Including accessibility in higher education curricula for ICT

This paper describes the successful experience carried out by professors of the CETTICO research group of the Technical University of Madrid to incorporate accessibility in the curricula of higher education in ICT in Spain. The paper covers the legal requirements to include accessibility in curricula in Spain, the courses and modules that we have been teaching through the years and the teaching techniques and tools that we have been using.

Some framework ideas for software engineering education

It is difficult, if not impossible, to find something that is not changing in computer technology: circuits, architectures, languages, methods, fields of application ... The "central object" itself of this brand of engineering, software, represents such a diverse reality (many objects) that the fact that it has only one name gives rise to considerable confusion. This issue, among others, was taken up by Fox (1) and, at this point, I would like to underline that it is more of a pragmatic issue than an academic one. Thus, Software Engineering Education moves in an unstable, undefined'world. This axiom governs and limits the. validity of all educational proposals in the area of Software Engineering and, thereforer all the ideas presented in this paper.

Some framework ideas for software engineering education

This paper presents various ideas aimed at improving the conceptual framework for Software Engineering Education. They are centered on gradually seeing Software Engineering through a 3-p (problem-process-product), a 4-p (people (producars)-problem,process,product) and a 5-p (people (producers)-"problem, process, product, people (users)diagram. These diagrams include concepts such as the rate of change of a problem, the relational complexity of a problem, triphase processes with dominant phases, degrees of software evolution,levels of complexity (with the recognition of disorganized complexity), among others.

Assesing the usefulness of the ACM/IEEE-CS Computing Curricula for the design of Computer-Related Engineering Curricula, an experience in Telematics

This paper presents the rationale to build up a Telematics Engineering curriculum. Telematics is a strongly computing oriented area; then, the authors have initially intended to apply the common requirements described in the computing curricula elaborated by the ACM/EEEE-CS Joint Curriculum Task Force. This experience has revealed some problematic aspects in the ACM/IEEE-CS proposal. From the analysis of these problems, a model to guide the selection and specially the approach of the Telematics curriculum contents is proposed. This model can be easily generalized to other strongly computing oriented curricula, whose number is growing everyday

A Web-based Support System for Providing Effective Monitoring, Feedback and Evaluation in Project Management Education

This work introduces a web-based learning environment to facilitate learning in Project Management. The proposed web-based support system integrates methodological procedures and information systems, allowing to promote learning among geographically-dispersed students. Thus, students who are enrolled in different universities at different locations and attend their own project management courses, share a virtual experience in executing and managing projects. Specific support systems were used or developed to automatically collect information about student activities, making it possible to monitor the progress made on learning and assess learning performance as established in the defined rubric.

Towards a virtualized Internet for computer networking assignments

By combining virtualization technologies, virtual private network techniques and parameterization of network scenarios it is possible to enhance a networking laboratory, typically carried out in university laboratory premises using equipment located there, by interconnecting it to virtual networks running on the students own personal computers. This paper describes some experiences applying this model to create hands-on assignments for a large group of students in computer networking education.

Survey on student motivation and approval of educational environment at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid within the European Higher Education area implementation

A recent study elaborated by Vicerrectorado de Ordenación Académica y Planificación Estratégica of Technical University of Madrid (UPM) defines the satisfaction of the university student body as "the response that the University offers to the expectations and demands of service of the students, considered in a general way ". Besides an indicator of academic and institutional insertion of the student, the assessment of student engagement allows us to adapt the academic offer and the extension services of the University to the real needs of the students. The process of convergence towards the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) raises the need to form in competitions, that is to say, of developing in our students capacities and knowledge beyond the purely theoretical-practical thing. Therefore, the perception and experience of the educational process and environment by the students is an important issue to be addressed to accomplish their expectations and achieve a curriculum accordingly to EHEA expectations. The present study aims to explore the student motivation and approval of the educational environment at the UPM. To this end a total of 97 students enrolled in the undergraduate program of Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering and Agronomic Engineering at UPM were surveyed. The survey consisted of 40 questions divided in three blocks. The first one of 20 questions of personal character in that they were gathering, besides the sex and the age, the degree of fulfilment, implication and dedication with the institution and the academic tasks. In the second block we identify 10 questions related to the perception of the student on the teaching quality, and finally a block of 10 questions regarding the Bologna Process. The students personal motivation was moderately high, with a score of 3.6 (all scores are provided on a 5-point scale), being the most valuable items obtaining a university degree (4,3) and the friendship between students (4,2). Any significant difference was shown between sexes (P=0.23) since the averages for this block of questions were of 3.7±0.3 and 3.5±0.4 for women and men respectively. The students are moderately satisfied with their graduate studies with an average score of 3,2, being the questions that reflect a minor satisfaction the research profile of the teachers (2,8) and the organization of the Schools (2,9). The best valued questions are related to the usefulness and quality of the degrees, with 3,5 and 3,4 respectively, and to the interest of the courses within the degree (3,4). For sexes, the results of this block of questions are similar (3.1±0.3 and 3.2±0.3 for men and women respectively=0.79). Also, there were no differences (P=0.39) between the students who arrange work and studies or do not work (3.1±0.2 and 3.2±0.3 respectively). In conclusion, students at UPM present an acceptable degree of motivation and satisfaction with regard to the studies and services that offer their respective Schools. Both characteristics receive the same value both for men and for women and so much for students who arrange work and studies as for those who devote themselves only to studying. In a significant way, students who are more engaged and are in-class attendants present the major degree of satisfaction.Overall, there is a great lack of information regarding the Bologna Process. In fact to the majority, they would like to know more on what it is, what it means and what changes will involve its implementation.

Teamwork competence and academic motivation in computer science engineering studies.

The present work is focused on studying two issues: the “teamwork” generic competence and the “academic motivation”. Currently the professional profile of engineers has a strong component of teamwork. On the other hand, motivational profile of students determines their tendencies when they come to work in team, as well as their performance at work. In this context we suggest four hypotheses: (H1) students improve their teamwork capacity by specific training and carrying out a set of activities integrated into an active learning process; (H2) students with higher mastery motivation have better attitude towards team working; (H3) students with higher mastery motivation obtain better results in academic performance; and (H4) students show different motivation profiles in different circumstances: type of courses, teaching methodologies, different times of the learning process. This study was carried out with computer science engineering students from two Spanish universities. The first results point to an improvement in teamwork competence of students if they have previously received specific training in facets of that competence. Other results indicate that there is a correlation between the motivational profiles of students and their perception about teamwork competence. Finally, and contrary to the initial hypothesis, these profiles appear to not influence significantly the academic performance of students.

A proposal for enhancing the motivation in students of computer programming

Computer programming is known to be one of the most difficult courses for students in the first year of engineering. They are faced with the challenge of abstract thinking and gaining programming skills for the first time. These skills are acquired by continuous practicing from the start of the course. In order to enhance the motivation and dynamism of the learning and assessment processes, we have proposed the use of three educational resources namely screencasts, self-assessment questionnaires and automated grading of assignments. These resources have been made available in Moodle which is a Learning Management System widely used in education environments and adopted by the Telecommunications Engineering School at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM). Both teachers and students can enhance the learning and assessment processes through the use of new educational activities such as self-assessment questionnaires and automated grading of assignments. On the other hand, multimedia resources such as screencasts can guide students in complex topics. The resources proposed allow teachers to improve their tutorial actions since they provide immediate feedback and comments to students without the enormous effort of manual correction and evaluation by teachers specially taking into account the large number of students enrolled in the course. In this paper we present the case study where three proposed educational resources were applied. We describe the special features of the course and explain why the use of these resources can both enhance the students? motivation and improve the teaching and learning processes. Our research work was carried out on students attending the "Computer programming" course offered in the first year of a Telecommunications Engineering degree at UPM. This course is mandatory and has more than 450 enrolled students. Our purpose is to encourage the motivation and dynamism of the learning and assessment processes.

Open educational resources: the role of OCW, blogs and videos in computer network classrooms

This paper analyzes the learning experiences and opinions obtained from a group of undergraduate students in their interaction with several on-line multimedia resources included in a free on-line course about Computer Networks. These new educational resources employed are based on the Web 2.0 approach such as blogs, videos and virtual labs which have been added in a web-site for distance self-learning.

Towards a new proposal to evaluate the learning objects quality in learning strategies for education (QEES)

In Computer Science world several proposals have been developed for the assessment of the quality of the digital objects, based on the capabilities and facilities offered by current technologies and the available resources. Years ago researchers and specialists from both educational and technological areas have been committed to the development of strategies that improve the quality of education. At present, in the field of teaching-learning, another important aspect is the need to improve the manner of gaining knowledge and learning in education, which the use of learning strategies is a major advance in the teaching-learning process in institutions of higher education. This paper presents QEES, a proposal for evaluating the quality of the learning objects employed on learning strategies to support students during their education processes by using information extraction techniques and ontologies.

ICT in higher education: an experience with e-books

The present paper seeks to explain the diverse advantages of virtual books and also the main barriers that make it difficult their implementation in the classroom. A brief review of the literature on ICT, e-learning, distance education and e-books will be complemented with a case study about the preparation, development and implementation of an e-book. The paper could be helpful both for systems analysts and for teachers when they are developing and implementing e-books.

Research-action Methodology between Computer Science and Educational Psychology: a Multidisciplinary Approach

Computer science studies possess a strong multidisciplinary aptitude since most graduates do their professional work outside of a computing environment, in close collaboration with professionals from many different areas. However, the training offered in computer science studies lacks that multidisciplinary factor, focusing more on purely technical aspects. In this paper we present a novel experience where computer studies and educational psychology find a common ground and realistic working through laboratory practices. Specifically, the work enables students of computer science education the development of diagnosis support systems, with artificial intelligence techniques, which could then be used for future educational psychologists. The applications developed by computer science students are the creation of a model for the diagnosis of pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), sometimes also commonly called the autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The complexity of this diagnosis, not only by the exclusive characteristics of every person who suffers from it, but also by the large numbers of variables involved in it, requires very strong and close interdisciplinary participation. This work demonstrates that it is possible to intervene in a curricular perspective, in the university, to promote the development of interpersonal skills. What can be shown, in this way, is a methodology for interdisciplinary practices design and a guide for monitoring and evaluation. The results are very encouraging since we obtained significant differences in academic achievement between students who attended a course using the new methodology and those who did not use it.

Web-based OERs in Computer Networks

Learning and teaching processes are continually changing. Therefore, design of learning technologies has gained interest in educators and educational institutions from secondary school to higher education. This paper describes the successfully use in education of social learning technologies and virtual laboratories designed by the authors, as well as videos developed by the students. These tools, combined with other open educational resources based on a blended-learning methodology, have been employed to teach the subject of Computer Networks. We have verified not only that the application of OERs into the learning process leads to a significantly improvement of the assessments, but also that the combination of several OERs enhances their effectiveness. These results are supported by, firstly, a study of both students’ opinion and students’ behaviour over five academic years, and, secondly, a correlation analysis between the use of OERs and the grades obtained by students.

Computer Networks Virtualization with GNS3: Evaluating a solution to optimize resources and achieve a distance learning

Designing educational resources allow students to modify their learning process. In particular, on-line and downloadable educational resources have been successfully used in engineering education the last years [1]. Usually, these resources are free and accessible from web. In addition, they are designed and developed by lecturers and used by their students. But, they are rarely developed by students in order to be used by other students. In this work-in-progress, lecturers and students are working together to implement educational resources, which can be used by students to improve the learning process of computer networks subject in engineering studies. In particular, network topologies to model LAN (Local Area Network) and MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) are virtualized in order to simulate the behavior of the links and nodes when they are interconnected with different physical and logical design.