Tag: Reflections on learning

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Conferences Education Research

SoftICE presents educational research at CSEDU 2017

SoftICE members Ottar L. Osen and Robin T. Bye and will be presenting two educational research papers at the 9th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2017) in Porto, Portugal on 21–23 April:

  • Ottar L. Osen and Robin T. Bye. Reflections on teaching electrical and computer engineering courses at the bachelor level. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computer Supported Education — Volume 2: CSEDU (CSEDU ’17), pages 57–68. INSTICC, SCITEPRESS, April 2017. Download pdf. View Prezi.
  • Robin T. Bye. The teacher as a facilitator for learning: Flipped classroom in a master’s course on artificial intelligence. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computer Supported Education — Volume 1: CSEDU (CSEDU ’17), pages 184–195. INSTICC, SCITEPRESS, April 2017. Download pdf. View Prezi.

The full papers and other work is available for download here: http://www.robinbye.com | Publications
The paper abstracts are provided below.

Reflections on teaching electrical and computer engineering courses at the bachelor level

This paper reflects on a number of observations the authors have made over many years of teaching courses in electrical and computer engineering bachelor programmes.
We suggest various methods and tips for improving lectures, attendance, group work, and compulsory coursework, and discuss aspects of facilitating active learning, focussing on simple in-classroom activities and larger problem-based activities such as assignments, projects, and laboratory work. Moreover, we identify solving real-world problems by means of practical application of relevant theory as key to achieving intended learning outcomes. Our observations and reflections are then put into a theoretical context, including students’ approaches of learning, constructive alignment, active learning, and problem-based versus problem-solving learning. Finally, we present and discuss some recent results from a student evaluation survey and draw some conclusions.

The teacher as a facilitator for learning: Flipped classroom in a master’s course on artificial intelligence

In this paper, I present a flipped classroom approach for teaching a master’s course on artificial intelligence. Traditional lectures in the classroom are outsourced to an open online course to free up valuable time for active, in-class learning activities. In addition, students design and implement intelligent algorithms for solving a variety of relevant problems cherrypicked from online game-like code development platforms. Learning activities are carefully chosen to align with intended learning outcomes, course curriculum, and assessment to allow for learning to be constructed by the students themselves under guidance by the teacher, much in accord with the theory of constructive alignment. Thus, the teacher acts as a facilitator for learning, much similar to that of a personal trainer or a coach. I present an overview of relevant literature, the course content and teaching methods, and a recent course evaluation, before I discuss some limiting frame factors and challenges with the approach and point to future work.