Showing papers by "Elio Sancristobal published in 2020"

Reviewing and analyzing peer review Inter-Rater Reliability in a MOOC platform

Abstract: Peer assessment activities might be one of the few personalized assessment alternatives to the implementation of auto-graded activities at scale in Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) environments. However, teacher's motivation to implement peer assessment activities in their courses might go beyond the most straightforward goal (i.e., assessment), as peer assessment activities also have other side benefits, such as showing evidence and enhancing the critical thinking, comprehension or writing capabilities of students. However, one of the main drawbacks of implementing peer review activities, especially when the scoring is meant to be used as part of the summative assessment, is that it adds a high degree of uncertainty to the grades. Motivated by this issue, this paper analyses the reliability of all the peer assessment activities performed as part of the MOOC platform of the Spanish University for Distance Education (UNED) UNED-COMA. The following study has analyzed 63 peer assessment activities from the different courses in the platform, and includes a total of 27,745 validated tasks and 93,334 peer reviews. Based on the Krippendorff's alpha statistic, which measures the agreement reached between the reviewers, the results obtained clearly point out the low reliability, and therefore, the low validity of this dataset of peer reviews. We did not find that factors such as the topic of the course, number of raters or number of criteria to be evaluated had a significant effect on reliability. We compare our results with other studies, discuss about the potential implications of this low reliability for summative assessment, and provide some recommendations to maximize the benefit of implementing peer activities in online courses.

Visual block programming languages and their use in educational robotics

Abstract: Visual block programming environments can be defined as those programming environments that rely on objects rather than words to code the program. These types of environments are characterized by facilitating the task of the people who carry out the programs. This is mainly since they are more visually friendly. In addition, with this type of environment the person who makes the programs will not get the famous syntactic errors that characterize the programming tasks with textual programming languages. Along this paper, a set of tools commonly used in educational robotics are showed. Furthermore, a deep analysis in two of these tools are detailed. Additionally, some educational scenarios are detailed, as long as their relationship to students’ competencies and how to drive the scenarios in order to accomplish with the competencies. Finally, a study of the results from experience is included.

From Technology Enhanced Learning to Ethics and Critical Thinking as part of the Engineering Education: Skill Driven with Humanities Comprehension Editorial

Abstract: It is a great pleasure to contribute some words to the debate about Engineering Education as well as to broaden the discussion about the future evolution of this discipline in which we were involved in the last fifteen years. One of us is in his last period of a professional life full of research and the other one still in the early stages of a career in engineering education. Both of us come from different backgrounds and have different visions which are complementing each other. Therefore, we are striving to develop new actions and activities inside this amazing discipline.

Educational Robotics for All: Gender, Diversity, and Inclusion in STEAM

Abstract: The pedagogy of science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) can be easily developed by using robotics and computational thinking tools. Also, inclusion and integration of diverse groups of students can be promoted using these tools. Today we can find many tools for teaching robotics. This kind of tools allow us to promote innovation and motivation of students. In this way, students will be able to work during the learning process in an innovative and motivating way. Since it is increasingly common to find robots in our daily lives, it is important to integrate robots into education as well. There are already cooking robots, autonomous cars, vacuum cleaner robots in houses and gardens, or prostheses. This paper describes a course focused on a combination of teaching methodologies, educational robotics tools, and a student learning management methodology, all within an inclusive framework to strengthen the presence of women and other under-represented groups in engineering.

Analysis of management systems for virtual and remote labs

Abstract: This article analyzes the existing management systems to be used as repository of Open Educational Resources for acquiring practical competences. The resources to be managed are mainly virtual and remote labs used in several European projects focused on improving the competitiveness of European SMEs. These virtual and remote labs may be based on different technologies, such as web pages, mobile apps, web services, virtual machines, etc. This wide variety of educational resources makes difficult the selection of a common management system to be used as repository for storage and delivery. The result of the analysis shows that the ViSH platform fits all the defined requirements.

Dynamic reconfiguration in FPAA for technical and nontechnical education in a global environment

Abstract: Some engineering concepts have been proven to be very important not only in engineering degrees but in several areas. This knowledge is difficult to grasp under certain circumstances, and sometimes prior training is needed. This is a special challenge in full or part remote education. Simulations may help in this area, but truly experimental lab practices are crucial to grasp all the required knowledge and not only for fundamental information but for complex or indirect knowledge, where students can apply what they have learnt in classes. In this paper, we have worked on a concept to help professors and students to get new concepts in a more time‐efficient and safe manner, using dynamic reconfiguration in Field‐Programmable Analog Array. This solution can be easily applied to traditional or remote labs in less time than usual practices, so students can learn more in the same amount of time, especially when time is a constraint.

Science and Technology Educational Quality Scaling in Spain

Abstract: This Research Full Paper presents a survey about science and technology education scaling. At the end of 2013, the Spanish government released an Organic Law for Educational Quality Improvement (LOMCE). Which this law provides is a guide with the aim of getting information about the changes which this law implies and what is impacted. All of this is based on gender equality opportunities. Education curriculum simplification is also included. This article describes the goals, assumptions, and underlying logic about Spanish legislation change has impacted on science and technology education. The aim of this study is to provide learning technologies to drive science and technology education to students. This study includes an analysis of local scope in the modifications of the Spanish educational legislation and data on the actions of different educational agents in Spain. Several educational centers emerged, and other, which already was present, have been growing. In the last years, educational institutions had the need to prepare their teachers for science and technology knowledge. Several educational centers and robotic educational tools commonly used nowadays are summarized. Additionally, the analysis of different use cases has been included as part of this study. Firstly, cases related to the formal education of Spanish educational centers and how the educators of such centers have perceived the change. On the other hand, a specific analysis of a Non-Official Education Centre is included. Thus, as part of the conclusions included in this article, this paper provides the impact of educational scaling improvement in Spain and a set of robotic educational tools to be addressed for classroom.

Open Activities And Technologies During COVID19 From The IEEE Student Branch at UNED

Abstract: Firstly, the IEEE Student Branch at UNED belongs to the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). The IEEE Student Branch at the UNED is an association of students of the UNED based on volunteerism, sharing knowledge and experiences, desire to improve and interest in science and technology. The crisis of the coronavirus has turned the online formation into a good of first necessity and in a challenge so much for the students as for the companies of formation. The former has had to get used to seeing their teacher through a screen. The second, to adapt all content to the online universe. For this reason, from the IEEE Student Branch at the UNED we have developed several activities during the COVID19 to provide a series of training resources online and free. Throughout this paper we describe the activities carried out, the technological resources used, and the benefits obtained, both for the Student Branch itself and for those attending the different activities. In addition, we provide a series of lines of future work.