Abstract:

The teamwork skills included in the program of some subjects of the Degrees in Engineering must be developed by doing different activities during the semester. When these activities are not in person, it is necessary to count on cloud tools and services that let the students of each group work. In this regard, Google Cloud offers the service Colaboratory for activities that progressively allow students to develop their skills.

From any web browser, a student with a free Google email account can create, with the service Colaboratory and no need for previous configuration, a Colab notebook. It is automatically associated with a virtual machine featuring GPUs without additional cost. Thus, this service has a clear advantage, as it does not require users to have high computational power. This way, it is possible to organize practical lessons using smartphones, tablets, and simple computers connected to the Internet.

A Colab notebook is a multimedia document with different information elements (cells) that can contain i) plain or enriched text using Markdown, HTML code, LaTeX, web resources, pictures, or videos, and ii) Python code that can run within the document. Hence, one can combine descriptive text, commands, and plots in the same environment. This aspect allows teachers to create material for practical activities integrating instructions, theoretical explanations, examples, and exercises in the same document. Colab notebooks facilitate the autonomous and collaborative work of students, both in person and remotely.

In this work, the authors show how the Colab notebooks, along with the Python language, can be used to develop different interactive teaching materials. They optimize the acquisition of practical skills related to computing and potentiate teamwork while also giving the students an active role.

Keywords:

Teamwork, Colab notebooks, Python, Google Collaboratory, Cloud service.