22/11/2014
Abstract
This three-year Virtual Measurements Environment curriculum development project for higher education within the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union is the result of intense collaboration among four institutions, teaching applied sciences and technology. It aims to apply the principles and possibilities of evolved distance and e-learning in originally traditional course materials and laboratory experiments during all the stages of the learning and assimilating process. One of the challenges for the consortium was the use of a common electronic learning platform. By filling in questionnaires the students at the partner institutions could contribute to the usefulness of the developed outcomes. Some students even volunteered to go abroad to a partner institution for a short time to execute and evaluate some tasks and laboratory experiments, and thus creating added value to the e-learning possibilities.
The project outcomes are diverse, ranging from physics to electronics. Subsequently, they can be integrated into a broad spectrum of topics. When taking all the developed modules and laboratory experiments the student is awarded a maximum of 20 ECTS credits.
On the whole, this Erasmus project was fascinating not in the least because of the possibilities of the blended problem-based learning model and the difficulties raised by the common electronic learning platform – both technically and pedagogically.
Keywords: Distance learning, blended problem-based learning, electronic learning platform, remote measurement, virtual laboratory experiment, international co-operation, student mobility
List of Topics
Introduction
Preliminary considerations
Background of the project and course modules
The VME-project: objectives and methodology
The course module on Vacuum Science and Techniques for Nanoscience
The course module on Electronics of Devices and Circuits
The course module on the Measurement of the Hall Effect
The course module on Monitoring of Environment and Industrial Drive Systems
Project guidelines and results of the questionnaires
Conclusions
References
Introduction
In 2004 the European Open and Distance Learning Liaison Committee delivered a policy paper "Distance Learning and eLearning in European Policy and Practice: The Vision and the Reality" to European and national policy makers in charge of learning innovation [LC 2004]. This paper produced a certain impact on the European Commission's actions and initiatives. On 3 May 2006 followed the second policy paper "Learning Innovation for the Adapted Lisbon Agenda" [LC 2006]. It demanded attention to the need of co-ordination among EC services, on the opportunity to connect the Lifelong Learning agenda and eLearning developments, and on the opportunity to consult more systematically the relevant professional networks and stakeholders on new policy developments. As the discussions on eLearning and ICT for learning had flared up, the required learning innovation was bound to emerge.
Two recommendations for urgent action and for systematic innovation and support are of some importance for any future European project in higher education: it should create flexible and distance learning and technology supported learning, and develop a culture of innovation in all education and training activities [LC 2006, 7-8].The European Commission in the person of Maruja Gutiérrez Diaz, by the end of the same year the European Commission launched the Lifelong Learning Programme (2007-2013), including fundings for a.o. innovative Socrates projects for higher education.
Preliminary considerations
According to Szucs, distance learning has always been characterised by creativity on the part of the educators and administrators who provide distance study programmes, characterised by access, choice and flexibility options for students [Szucs 2009, 1]. Szucs notes in passing that the EU Minerva Programme in the late nineties of the preceding century recommended the "critical and responsible use of technologies" regarding the use of new ICT tools in distance learning. He also remarks that the traditional paper-based distance education has almost disappeared, in favour of the electronic distance education. Regarding virtual mobility, Szucs notices that it "would form part of the greater transformation of higher education, becoming more inclusive, more international and more flexible" [Szucs 2009, 1].Evolved distance learning/e-learning "is now certainly presenting itself as a distinct, autonomous, multidimensional professional discipline and resource of coherent experience, increasingly producing and demonstrating its values, integrating theoretical aspects and system approach with valuable practical experience, strategy issues, implementation and management solutions" [LC 2004,3].
According to Curran [Curran 2004], e-learning strategies adopted by universities have been approaching the core issue from the perspective of three common objectives:
widening access to educational opportunity,
enhancing the quality of learning,
reducing the cost of higher education.
According to Szucs [Szucs 2009, 2-4] ICT-supported learning "was welcomed by higher education institutions as a strong modernisation message. Education policy-makers liked it because of the progressive perspectives and assumed transformation potential". But he also concludes that "in the meantime, the development of pedagogy and methodology and course development issues lagged behind considerably". It is generally acknowledged that "user habits and distance learner profiles are changing significantly, with high expectation for management". He underlines that at undergraduate level ICT-supported solutions are largely supplementary to classroom teaching. And he adds that "ICT is primarily used to support existing teaching structures and traditional ways of tuition". E-learning places an emphasis on enhancing active learning and teaching, small-group teaching, and collaborative work.
The introduction of digital technologies with the Internet connectivity caused a "new" way of teaching, learning and assimilating knowledge. It goes without saying that the student needs more than a PC/laptop and the access to an electronic learning platform: there is "the urgent need to create adequate professional and technological methods, quality and organisational standards" [Donnelly 2009, 5].
The term blended learning is used to represent the awareness of the need to design learning systems which are able to integrate at best different learning strategies including ICT-supported learning [LC 2004,2]. Blended learning is "mixed learning" including face-to-face classroom learning, distance and live e-learning, and self-paced instruction. Problem-based learning (PBL) uses a student-centred pedagogy, focuses on online problem-solving skills and aims to stimulate the learners' autonomy and responsibility for learning [Donnelly 2009, 2].
Background of the project and course modules
In the field of applied science and technology lectures, laboratory practices, experiments and course materials almost automatically imply the pressing need for up-to-date methodical approaches and pedagogical innovations. A lot of innovative and rather new tools are likely to be used, new didactical approaches and strategies are to be put into practice, and teaching staff as well as students should be made familiar with the possibilities of:
open and distance learning, electronic platforms,
online presentation of courses and test materials,
interaction between teacher and student or student and student,
virtual measurements in laboratory sessions, and
evaluation of the students' progress and examination via the electronic learning platforms [Priem 2009, 142].
Consequently, considering the challenges by the Lisbon strategies regarding pedagogical and didactic innovations in the domains of problem-based, blended, open, distance learning, e-learning and appropriate evaluation design on the one side, and the experiences of the close and year-long collaboration with three European institutions of higher education on the other hand, the Katholieke Hogeschool Brugge-Oostende (Catholic University College Bruges-Ostend) took the initiative to apply for the Virtual Measurements Environment project (VME), a Socrates joint curriculum development project of the EU Lifelong Learning Programme [VME].
The Dublin Institute of Technology in Dublin-Ireland (DIT-IE), the Institut Universitaire de Technologie de l'Université de Bordeaux 1inBordeaux-France (IUT/B1-FR), the Tampereen Ammattikorkeakoulu in Tampere-Finland (TAMK-FI), form part of the consortium with the Katholieke Hogeschool Brugge-Oostende in Oostende-Belgium (KHBO-BE) as project co-ordinator.
The collaboration of these four partners is rather evident, because of:
their Erasmus bilateral agreements on student and teacher mobility,
the familiarity with the different study programmes and curricula,
the diverse pedagogical and didactic approaches,
the need of familiarity with evolved distance and e-learning, the possibilities of electronic learning platforms, and finally
the desirability of integrating complementary course modules into each other's curricula.
The VME-project: objectives and methodology
This three-year project aims to apply the principles and possibilities of distance and e-learning in traditional course materials and laboratory sessions. The use of the computer as virtual measurement instrument in the laboratory is included. The course materials would be made available via Toledo - which is the Blackboard learning platform used at the KULeuven Association- the common electronic learning platform of the VME project [Toledo]. The learning platform offers the course participants two-way electronic communication opportunities.
The VME project focuses on course modules in which students are:
introduced to new scientific and technical developments,
instructed how to use a (virtual) laboratory measurement system,
made familiar with ways of interpreting and evaluating the outcomes of measurements, and
are shown how to submit the outcomes of the measurements for validation.
The pedagogical model of the project is based on four cornerstones, which can be realized via a common electronic learning platform:
student-centred learning,
flexibility,
interaction,
digital inclusion, aligned with the key-competences required for learners in our knowledge- based society.
It was assumed that this common electronic learning platform would be used in all the stages of teaching, learning and managing. The starting-point and pedagogical approach is blended learning. This is considered as a "mixed learning", including face-to-face classroom learning, distance and live e-learning, and self-paced instruction. It was also acknowledged that user habits and distance learner profiles are changing significantly [Szucs 2009, 3].
The transformative potential of blended PBL is based upon Mezirow's [Mezirow 1975, 1995] framework of stages leading to transformation:
activating events,
the identification and articulation of underlying current assumptions,
critical self-reflection,
critical discourse,
opportunities to test and apply new knowledge and perspective [Donnelly 2009, 18].
The course structure follows the old adage of learning by doing ("I hear and I forget - I see and I remember - I do and I understand"). According to Kolb's model [Kolb 1984] - shown in Figure 1 - learning occurs through a sequence of phases where concrete experiences generate an opportunity for observation and reflection. This, in turn, leads to the creation of new concepts and models that are then tested in novel situations. According to Kolb, learners need four different types of skills to make the learning cycle effective. They have to be able to (1) engage openly and without prejudgment in new experiences, (2) reflect and observe their experiences from many perspectives, (3) create concepts that integrate observations into logically sound theories, and, finally, (4) use these theories in decision-making and problem solving.
Schematic representation of Kolb's learning cycle
Figure 1. Schematic representation of Kolb's learning cycle
Taking and passing the learning modules may stimulate the students' interest in the topic and may give them an extra impulse to go abroad for a shorter period of time to one of the European project partner institutions. The participating institutions would thus welcome the exchange of students in addition to virtual mobility.
It was assumed that this VME-project should lead to the efficient application of distance learning and might not revert to traditional teaching. However, the project outcomes would mainly be based on existing learning materials. Eventually, the project outcomes would be integrated into the curriculum at the partner institutions, as each course module would represent a certain amount of ECTS credits (i.e. 3 or 5 ECTS credits as can be seen in the Figures 5, 11, 14).
