Assessing the Effect of Laboratory Activities on Core Curricular Units of an Engineering Master’s Program: A Multivariate Analysis

Lopes, António M.; Silva, Lucas F. M. da; Seabra, Jorge

doi:10.1155/2021/6678486

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…In line with the aim of our study and the residing call for verification of remote laboratories (Feisel & Rosa, 2005) and related pedagogies (Lopes et al, 2021), we formulated our research question as:…”

Section: Research Questionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Remote labs in higher engineering education: engaging students with active learning pedagogy

et al. 2022

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In engineering education laboratories serve as experiential learning aimed at engaging students. The past decades saw an increased use of online laboratories, including virtual and remote labs. Remote labs, providing online interfaces to physical labs, allow students to conduct experiments with real-world equipment anywhere and at any time. However, this advantage challenges active student engagement. Little evidence is available on effective pedagogies for student engagement in remote labs. This paper aims to identify how a remote lab assignment based on active learning pedagogy in higher engineering education supports student engagement, with the overarching aim to promote students’ transfer skills from theory to practice. Our research question, “What impact does an active learning pedagogy have on students’ engagement with a remote lab?“, was answered with a case study of two courses on systems and control in higher engineering education. Data included digital traces, course evaluations, interviews, and observations. Students reported how remote labs, to be used anywhere at any time, require self-regulation and scheduling of experiments. However, accompanying open-ended lab assignments encouraged students to engage with the lab and the theoretical content of the course by creating a ‘need-to-know.’ Our results furthermore suggest the need for a structured arrangement of open-ended lab assignment, lab preparation, teamwork supporting peer learning and discussion, progress meetings focused on feedback and formative assessment, and reports focused on reflection. Engagement can be strengthened by support for students before and during the experiments, clear signposting about the experiment and lab set-up, and pre-structuring of lab activities.

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Section: Research Questionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Remote labs in higher engineering education: engaging students with active learning pedagogy

et al. 2022

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“…At the end of the master the goal was that the graduates had expanded their level of skills, concentrating in one of five Mechanical Engineering scientific areas. [47][48][49][50] The Portuguese Government decreed in 2019 the dissolution of all engineering integrated masters. The decision led to the reformulation of MIEM in 2020/2021 and the creation of two new, autonomous, bachelor and master CS.…”

Section: The Integrated Master In Mechanical Engineering (Miem)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At the end of the master the goal was that the graduates had expanded their level of skills, concentrating in one of five Mechanical Engineering scientific areas. 47–50…”

Section: The Integrated Master In Mechanical Engineering (Miem)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the research and teaching performance of the mechanical engineering teaching staff at FEUP

Lopes

Silva

2022

International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education

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This paper analyses the research and teaching performance of the teaching staff of the Integrated Master in Mechanical Engineering (MIEM) at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP). Performance in the two strands of professional activity is measured by the number of publications authored by the individuals and their impact on the scientific community, and by the marks receive from the students through pedagogic questionnaires (PQs). The teaching staff includes all permanent elements involved in MIEM curricular units (CU), with the exception of those teaching just the CU Dissertation. The set has 74 professionals, with 62 from the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The staff bibliographic data are public and were collected from the Scopus database at the end of September, 2021. The PQs data are classified and were provided to the cycle of studies Board by FEUP” Sigarra administrative office. Data for all CUs were considered, with the exception of Dissertation, in a per semester basis, for the period 2016–2017 up to 2020–2021. The methodology consists of (i) processing and analyzing, separately, the datasets collected from Scopus and Sigarra to obtain statistical figures characterizing both areas of activity, and (ii) testing the research and teaching information to find out whether or not those data are correlated. The results show that the MIEM teaching staff has good publication rating, with (i) group h-index 117, (ii) 4 publications per capita in 2020, (iii) 23% owing more than 100 and 9% more than 200 works published, (iv) 22% having more than 1500 and 11% more than 3000 citations, and (iv) 19% holding h-index greater than 24 and 7% greater than 40. However, the distributions of research indicators are uneven, with (i) 50% of the staff contributing merely with 10% of the publications, (ii) 41% having less than 300 citations, and (iii) 43% holding h-index below 10. With respect to teaching, the MIEM staff is highly appreciated by the students. The average score over the period 2016–2020 is close to 5.3 points out of 7, with 19% receiving more than 6.0 and 51% more than 5.3. The scores are evenly distributed, with just 4% individuals rated below 4.0. Finally, it was found that the research and teaching data are not correlated (Pearson correlation coefficient less than 0.1), which strengthens the idea that all elements of the teaching staff can potentially be good on both components of activity, possibly, just needing appropriate stimuli and recognition.

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“…In 2019 the Portuguese Government took the decision to separate the integrated masters' degrees in two distinct CS, with the rationale of making the Portuguese higher education system more in line with the European practice and, therefore, to facilitate the mobility of students between European HEI. A structure based on 3 + 2 years was adopted for the new CS, thus, maintaining the basis of the "FEUP Mechanical Engineering product", but incorporating measures to overcome some MIEM's weaknesses (da Silva, Seabra, and Lopes 2021;Lopes, da Silva, and Seabra 2021). As such, the two new CS emerged as a renewed and stronger "product" by FEUP.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selecting the future

Duarte

Lopes

Silva

2021

JTeng

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In the last years, the Integrated Master in Mechanical Engineering (MIEM) at FEUP revealed a very high capability for attracting young students. However, the true reasons that determine the interest of the students in the Mechanical Engineering cycle of studies (CS) are not well understood. This paper tries to shed light on this question. A survey was prepared and applied to the first year students enrolled on MIEM in 2020-2021. The responses were analyzed statistically and organized comprehensively. The results show that the opinions of others, the quality and availability of information, the versatility and employability rates of the CS, the quality of training and the reputation of the HEI/CS are crucial. The findings can be further explored by the FEUP/CS decision makers to delineate policies envisaging strengthening the ability of Mechanical Engineering to compete for the best potential candidates to higher education. Indeed, the higher education institutions are aware that they have to fight for students in the global recruitment market and be more proactive than they used in the past.

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Assessing the Effect of Laboratory Activities on Core Curricular Units of an Engineering Master’s Program: A Multivariate Analysis

Cited by 3 publications

References 29 publications

Remote labs in higher engineering education: engaging students with active learning pedagogy

Remote labs in higher engineering education: engaging students with active learning pedagogy

Assessing the research and teaching performance of the mechanical engineering teaching staff at FEUP

Selecting the future

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