Abstract
Engineering degrees require a strong background in Physical Sciences and Mathematics, demanding a high level of conceptualization and abstract reasoning that many students do not possess at the entry level of their high education studies. This can cause students demotivation and dropout, a situation that Higher Education institutions have felt the need to cope with. One methodology to address this problem is to introduce the use of robots in the classes. This tool has unique characteristics that may potentially contribute to increase students’ motivation and engagement, which are key factors on their academic success. This paper presents the rationale, challenges and methodology used to introduce robots as a tool to teach introductory electronics to first year students in a Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering Masters degree. The paper also reports evaluation indicators that result from two different surveys, one generic, carried out in the scope of the Quality Assurance System of the University, and another one developed specifically to evaluate the course. The results confirm that there is a clear and overall positive impact. Particularly significant are the gains on the students motivation and subject comprehension, without a noticeable impact on the course difficulty and required effort. It is also specially relevant that students are strongly in favour of keeping robot’s usage due to its impact on both knowledge and motivation.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
The questionnaire is still open at the moment of writing this text.
References
Aroca, R.V., Watanabe, F.Y., Avila, M.T.D., Hernandes, A.C.: Mobile robotics integration in introductory undergraduate engineering courses, pp. 139–144. IEEE (2016). https://doi.org/10.1109/LARS-SBR.2016.30. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7783516/
Beer, R.D., Chiel, H.J., Drushel, R.F.: Using autonomous robotics to teach science and engineering. Commun. ACM 42(6), 85–92 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1145/303849.303866. http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=303849.303866
Benitti, F.B.V.: Exploring the educational potential of robotics in schools: a systematic review. Comput. Educ. 58(3), 978–988 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.10.006. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0360131511002508
Berzonsky, M.D., Kuk, L.S.: Identity status, identity processing style, and the transition to university. J. Adolesc. Res. 15(1), 81–98 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558400151005
Eguchi, A.: RoboCupJunior for promoting STEM education, 21st century skills, and technological advancement through robotics competition. Robot. Autonom. Syst. 75, 692–699 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.robot.2015.05.013. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0921889015001281
Fagin, B., Merkle, L.: Measuring the effectiveness of robots in teaching computer science. In: SIGCSE 2003 Proceedings of the 34th SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, p. 307. ACM Press, Reno (2003). https://doi.org/10.1145/611892.611994. http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=611892.611994
Fonseca, P., Pedreiras, P., Cabral, P., Cunha, B., Silva, F., Matos, J.N.: Motivating first year students for an engineering degree. In: CISPEE 2016 – 2nd International Conference of the Portuguese Society for Education in Engineering, Vila Real, Portugal (2016). https://doi.org/10.1109/CISPEE.2016.7777745. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7777745/
French, B.F., Immekus, J.C., Oakes, W.C.: An examination of indicators of engineering students’ success and persistence. J. Eng. Educ. 94(4), 419–425 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2005.tb00869.x
Greenwald, L., Kopena, J.: Mobile robot labs. IEEE Robot. Automat. Mag. 10(2), 25–32 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1109/MRA.2003.1213613
Kantanis, T.: The role of social transition in students’: adjustment to the first-year of university. J. Inst. Res. 9(1), 100–110 (2000)
Kim, C., Kim, D., Yuan, J., Hill, R.B., Doshi, P., Thai, C.N.: Robotics to promote elementary education pre-service teachers’ STEM engagement, learning, and teaching. Comput. Educ. 91, 14–31 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2015.08.005. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0360131515300257
Lalonde, J., Bartley, C., Nourbakhsh, I.: Mobile robot programming in education, pp. 345–350. IEEE (2006). https://doi.org/10.1109/ROBOT.2006.1641735. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1641735/
Linnenbrink, E.A., Pintrich, P.R.: Motivation as an enabler for academic success. Sch. Psychol. Rev. 31(3), 313 (2002)
Lynch, D.J.: Motivational factors, learning strategies and resource management as predictors of course grades. Coll. Student J. 40(2), 423–428 (2006)
McGill, M.M.: Learning to program with personal robots: influences on student motivation. ACM Trans. Comput. Educ. 12(1), 1–32 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1145/2133797.2133801. http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=2133797.2133801
McLurkin, J., Rykowski, J., John, M., Kaseman, Q., Lynch, A.J.: Using multi-robot systems for engineering education: teaching and outreach with large numbers of an advanced, low-cost robot. IEEE Trans. Educ. 56(1), 24–33 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1109/TE.2012.2222646. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6363493/
Mirats Tur, J., Pfeiffer, C.: Mobile robot design in education. IEEE Robot. Autom. Mag. 13(1), 69–75 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1109/MRA.2006.1598055. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1598055/
Nourbakhsh, I.R., Crowley, K., Bhave, A., Hamner, E., Hsiu, T., Perez-Bergquist, A., Richards, S., Wilkinson, K.: The robotic autonomy mobile robotics course: robot design, curriculum design and educational assessment. Autonom. Robots 18(1), 103–127 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:AURO.0000047303.20624.02. http://link.springer.com/10.1023/B:AURO.0000047303.20624.02
Oliver, J., Toledo, R.: On the use of robots in a PBL in the first year of computer science/computer engineering studies. In: Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), pp. 1–6. IEEE (2012). https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON.2012.6201026. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6201026/
Ortiz, O.O., Pastor Franco, J.A., Alcover Garau, P.M., Herrero Martin, R.: Innovative mobile robot method: improving the learning of programming languages in engineering degrees. IEEE Trans. Educ. 60(2), 143–148 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1109/TE.2016.2608779. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7582486/
Sakata Jr., K., Olguin, G.S.: Robotics: a case study of contextualization in engineering education. In: WEE2011 - 1st World Engineering Education Flash Week, Lisbon, Portugal (2011)
Spolaôr, N., Benitti, F.B.: Robotics applications grounded in learning theories on tertiary education: a systematic review. Comput. Educ. 112, 97–107 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2017.05.001.http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0360131517300970
Tao, S., Dong, Q., Pratt, M.W., Hunsberger, B., Pancer, S.M.: Social support: relations to coping and adjustment during the transition to University in the People’s Republic of China. J. Adolesc. Res. 15(1), 123–144 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558400151007
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge the work of Prof. JosĂ© LuĂs Azevedo, the main developer of DETI robot for his work in the development of tools to promote robotics at student level.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Fonseca, P., Pedreiras, P., Silva, F. (2018). Mobile Robots as a Tool to Teach First Year Engineering Electronics. In: Ollero, A., Sanfeliu, A., Montano, L., Lau, N., Cardeira, C. (eds) ROBOT 2017: Third Iberian Robotics Conference. ROBOT 2017. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 694. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70836-2_32
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70836-2_32
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-70835-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-70836-2
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)