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Clara Viegas1, Natércia Lima1, Gustavo Alves1, Ingvar Gustavsson2

1 Polytechnic Institute of Porto, School of Engineering, Porto, Portugal2 Blekinge Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, Karlskrona, Sweden

Track

Educational Innovation

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• Introduction

• Implementation Design

• Curricular Design

• Assessment methodology

• Research Design and Data Collection

• Data Analysis and Discussion

• Class attending and test results

• Students learning perception on students’ results

• Teacher perception

• Conclusion

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• Computer Simulations and Remote Labs:

used as en educational tool

prove to be effective in students

learning gains

o increase students’ results on

“Electricity”

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each method allows developing different

competences

teachers to reach more students due to

their different learning styles.

However, these gains are still understudied

in literature…

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“Electricity” course – 1st year, 2nd Semester of a 3 year

degree “Automotive Engineering” (79 enrolled students):

Duration: 6 weeks

• 1 h recitation classes (T)

• 1h calculus practise classes

• 1h of laboratory classes (PL)

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Example of a circuit that students had to assemble in

the Toyota demo board, powered by a typical car

battery:

measure voltage and electrical currents (and

perform calculus verifying basic electrical laws)

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Circuit Simulator (used in T and PL classes):

• T classes: for immediately visualizing circuit

variables

• PL classes: verifying the results of calculus and to

predict the values resulting from circuit

measurements

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Remote Lab – VISIR (used in T and PL classes):

• T classes: to exemplify the hands-on procedure for

measuring a given circuit variable

• PL classes: practised to mount a circuit powered

with the DC supply and use the multimeter to

measure currents and voltage

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Assessment Test Design (in the end of the intervention):

• 24 different test versions (as the 3 PL classes were

distributed along several days)

• each required the analysis of 2 circuits (C1 and C2)

where:

• C1: calculus work, simulation and remote lab

• C2: hands-on lab and simulation

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Compare students’ perception of learning and

their opinions on the different teaching

resources with their academic results and

teachers’ opinion

Test assignment results, analysed partially and the

overall

Learning Perception Questionnaire

(PLEQ)

Teacher’ perception of the didactic

intervention and students’ learning

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Class attending and test results

• 83% of students attended the test

• Simulator - shows better results

• Remote lab - students have more difficulties

•The “most attending students” performed better and this is

more relevant in remote lab

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MOODLE records

• Number of accesses in each virtual component:

a tendency that students accessed more had

better grades

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Learning Perception Questionnaire results

• different learning environments importance:

“hands-on” first, followed by “calculus classes”

2.55

3.32

4.5

2.27

2.36

2

4

5

2

2

1

4

5

3

2

Lecture

Calculus

Hands-on Lab

Simulation

Remote Lab

Perception of the Learning Environments Importance

Mode Mediane Average

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Learning Perception Questionnaire results

• each type of study importance:

“in class” or “with the help of the teacher”

3.64

3.41

2.23

3.68

2.05

4

3.5

2

4

1.5

5

2

3

1

In class

Autonomous

With colleagues

With theprofessor

With thecomputer

Perception of the Type of Study ImportanceMode Mediane Average

My colleagues

14%

Mine47%

My Professors

34%

Other5%

Learning Responsability Distribution

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Learning Perception Questionnaire results

• identified factors students feel (and explain) which

helped or hindered their learning

0

10

20

30

40

Lecture CalculusClass

Hands-onLab

Simulation Remote Lab

Number of factors identified in relation to each learning environment

Helps

Hinders

in class autonomous withcolleagues

with theprofessor

with thecomputer

Number of factors identified in relation to each type of study

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Teacher Perception *

• about the didactic approach:

the usage of various tools is important – helps

students adaptation to the complexity of practical

problems in the future

Remote lab is of most value to compensate the

large number of students per class and little lab

time.

• about students’ learning:

helps students develop basic knowledge and

competences about electricity

* teacher with 20 years experience in this course

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“Hands-on” and “Calculus” classes are the

preferred learning environments; still they were

not the environments were they performed better

More at ease with simulation environment

Remote lab is the one where they had more

difficulties – VISIR was felt as an extra obstacle

they would have to endure (requires effort to

overcome initial difficulties…)

Students’ distribution of the learning

responsibilities shows that students are still very

dependent on what their teacher does.

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Students, in general, are more involved and

participative in the proposed tasks

Students achieved better school results

Improve course design:

Less time in calculus classes

Less time spent in introducing the simulator

“Hands-on” – better and more material available,

smaller groups, computers in the branches, more

time in class

The key to increase students’ scholar results and

competences is finding the right balance between

these components!

Many thanks

for your attention!

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