Evaluation of students' learning behaviour and success in a practical computer networking course

Abstract

Computer science curricula include practical courses, where students can apply, deepen and anchor their theoretical knowledge. Universities have to provide a learning environment which fits into the educational system and also meets the needs of the students. While having various technical concepts to support the students, educational staff has to know the students' learning behaviour in order to decide, whether these concepts fit into and can improve upon an existing learning environment. We evaluated a practical university course with regard to learning success, students' learning behavior and their preferred environments. Our outcomes should be considered when modernizing a practical course by introducing an e-learning system.

A Virtual Classroom for Cybersecurity Education

“…Before we started the development of our DVCL with CA system, we evaluated [29,35] an on-campus practical networking course at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences, where students have to work out and solve assignments. They also have to defend their solutions.…”

“…Our evaluation showed that students of a traditional on-campus networking course deem it crucial for their learning success to be able to get support from a course advisor [29]. While an on-campus university will be able to provide course advisors, which can support students in so-called guided learning hours, this support is no longer feasible if students work e.g.…”

IEyeGASE: An Intelligent Eye Gaze-Based Assessment System for Deeper Insights into Learner Performance

“…Despite the best efforts from the academicians, learners struggle with programming activities particularly in a freshman course [37]. Various analytical methods [38,39] and e-learning platforms [30,32,40] are used to improve the learning experience of learners. All these research works focused on learning design and its evaluation but very few works [3,4,28,29,31,34,35,41,42] focused on learner's decision-making, lesson-specific skills and problem-solving skills.…”

An Exercise Assistant for Practical Networking and IT Security Courses in Higher Education

“…Recent evaluation shows that students of a traditional on-campus networking course deem it crucial for their learning success to be able to get support from a course advisor (Haag & Witte & Karsch & Vranken & van Eekelen 2013). While an on-campus university will be able to provide course advisors which can support students in so-called guided learning hours, this support is no longer feasible if students work e.g.…”