Applications of E-Learning in Engineering Education

Applications of E-Learning in Engineering Education

1. 1. E-Learning in Engineering Education

   • Implementation of ICT
     • Delivery of classroom lectures
       • Assisted by: Presentations (sufficient material, circuit diagrams, process diagrams & flowchart), softcopies of books, animations & visualizations (for demonstrating component, functioning of circuit or process).
     • Demonstration and conduct of laboratory experiments
       • Assisted by: Visualizers, or digital still & video cameras, simulation software,engineering design and evaluation tools, mind-mapping tools such as Matlab, Mathematica andMathCAD (for network computing laboratory)
     • Course and class management and administration
       • Typical lecture management system - facilities for content delivery, email, forums, mailing lists, exams, self-assessment, groupwork, wikis, blogs, notebook,etc.
       • Team viewer, MS Lyns - deliver short online lectures, simulations using online whiteboard for narrations
       • SkyDrive, Ms Office 365 for education, Google Docs - walk in collaboration on seminar papers, project reports, experimental write-ups
       • Online tools & social networking - Google Talk, Skype used for AV and text instructions, sharing relevant news and notices

2. 2. Current Practices of ICT & E-Learning in Engineering Education

   • Based on science and mathematics
   • Difficulty: The need for lab and equation manipulation
   • Online study
     • (1) Digitalized content - Lectures notes, e-books, tutorial, Open Course Ware Consortium, Open University Open Learn project
     • (2) Learning object - Simulations, structured lessons, animations, videos - MERLOT, JORUM
     • (3) Multi-user, dynamic and interactive learning environments - Finesse, WiFi Virtual Laboratory
   • VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS (VLE)
     • support online delivery of content
     • support e-mail, newsgroup, and bulletin boards
     • evolved into Mangaed Learning Environments (MLE) to support notice-boards, chat rooms, online assessment, whiteboards
     • Moodle, WebCT / Blackboard, Ilias, LRN, Sakai, Claroline
     • lifelong learning project - nQuire, LIFE
   • 4 Groups of deficiencies in the conventional teaching and learning system
     • (1) inadequate student - teacher interaction
     • (2) Complex teaching and learning
     • (3) Loss of synchronization
     • (4) Weak collaboration and communication
     • （5) Difficult student management

3. 3. Case Study

   • Method
     • 2 survey instrument
       • Gather info about existing use of basic ICT tools
       • Gather info about the use of web based trainings tools
   • Results
     • E-learning is not even used moderately
     • Student is encouraged to use online learnig modes
     • E- resources very rarely uploaded, online interaction and assessment almost absent

4. Discussions

   • ICT & E-Learning improve efficiency of engineering education
   • Enhances required competences for engineers
   • Still very stage of adoption
   • Diverse challenges
     • Personal or dispositional
     • Learning style
     • Instructional
     • Situational
     • Organizational
     • Contact suitability
     • Technoligical