PreMETS presentation TN1_reviewed_by_MUB

PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE EDUCATION & TRAINING SYSTEM.

[image]. TABLE OF CONTENT. Introduction Engage, empower and motivate From constructivism to connectivism Improving the soft skills.

Introduction. Higher education institutions are expected to produce skillful, problem solver, and competent graduates. This becomes possible when the instructors are using the appropriate teaching methodology and the learners are active and empowered in the teaching-learning process..

[image]. MOTIVATING LEARNERS. Of the factors that influence student learning, motivation is surely one of the most potent (Svinicki, 1999). An instructor can improve a student’s intrinsic motivation through external stimuli, by setting realistic incremental task-based goals, and by allowing students to work autonomously through them. There are hundreds of studies which show evidence to support the notion that goal setting increases success rates (e.g. Turkay, 2014). “Task-based goals had large and robust positive effects on the level of task completion, and [...] also increased course performance” (Clark et al. 2016)..

[image]. MOTIVATING LEARNERS. According to Clark et al. (2016) “goal setting is a low-cost, scaleable and feasible intervention that could improve college outcomes and could be built into the technology used to deliver these course components”..

[image]. ENGAGING LEARNERS. Engagement is fostered by allowing students to study on their own terms; anytime, anywhere. Studies into workforce productivity have shown that allowing people to work from anywhere led to as much as a 50% increase in productivity (Koulopoulos and Keldsen, 2016)..

ENGAGING LEARNERS. People who are actively engaged, no matter the situation, are more productive. Nearly 50% of the connected generation prefer working non-traditional hours and over 60% use mobile devices to manage their lives (Aruba, 2014), this should be used to educators’ advantage. On average people spend around five and a half hours daily, actively engaged on some form of Internet-connected device, these figures are massively augmented, up to thirteen hours a day, for younger generations (Koulopoulos and Keldsen, 2016)..

ENGAGING LEARNERS. Educators need to harness this mobile potential and, if only utilising a fraction of this time, can massively enhance learning outcomes. However, even though technology can aid motivation and engagement it does not automatically lead to better learning, it is only when this engagement can be harnessed for learning that there will be any academic benefit (Higgins, 2012), again stressing the need for pedagogically sound implementation..

EMPOWERING LEARNERS. [image]. Empowerment is improved through increased student agency and autonomy, as well as interdependency, these are all supported by student-centred methodologies which aim to improve the “students’ capacity to act or exert themselves into their learning” (Sheninger and Murray, 2017)..

EMPOWERING LEARNERS. An example is differentiated instruction, this is a pedagogical strategy that allows students to work collaboratively on meaningful tasks at their own level and pace (Prensky, 2001) through activities such as task-based learning. Meta analysis studies have consistently shown that collaborative learning has wide-spread positive influence on academic achievement, self-esteem, quality of interpersonal interactions as well as student attitudes (Prince, 2004)..

FROM CONSTRUCTIVISM TO CONNECTIVISM. Learning through connections is an important piece of putting the learner at the center of the learning process; a process that empowers the learner to be fully engaged in the learning process and to be the builder of her own knowledge using her curiosity and imagination. Constructivism has been and continues to be a hot topic in learning theories. The constructivism learning theory has evolved to be in today’s era of social media a connectivism learning theory that considers that learning occurs through connections learners make with each other as well as with the learning content..

FROM CONSTRUCTIVISM TO CONNECTIVISM. Constructivist orientations aim to assist the learner in selecting appropriate information pertaining to the learning content, organizing information into internally consistent concepts, and integrating new knowledge, making it personally relevant and meaningful (Lawson, 2011). The constructivist model of education provides a significant environment for authentic learning, active learning, and reflective learning..

[image]. IMPROVING THE SOFT SKILLS. According to a Canadian funded study (Lai and Viering, 2012) essential 21st century skills are soft skills as critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, metacognition and motivation. Other studies have shown that the demand for skilled workers has declined and those skilled workers have “moved down the corporate ladder” forcing lower-skilled workers out (Frey and Osborne, 2012)..

[image]. IMPROVING THE SOFT SKILLS. These studies emphasize that, not only should we be teaching the hard skills, but also that students will ultimately succeed when interpersonal, communication and problem-solving skills (soft skills) are also taught. They highlight that we, as humans, must learn to harness our perception skills and even biases, and to use these to our advantage..

[image]. ACTIVE LEARNING. In the teaching-learning process, when the learners are empowered using the appropriate teaching methodology, they feel a sense of confidence, capability, competence, and self-esteem, enabling them to meet life’s challenges more effectively. Therefore, a shift in theory (education theory) to a more student-centered approach using active learning is recommended because this approach has its own role to make the students creative and competent in their study (Mickelson2009)..

[image]. ACTIVE LEARNING. The fundamental concept of active learning is to advance the learning experience of learners and the teaching experience of instructors. When learners are active in the classroom, they are engaged in higher-order thinking (analysis, synthesis, evaluation) and in a variety of activities such as reading, discussing, writing, and problem solving (Bonwell and Eison, 1991). Such classroom activities put the student at the center of the learning process enabling them to improve their critical thinking skills (Chan et al., 2016). Active learning can be realized by any method of teaching which actively involves students in the real learning process of (Prince, 2004)..

COMMUNITY BUILDING. Community Building is essential for trainers as fostering a common basis among them, they could share their experiences and challenges (Cuddy, 2002). Among trainers’ interaction, best practices could be identified and shared. Knowledge sharing could be also developed among a geographically distributed population (Reddi et al., 2021). A home for future initiatives could be also provided enabling the interaction among trainers. Ongoing collaboration could be achieved among trainers in an online and/or asynchronous mode by forums (Yoon et al., 2020) and other relevant networking actions (i.e., live Q/As, live streaming, webinars, etc.)..

ASSESSMENT AND FEEDBACK. Assessment and feedback are the fundamental tools in active learning and a base to the empowerment of learners if they are properly implemented. The assessment methods which are developed in relation to any teaching mode should be aligned with the learning outcomes which will be measured. As to Sluijsmans et al. (1998), assessment as a tool for learning has a great impact on the students’ learning and development into reflective practitioners..

CONCLUSION. From different studies and literatures, it is indicated that empowering learner using active learning in higher education institutions and other education levels has its own contribution to make the learners creative and competent in their learning and study area. Instructors in the classrooms and outside (laboratory and practical sites) of higher learning institutions are advised to use different active learning strategies based on the nature of the course with the support of appropriate assessment methods and feedback..

MANY THANKS. [image] • deepblue ATLANTIS CERTH Foe RESEARCH & TECHNOLOGY HELLAS O helixconnect (19) TIMISOARA WEGEMT.