BLENDED LEARNING IN ELECTRONICS AND AUTOMATION ENGINEERING: A STUDY OF SOFTWARE SUPPORT AND BEST PRACTICES

Online and distance learning courses have gained a great interest and have been included as teaching modes in several Universities. Up to date, about 58 million people have already enrolled in Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC) [1]. Several institutions also offer online and distance learning courses with the aim of attracting the attention of international students [2]. Blended learning combines both online resources and traditional face-to-face activities.

In the past, the Escuela Universitaria Politécnica de Teruel (EUPT) at the University of Zaragoza offered blended-learning courses for undergraduate students of Computer Engineering. Nowadays, the EUPT intends to offer blended-learning courses for undergraduate students of Engineering on Electronics and Automation. The goal is to make knowledge more accessible and better suited to the day life of prospective students, which may be working, rising children, or living in other cities or countries. In this paper, a study on supporting software and best practices for online and distance learning courses in the University of Zaragoza is presented. The study is based on consolidated experience. Regarding software, we have analyzed the suitability of Moodle, the open-source learning platform used in the University of Zaragoza, for distance learning. We have also compared Moodle with other learning platforms for blended learning. In addition, different software packages for the development of learning contents and its integration with Moodle have also been studied.

In this paper, we list the advantages and disadvantages of using Moodle for online and distance courses. Some specific tools for the development of learning contents to support the blended-learning modality are studied, analysing their most important features. Finally, with regards to lessons learned from our consolidated experience in distance learning, we state what we consider some good teaching practices for blended-learning.

References:
[1] R. Ubell, "MOOCs come back to earth (Resources Education)," in IEEE Spectrum, 54 (3), (2017), pp. 22-22.
[2] T. R. Ortelt, S. Pekasch, K. Lensing, P. J. Gueno, D. May and A. E. Tekkaya, "Concepts of the international manufacturing remote lab (MINTReLab): Combination of a MOOC and a remote lab for a manufacturing technology online course," 2016 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), Abu Dhabi, 2016, pp. 602-607.