Abstract:

Classroom lectures are necessary to establish concepts, strengthen knowledge, and encourage participation and the spirit of group work and, therefore, the sociability of students. In particular, in the case of engineering, they will serve as a platform to justify the reason for situations that will later be presented in practical classes and / or laboratory [1]. However, engineering students do not feel the need for the strategy or rote method for knowledge acquisition, alluding to the eminently practical nature of their studies. Nevertheless, this perception should be clarified from the first moment of access to the University, since memory is a precious asset that must be cared for and used correctly.

Previous experiences have shown the improvements of new learning and teaching methods with engineering students [2]. To evaluate possible strategies that complement the learning of engineering students, for more than six years have been implemented both, the attendance to a conference keynote given by professors within the Erasmus Program, as well as a visit to companies closely related to the topic involved on Science and Engineering. It has been developed in the aim of Materials and Technology lecture. The present work analyzes carefully the results of surveys made with the students, with the purpose of knowing their perception after accomplishment of these activities. The main conclusion is that, the opinion and perception of usefulness of these two are quite different; industry installations visit creates a global vision of next job, while conference keynote´s attendance taught in English creates a high expectation against new learning method.

References:
[1] H. Garcia, J. Cuadrado, M.V. Biezma, E. Rojí, E. Briz, “High performance of university students: focus on lectures schedules”. Proc., EDULEARN16 - 8th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies, 2016, Barcelona, España, pp. 8106-8115. ISBN: 978-84-608-8860-4
[2] M. V. Biezma, S. Faldini, “The way to teaching corrosion based on visual inspection: student’s opinions” Proc. European Corrosion Congress, EUROCORR 2014, Pisa, Italia, 2014, ISBN: 978-3-89746-159-8

Keywords:

Engineering students, company’s visit, conference keynote.