Project Code: 2020-1-TR01-KA226-HE-098258
Project Acronym: RECOM
Total Budget: 248,497.00 Euro
2021-2023
Partners
Yildiz Technical University, Turkey
Burgaski Svoboden Universitet, Bulgaria
Universita Degli Studi Di Palermo, Italy
Karabuk University , Turkey
Univerza V Ljubljani, Slovenia
Tallinn University, Estonia
Board Of European Students Of Technology, Belgium
Background and Project Goal
In recent years, rapid advances in science and technology have led to significant changes in educational processes. As a result of the rapid progress of science and technology, the growth momentum of online education has increased tremendously. However, improving productivity in online education should encourage innovation in this area. The Covid-19 Pandemic enforced the education system to change radically. Almost all universities around the world were suddenly forced to shift all their education to virtual learning in response to the pandemic. Now, we are witnessing the efforts of our education systems to revert to online education suddenly. Online education is not just only a technological challenge for institutions with its essential infrastructure, but it also requires completely different abilities from students, lecturers, and institutions. Support for the professional development of lecturers is crucial, and course design is even more critical than in traditional education settings. Online teaching brings major challenges to faculty members. And one of the most significant is the numerous complexities involved in moving a face-to-face course into the online platforms. On the other hand, research shows that 91% of the university’s lecturers were not willing to teach online. Students also need to be motivated to participate in online lectures enthusiastically. Research shows successful online students have strong skills to use technology to study online. They also need to be very well-motivated to study on their own.
Many academic institutions that are reluctant to change their traditional pedagogical approach have no choice but to move entirely to online teaching-learning. But since the conventional education system mostly prevails in many European countries, teachers and students in online education have problems, especially for engineering departments, due to dense curriculum on hand-zone and practical lessons. Switching from traditional classroom and face to face instructor training to computer-based training in an online classroom makes the learning experience entirely different for students. Therefore, academies need to have adequate pedagogical knowledge to be able to use digital education platforms effectively for students. Other problems center around the experience in online teaching/learning, collaboration of students, lack of support from lecturers, the complexity of materials provided, inappropriate homework environment. These facts reduce satisfaction and enthusiasm for both students and educators. Therefore, compliance with online lectures with the presence of existing curricula related to engineering studies is highly necessary.
In this project, our effort focuses on Computer Programming and Algorithms lecture that is a core element for all engineering disciplines. Since Computer Programming and Algorithms is a challenging course to teach and learn, it is now even more difficult on online platforms . Today, Industry 4.0 and 5.0 topics are emerging fields and have rising demand during the pandemic period. The increasing interest in artificial intelligence and machine learning applications is closely related to them. Likewise, the integration of programming and algorithms with engineering is essential in rising fast industrial evaluation. Thus, programming and algorithms are becoming more and more crucial for engineering disciplines as time passes by. Under current circumstances, online Computer Programming and Algorithms courses must be addressed with innovative solutions. Inevitably, future courses will now continue with an online and hybrid education system. The possible challenges lecturers and students face in an online education environment must be addressed to ensure learner success. Therefore, two roles in online education must be considered when discussing ways to improve these challenges. The first is the lecturer’s role, and the second, the student’s role. In this project, teachers will be trained to overcome online education challenges while preparing adequate course material suits to typical “Computer Programming and Algorithms” lectures. Our main objective is to design appropriate online teaching methods for this lecture and integrate them with online technologies to improve students' learning motivation and interest, maintain students' concentration, and enhance students' learning.
Objectives planned to be achieved within the scope of the project
Our objective here is to develop a well-structured online teaching method for computer programming and algorithms related courses. For this purpose, educators will get trained on online education pedagogies and didactics to face challenges with the lack of student satisfaction. Adaptation of online pedagogy and educational materials for this course will be one that emphasizes student-centered learning and employs active learning activities. This new course materials will be able to implement for both online & hybrid educational systems.
In particular, the project aims at persuading educators to amalgamate immersive technologies in online educational programs while developing their pedagogical knowledge to boost student’s willingness to moreover involvement. Expected outputs of the project for two years:
1. Improve lecturers’ role with required knowledge, skills, teaching methods, and techniques to deliver efficient online classes
2. Improve effective pedagogical practices for online teaching perception of experienced instructors.
3. Formulate sustainable curriculum implementation for both hybrid and online education.
4. Develop a web-based computer programming course platform which is compatible with Moodle open-soruce learning platform
5. Blend new online course materials with gamification techniques to the “Computer Programming and Algorithms” curriculum helps students’ involvement more.
6. Develop synchronous and asynchronous methodologies to deliver online “Computer
Programming and Algorithms” courses effectively.
7. Develop offline video content for students who have limited internet connections.
8. Develop course materials with a new curriculum to deliver better online “Computer Programming and Algorithms” lessons.
