Abstract:

Industrial Information Technology students had to adapt to confinement and space restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemics. During these months, they could not develop many of the firsthand exercises and projects we propose to them. Fortunately, there were positives too, since many of them discovered on their own that there are plenty of tools available for them to learn.

Teachers also lived the same situation. How could we encourage our students to keep on learning in such a tough environment? How could they adapt to the new challenges the remote work and isolation brought with them?

Additionally, Industrial IT courses are themselves challenging for Industrial Engineering students since it is a fast-evolving area and the tools and techniques change pretty fast. Students with basic programming skills face the challenge of programming functions in the Cloud, programming IoT devices, or developing container-based applications even during their internship periods in nearby enterprises. They should be able to adapt to the new scenarios they meet in their near-future work environment.

In this context, the present work has been conducted. A series of challenges and demos have been launched parallel to the regular programme of the course. These challenges are presented in an enticing way using short videos and blog entries, and all of them provide online resources for doing the hands-on exercises proposed. From Cloud computing to learning new programming languages, the students are able to tackle the challenges presented using online tools such as Kaggle or Microsoft Azure. the teachers give the guidelines for achieving the goals, but the proposals have always open exercises that make easier to gain new skills during the learning process.

The experience has had positive feedback from the students, both in the official surveys of the course and in the direct feedback we get from them.

Keywords:

Self-paced learning, online resources for learning, challenges, Industrial Information Systems, student engaging, remote learning.