Refine
Document Type
- Conference Proceeding (19)
- Article (7)
Language
- English (26)
Has Fulltext
- no (26)
Is part of the Bibliography
- yes (26)
Keywords
- Cloud computing (2)
- Cyber-Physical Systems (2)
- Java (2)
- Microservices (2)
- Problem-based learning (2)
- RAMI4.0 (2)
- soft skills (2)
- Actor model (1)
- Advances in Mechanical Engineering (1)
- Agile teaching (1)
Institute
- Fachbereich Technik (26)
Literature highlights a lack of Higher Education curricula that promotes graduates' soft skills. Critical Thinking (CT) is considered one of the soft skills associated with higher employment levels. The European-funded project “Critical Thinking for Successful Jobs” (Think4Jobs), currently in progress, aims at strengthening the collaboration between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and Labor Market Organizations (LMOs) to design, develop, implement and evaluate CT blended apprenticeships curricula in five disciplines (i.e., Veterinary Medicine, Teacher Education, Business and Economics, Business Informatics, English as a Foreign Language). The curricula are implemented for apprenticeships. We aim to summarize the findings and milestones achieved so far in the project. First, a focus group approach, document analysis, and observation of CT instruction in HEI and LMOs were conducted to assess the state of the art of CT teaching in HEI and the needs of the stakeholders (i.e., HE and LMO) regarding the instruction of CT in HEI apprenticeships and LMO internships. Our results revealed that there is not necessarily a “gap” between HEIs and LMOs concerning CT instruction but rather a difference in understanding and a need to develop a common language between stakeholders. Therefore, as the next step, intensive training for HE instructors and LMO tutors was conducted to establish a common understanding of CT. The results showed no statistical differences in participants’ conceptual understanding of CT, but still drew attention to several misconceptions. Finally, the CT blended apprenticeships curricula were designed as a byproduct of the University-Business Collaboration. Currently, the implementation and evaluation of the effectiveness of the CT blended apprenticeships curricula are carried out.
While there is large body of literature devoted to teaching critical thinking (CT) in higher education, there is no consensus on what educational approaches and instructional methods are best for developing CT in students. Although many scholarly studies have explored various methods for teaching CT, there are still no conclusive findings about their impact. This study proposes a task-based educational approach that aims to teach both domain-specific skills and CT skills and dispositions. This approach integrates the teaching of CT into the subject instruction and can be applied across disciplines. To evaluate the impact of this approach on the development of CT skills in students, two educational experiments were conducted. For these experiments, two modules “Innovation management” and “Scientific seminar” were developed according to this approach and deployed at the University of Applied Sciences Emden/Leer. The Critical Thinking Assessment Tool, developed as part of the Think4Jobs project and proven in terms of validity and reliability, was used to measure students’ CT skills and dispositions. At the time of writing this paper, this tool has been used to record students‘ self-assessments at the beginning of the experiments. As this study is still in progress, further data collection, data analysis and presentation of the findings will be published later.
A Retrospective Study of the Benefits of The "CPS Engineering" Courses for Current Graduate Careers
(2023)
Well-trained engineers are needed to plan, design, develop and maintain cyber physical systems (CPS) that form the core of modern digitized industrial infrastructures. The development of such systems is challenging, however, according to industry representatives, the graduates are not adequately prepared for professional practice. In particular, there is a lack of transferable skills. To be employable and successful in their careers, students must have the opportunity to gain experience developing such systems during their studies and practice both technical and transferable skills in realistic environments. This paper aims to provide a retrospective view of the outcomes of two courses in industrial CPS engineering within the master’s program at ITMO University, St. Petersburg, Russia, conducted in the winter semesters of 2016/17 and 2017/18. For this purpose, graduates who participated in these courses were interviewed in 2022. The respondents reflected on the benefits of these courses for their work. The graduates reported that participation was highly relevant to both their professional and personal development. They indicated that they especially valued programming skills and collaboration and communication skills that they acquired in the courses.
Applying Task-centric Holistic Teaching Approach in Education of Industrial Cyber Physical Systems
(2020)
In order to meet the increasing demand for industrial cyber physical systems, highly qualified professionals are required who possess both excellent professional knowledge and skills as well as soft skills. The interdisciplinarity of industrial cyber physical systems makes teaching the necessary skill challenging. The approach known from the education of software engineering, in which students form a team to develop a software product, is not sufficient. There is also a lack of soft skills, which are often seen as key success factors for engineering projects. To close the existing gaps in education of industrial cyber-physical systems engineering, the task-centric holistic agile teaching approach (T-CHAT) is proposed. This approach will be implemented in a newly developed curriculum for industrial cyber physical systems at the ITMO University St. Petersburg, Russia. It focuses on teaching of both technical and soft skills.
University–Business partnership for collaborative curriculum design, development, and delivery is an important dimension of University–Business Collaboration (UBC), but scarce information exists on how to enhance partnership for the design, development, and implementation of new curricula. With these questions in focus, this article intends to present and discuss the perceived experience during a three-year European funded project, namely, Think4Jobs. This project exemplifies the significance and benefits of UBC in the design, development, and delivery of curricula that meet the evolving demands of the labour market while promoting Critical Thinking (CT) as a foundational 21st century skill to contribute to graduates’ employability. Think4Jobs project brought together a multidisciplinary team of researchers and business organisations from five European countries (Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Portugal, and Romania) with interests in promoting and developing CT and mitigating eventual competence gaps. The project’s success was attributed to key practices, including defining a common conceptualization of CT, employing Participatory Co-Design, and providing common training for university and business partners. Clear objectives, explicit roles, effective communication, and ongoing evaluation further enhanced the collaboration. Experiential learning, real-work problems, and case studies reinforced the curricula, bridging the gap between academia and the labour market. By embracing these insights, future UBC initiatives can empower graduates with the necessary skills to stand out in an ever-changing labour market, contributing to enhanced education and successful careers.
Critical thinking (CT) is one of the most important 21st-century skills that employers believe will grow in prominence. However, many higher education (HE) graduates often lack it. This is also true for graduates in computer science (CS) and related disciplines, who need CT to drive social and organizational digitalization. There are a number of strategies for teaching CT. However, there is no evidence regarding how to effectively teach CT in CS. To address this gap, this study proposes an educational approach that aims to promote CT to the students of CS and related disciplines. An educational experiment using this approach was conducted in two modules with similar content. The written reflections of 11 students on their development in CT and the quantitative data of students’ self-assessments of their CT skills and dispositions before (N = 20) and after (N = 11) the experiment were analyzed. Priority was given to the qualitative data. The results of this study support the hypothesis that the proposed approach has a positive impact on the development of students’ perceived CT skills. They also show that this approach stimulates and promotes students’ ability to transfer CT to other tasks and domains and to other contexts and situations. However, the positive development of students’ CT dispositions could not be demonstrated in this study, which can be explained by the short duration of this intervention.
Cyber physical systems (CPS) consist of physical and cyber components seamlessly integrated with each other. Being a core and an essential component within the digitalization process, CPS are becoming pervasive in all spheres of modern society. Understanding CPS structures and associated functionalities requires a multidisciplinary body of knowledge and engineering capabilities. Moreover, they are laying on the edge of a broad spectrum of methodologies and technologies, from mechatronics, communication, control and automation to information technologies, which are penetrating each corner of the society. It is obvious from the lifecycle of CPS, i.e., life cycle of the physical-part and the digital thread of the cyber-part, that developers, operators and managers of CPS have to acquire an essential interdisciplinary engineering qualification and a combination of skills and competencies from many different disciplines, including social and psychological aspects, among others. In order to develop and implement an adequate educational programme, two major aspects have been analysed in this paper: (i) identification and understanding of the minimal set of multidisciplinary competencies and qualifications needed and (ii) identification and classification of the critical gaps in the existing engineering curricula. The analysis is based on the findings of a survey conducted in two IEEE conferences closely related to the engineering disciplines associated with CPS.
Validation of Task−centric Holistic Agile Approach on Teaching Cyber Physical Systems Engineering
(2017)
CPS−capable engineers of today increasingly need to possess both technical and social skills to run CPS−engineering projects successfully. Having technical skills solely is not enough since engineering projects mostly fail because of lacking knowledge, skills and social competencies of project members. The effective holistic teaching methods can help to solve this problem. The aim of this study was to develop, apply and asses an innovative task−centric holistic agile teaching approach (T−CHAT), for the course in CPS−engineering with realistic up−to−date industry−like scenario. The authors conducted four monthly educational experiment with fifteen−person group of volunteers – international students at technical universities in Germany and Russia, during that the authors used the novel method of teaching. The course participants evaluated the effects of education using a novel original questionnaire, estimating knowledge, skills and social competencies at the beginning and end of the course. Feedback of the experiment was positive for the method. The main findings of our study was the innovative teaching approach. KEY WORDS: Agile teaching; Cyber−Physical Systems; Education of Cyber−Physical Systems Engineering; Education of Global Software Engineering; Perceptional teaching; Problem−based teaching; Project−based teaching; Research−orientated teaching
The industry faces growing needs of high qualified professionals for the ongoing digitalization of the industrial value chain. The major triggers for the industry to go for digitalization are, among other reasons, the expected higher competitiveness through lower production costs, improved efficiency, shorten time-to-market as well as the needs for mass customization and personalization (extreme customization) of production. The digitalization affects multiple areas simultaneously: technical, social and economic. Coping with the associated difficulties of the digitalization requires professional staff being prepared to face the challenges. This paper describes a novel learning and teaching concept “T-CHAT” that allows engineering students to acquire interdisciplinary knowledge and skills as well as a multidisciplinary view for being able to run industrial digitalization projects successfully.
The academia-industry gap in computer science persists since last two decades at least. Industry expects that computer science graduates possess not only profound technical knowledge and skills but also transferable skills such as communication and collaboration in team, problem-solving ability. Students need to learn those skills during their university studies to be competitive in the market after their graduation. This paper first examines the skill gap between graduates and industry expectations, and the existing didactic approaches in computer science education. The authors then present how the Java programming course has been taught using the task-centric holistic agile teaching approach T-CHAT to enhance both technical skills and transferable skills in students. The learning process is described with learning activities and assessments that are constructively aligned with the intended learning outcomes of the course. This is work in progress, so evaluation of the course is planned for future work.