social context awareness. The free cartography workshops are performed by university students and are aimed at primary school children. Concepts like local knowledge and collaborative knowledge construction, as well as basic cartography terminology are constructed through playful activities. Cartography related tasks are completed through the use of the free software Open Street Maps and Field Papers. The proposed methodology has been designed based on the results of a previous experience, carried out in 2016 in rural areas of the country, in the context of the celebration of the Science and Technology Month, an event organized by the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Telecommunications (MICITT). The paper also describes the experience provided by using this methodology in two free cartography workshops held in communities with a lower social development index. Finally, the workshops methodology is enriched with a proposal for an experience systematization process aiming at acknowledging learning, evaluating results and identifying possible improvements to the workshops methodology.
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Authors:
García-Murillo, Gabriel and Novoa-Hernández, Pavel and Rodríguez, Rocío Serrano
Abstract:
Moodle is a learning management system (LMS) widely distributed on a global scale and therefore studied in the context of blended learning. Although the literature includes important contributions on satisfaction evaluations of this LMS, to the best of our knowledge, no investigations exist providing a quantitative summary of them. In this sense, we focus on summarizing the degree of global technological satisfaction that users have about Moodle, specifically in the context of Higher Education. A meta-analysis of proportions was carried out on the studies published from 2001 to 2019. The degree of technological satisfaction regarding Moodle was considered the effect size. Results show that Moodle gave users a high degree of technological satisfaction (effect size of 0.78 with a 95% confidence interval of 0.72 to 0.84). These results have a moderate but significant heterogeneity of 67%. It was also observed that this effect size is not sensitive to factors such as the number of participants, the application of an evaluation standard and the comparison of Moodle with other LMSs. However, participant type (lecturer or student) was a significant moderator variable. No publication bias was observed (p-value of the Egger test >0.05).
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Authors:
Caminero, Agustín C. and Ros, Salvador
Abstract:
Contribution: The main contribution of this work is a way to improve existing degrees with state-of-the-art technologies so that they stay interesting and useful for students. It is of interest to faculty in any University worldwide, especially in Engineering Education, where the constant evolution of technology makes faculty devote effort to keep courses up-to-date. Background: Over last few years, Big Data has been one of the most demanded technologies by companies in any field. In order to fill this need of Big Data professionals, Universities must create new degrees or update existing degrees so that their graduated students are ready to perform this job. For this, the Degree in Computer Engineering of our University, which is taught totally online, has been updated to include Big Data technologies. These technologies are included in a databases course. Intended outcomes: The proposal allows faculty from any university worldwide to keep degrees up-to-date with minimal administrative effort. Application design: Big Data technologies have been included in a practical exercise, since deeper modifications in the course would require a lot administrative of effort. This work presents this exercise focusing on the learning objectives it pursues. Findings: A number of dimensions are analyzed over several academic years, resulting that almost all submitting students have achieved all the learning outcomes of the exercise, the course evaluation and success rates have improved, and students value positively the exercise, the materials, and the knowledge acquired.
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Authors:
González Segura, Cinhtia Maribel and García García, Michel and Menéndez-Domínguez, Víctor Hugo and Sánchez Arias, Víctor Germán
Abstract:
Competency assessment is a complex problem that has been approached from multiple perspectives but remains a work in progress. This paper presents a new competency assessment model accompanied by a computational assistant that guides its implementation. The model covers seven phases of an evaluation process, beginning with the definition of the competency and ending with the feedback of evidence provided from the teacher to the students. In each phase, the assistant provides suggestions to the teacher, which are obtained through text analysis algorithms and improve as information is added. The model was validated through pre and post-test study requiring the participation of a group of university teachers. The results indicate that with the use of the model, the time invested by the teacher in evaluation tasks is reduced, the clarity and completeness of the process improves, and an integrated evaluation of generic and specific competences is achieved.
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Authors:
Guzmán, Juan David and Guzmán, Diego Enrique and Rengifo, Carlos Felipe
Abstract:
This article presents a low-cost educational platform to teach human gait instability assessment using the Lyapunov exponents. The system consists of a cellphone used to measure the acceleration or angular velocity of human body segments, a head-mounted display device, a second cellphone used to visualize the virtual environment developed in Unity3D, a device used to measure the gait speed, and a MATLAB application for data processing. The proposed platform was tested on ten healthy subjects (33.4±9.1 years) under three walking conditions: (i) in a real-world environment, (ii) in a virtual corridor, and (iii) by adding optical flow perturbations to the virtual environment. A survey conducted in the elective class Automatic Systems of Analysis and Capture of Human Gait at Universidad del Cauca, showed the usability of the proposed platform.
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Authors:
González-González, Carina S. and García-Holgado, Alicia and Peixoto, Aruquia
Abstract:
The goal of this invited editorial is to introduce the second set of articles of the special issue on Diversity and Equity in STEM. This special issue integrates papers focused on identifying, sharing and valorizing experiences, projects and best practices focused on promoting diversity and gender equality in STEM sectors, both academic and professional. The papers were submitted and reviewed in an open format, and also, the extended versions of the papers were presented at the special track on Bridging the Diversity Gap in STEM at the Workshop of Engendering Technologies 2019 presented at the International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (INTERACCIÓN 2019), held in San Sebastian, Spain, and the Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality (TEEM 2019) Conference, held in Leon, Spain.
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Authors:
Carballo, Julia and Gómez-Rodríguez, Alma María and de las Nieves Lorenzo-González, María
Abstract:
STEM disciplines present a low number of female vocations. In the Campus of Ourense (University of Vigo), women from Science and Engineering fields have promoted a non-university student's competition and a fair called “eXXperimenta en feminino” in order to make visible the role of women in STEM to students of secondary and high school. The motivation behind these actions is to highlight the role of women in the STEM disciplines and attract female students to those studies, which have a low percentage of enrollment of women. The results and conclusions of those initiatives are presented in this work. Regarding the opinions provided by participants, the events have achieved a high satisfaction level.
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Authors:
Paganini, Lavínia and Gama, Kiev
Abstract:
Hackathons are events that are a sort of application development marathons - lasting between 24 and 48 hours - that became increasingly popular as a method for fast learning and bring people in a short space of time to make creative projects. However, the number of women participating in these events is extremely low and worrying, even when considering multidisciplinary teams - including software engineers, designers, social educators, etc. This study is a step forward to understand the reasons for women being absent in this type of event. We sought for evidence on their behavior and concerns that could cause them avoiding such participation. For this, a case study was carried out in a female-focused hackathon, Hack Grrrl, which took place in the city of Recife, Brazil, in June 2019.
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