Digitization of exercise material for Thermodynamics
Background and justification of the project
The proposed project builds on an earlier project aimed at the digitization of the Mechanical Engineering bachelor’s course Thermodynamics (4EB00). The objectives of this digitization are (i) to make the course accessible to pre-master’s and international students and (ii) to offer regular Mechanical Engineering students the opportunity to follow the course in the form of ‘blended learning’. This digitalization increases the flexibility regarding both the lecture timetables of the various student groups and the room planning. As this version is entirely in English, it also removes the language barrier to the regular lecture (partly in Dutch). The current digital version is based on a reader which is available via the CANVAS page for 4EB00. This reader follows the layout of the regular lecture and includes:
- a brief summary of the topics covered by each lecture;
- references to the lecture slides on CANVAS and the recommended book;
- integrated web links to lectures (TU/e video lectures and external lectures via YouTube);
- integrated web links to external online practice material;
- references to the regular practice material on CANVAS.
Objectives and expected outcomes
The regular practice material consists of bundled exercises that are intended to be worked out during the guided self-study (worked out by the students themselves) and the lectures (worked out by the teacher). Concise results will be made available at the end of these sessions, but do not replace oral explanations and feedback. The suitability of this practice material to autonomous self-study and preparation for the examination is limited by this set-up. The objective of the project is to develop practice material that lends itself to autonomous self-study and examination preparation. The approach is to ‘translate’ the existing practice material into online quizzes which motivate and challenge students to actively explore the subject matter and which also provide insights into the extent to which this material has been mastered. To this end, online exercises will have to be developed in both a summative and formative form. In addition, these exercises must allow for sufficient variation in order to maintain their learning effect. The digital testing platform CIRRUS offers an ideal infrastructure for such online quizzes.
Results and learnings
This project is still ongoing.
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