Abstract:

Psychologist and educationalist have recognised that each student has a very different approach to learning and processing information, suggesting dire need to reboot the entire teaching and learning experience. Europe is experiencing a significant decline of interest in STEM subjects among students which has become a major concern as engineers and technicians are struggling with the problem of skewed image and declining public recognition which is leading to shortage of scientific and technological staff. To deal with the crises, amalgamation of education with different strategies have become a new trend. Strategies like multimedia assisted learning materials and Problem-based Learning (PBL) can inculcate clarity and motivation in students by employing edutainment-based pedagogical approach.

In this paper, we present a study of the impacts of multimedia assisted learning materials and PBL on students subjective feelings and learning outcomes during a Programming module. This study was conducted as part of the NEWTON Project Programming Large-scale Pilot deployed in Dublin City University (DCU). The NEWTON Project, funded by EU Horizon 2020, aims at developing a networked platform to assist the delivery of innovative learning approaches, such as PBL, game-based learning, and technology-enhanced learning materials, including virtual labs, virtual reality, multimedia content, mulsemedia content, and fabrication labs. The combination of multimedia assisted learning materials and PBL was delivered through the NEWTELP Platform and was utilized during the lab sessions in two consecutive weeks in the EM108 Software Development for Engineers in DCU. Students were first given a series of videos that cover the knowledge related to “array”, then they worked in groups of 3 to solve a PBL project, called “Morra”. After they finished the project, they were asked to fill in a questionnaire which includes questions covering aspects such as affective state, problem solving skills, and team work. Each student also got a mark according to their codes and the final report of the PBL project.

In total, we received valid questionnaire results and marks from 34 students. Results of the questionnaire indicate that students give importance to the team work as 58.83% and 67.65% of them agreed or strongly agreed that they enjoyed working as part of a team and they were willing to forego personal goals for the benefit of the group. Regarding problem solving skills, 61.76%, 67.64% and 70.58% of students gave positive feedbacks to the question “The project has helped me to develop my problem-solving skills”,” I can apply a variety of problem-solving approaches” and “I am able to express disagreement or disappointment directly”, respectively. Moreover, 56% of students agreed or strongly agreed the multimedia assisted learning materials and PBL made them more interested in the Programming course. The analysis of students’ PBL project marks shows that the vast majority of them got very good marks: 84.5% of them got marks between 80 to 100 (out of 100). Only 3% of them got marks below 40.

Keywords:

Problem based learning, technology-enhanced learning, multimedia, Programming, pilot, STEM.