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Effect of integrating IoT courses at the freshman level on learning attitude and behaviour in the classroom

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Abstract

As a technology the effect of the Internet of Things (IoT) is so strong that it has changed the way of living. The transition is also apparent in the field of education, as statutory technical training bodies have made IoT a mandatory course in engineering education. But in terms of design and instruction, implementing this course at the freshman-level is difficult. The target, of course, must be planned in such a way as to link newly enrolled learners to engineering disciplines and promote professional learning. This paper focuses on the freshman level designing and implementing of the course. A reliability test was performed to assess the internal consistency between student learning attitude, student engagement actions in the classroom and acceptance of technology. In addition, it analyzed the effect of gender differentiation. One hundred and twenty-three First Year Engineering Students participated in a survey questionnaire based on the five - point Likert scale provided at the end of the course. The findings show Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.93 for 12 test items, suggesting that the questionnaire was suitable for use as an assessment method for assessing how successful the course is in terms of learning attitude, behavioral engagement, and acceptance of technology. The reliability test results show a high correlation between acceptance of the technology and the behavioral engagement of the student. The internal consistency between the learning attitude with the conducted acceptance of the technology, and the result showed α = 0.715, making slight connection between two. Further the effect of gender on these parameters analyzed and found to be insignificant.

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Appendices

Annexure 1 “Course Clinic”

The course clinic was conceptualized to cater to the running doubts of the students regarding the course content and the activities.

Following were the features of Course Clinic.

The clinic was catering to two types of student queries

  • Generic Doubts: These were common doubts which were resolved instantaneously through WhatsApp or SMS.

  • Specific Doubts: The doubts which required the experts and detailed reasoning in the form of flow charts or equations were resolved through one to one meeting on appointment. These types of doubts were taken care of by specialists.

Annexure 2 “Mini Project”

Sample Problem statement for Mini Project

  1. 1.

    Automatic water level controller

Design an IoT solution to monitor the level of the water tank remotely and if the water level is below the threshold value switch on the motor to fill the container to the desired level.

  1. a.

    monitor water level

  2. b.

    Control the motor

  3. c.

    Send notification to the user

  1. 2.

    Weather monitoring system

Design an IoT solution to monitor the temperature and humidity inside a room. Save the data onto a cloud and find the average temperature and humidity for a day.

  1. a.

    Measure the temperature and humidity inside the room

  2. b.

    Store the data onto the cloud

  3. c.

    Calculate the average values of temperature and humidity and send the information to the user.

Group Size: This mini project is a group activity and the size of each group is restricted to four students.

Requirements for Submission:

The following are a set of requirements to complete this activity:

  • Project Plan

  • A working prototype of the project

  • A brief report of the project

  • Project Demo

Time Allocated for Mini-Project:

S. No

Type of Activity

Time allotted in days

1

Project plan preparation

1

2

Components Purchase and order

2

3

Prototype development

10

4

Report Preparation

2

Total Duration of Project Work

15

Evaluation Scheme: A continuous evaluation scheme as discussed in the main text followed to evaluate the mini-project activity.

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Malhotra, S., Kumar, A. & Dutta, R. Effect of integrating IoT courses at the freshman level on learning attitude and behaviour in the classroom. Educ Inf Technol 26, 2607–2621 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-020-10376-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-020-10376-0

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