Some Aspects of the Problem-Based Learning applied to Electrical Engineering

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Some Aspects of the Problem-Based Learning
applied to Electrical Engineering

• E. Helerea
• Transilvania University of Brasov
• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
  Faculty

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CONTENTS

1. INTERACTIVE METHODS IN TEACHING -LEARNING PROCESS
2. PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION
3. HOW TO DO PROBLEM DESIGNING
4. CONCLUSIONS

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I. INTERACTIVE METHODS IN TEACHING -LEARNING
PROCESS

• WHAY?
• Because the administrative resources of higher
  education institutions become more and more
  limited,
• The teachers must expose the scientific contents
  to a greater number of the students.
• The direct communication between teacher and
  student becomes even more difficult
• The quality of learning process could decrease.
• In the conditions of globalization and of the
  development of a society based on knowledge for
  the graduates are required new tasks.

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I. INTERACTIVE METHODS IN TEACHING -LEARNING
PROCESS

• NEW APPROACHES on the methods of
  teaching-learning-evaluation processes must be
  taken into account
• to save time,
• to make the process efficient.
• IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION
• to create the professional competences,
• the define the moral profile of Homo Technicus
  Eminens,
• to take into account the students and their
  learning needs.

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I. INTERACTIVE METHODS IN TEACHING -LEARNING
PROCESS

• COMPARISON

Traditional learning Active learning
Lectures Work in tutorial
Knowledge transfer Building the knowledge
Syllabi Defining the objectives
Theory and concepts Conflict-situations/ problems
Knowledge acquisition Skill to learn
Deductive thinking Inductive thinking
Memorizing lectures Finding the information
Individual work Work in group
Exams Self-assessment /Formative evaluation
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II. PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN ENGINEERING
EDUCATION

• PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING (PBL)
• PBL- an active method of teaching - learning,
  which transfers the responsibility of learning
  process on the students
• PBL- based on the process of analyzing a conflict
  (problem) -situation, and clarifying the sources
  of conflict based on the previous and newly
  acquired knowledge
• In PBL - students have an active role in creating
  the problem, in analyzing and giving
  solution/solutions
• PBL- increases the student responsibility and
  motivation for learning.

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II. PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN ENGINEERING
EDUCATION

• HISTORY OF PBL
• In the late 1960s - PBL approach started in
  medical schools of USA (see Howard Barrows) /
  University of Delaware adapts PBL method
  (Tutorial Methods of Instruction),
• In 1974 - the University of Aalborg Denmark
  declares his educational strategy in using PBL
  and PJL (faculties of Humanities, Social Science
  and Engineering and Science),
• In 2000 - the University Catholic of Leuven
  Belgium (Candis 2000 project - PBL for building
  engineering education),
• New trends in Europe - training courses for
  teachers and tutors to get skills in designing
  and implementing the PBL method (Maastricht,
  Paris 7 Denis Diderot, Louis Pasteur University
  of Strasbourg etc.),
• EU Commission sustain new projects on education.

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II. PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN ENGINEERING
EDUCATION

• Leonardo Project COMPLETE
• New Strategies of COMPetence Acquisition for
  Lifelong Learning in
• Energy
• Transport
• Environment Engineering

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II. PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN ENGINEERING
EDUCATION

• Main objective and actions of COMPLETE project
• To introduce innovation in using the interactive
  methods PBL and PJL for engineering education
• To prepare the teachers as trainees
• how to design the processes,
• how to assist the students,
• to promote thinking and discussion,
• to establish and maintain positive group
  dynamics,
• to provide students new resources.

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II. PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN ENGINEERING
EDUCATION

• Application domain is multidisciplinary one
• Energy-Transport-Environment
• due to its complexity - this area offers many
  combined situations submitted to analysing
  (energy-environment transport environment,
  etc.),
• many attractive problems could be solved, having
  as active solvers the students,
• an e-platform will sustain this innovative
  approach.

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II. PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN ENGINEERING
EDUCATION

• STEPS FOR DESIGNING THE PBL SCENARIO
• Establishing the PBL team of teaching staff
• Studying the different parts of the course and
  proposing to the way/modality they will be best
  taught
• Preparation of the support material for students
  work
• Selection of the tutors
• Choosing/designing the lab facilities if is
  necessarily
• Defining the Agenda
• Preparing the ways for a good communication for
  the groups of both teachers/tutors and students

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II. PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN ENGINEERING
EDUCATION

• Process of implementing the PBL method

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II. PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN ENGINEERING
EDUCATION
Main steps Phases Actors
I. Teacher group Making a scenario according to learning objectives Teacher
I. Teacher group Defining/creating the situation problems Teacher
II. Tutor group Presenting the situation-problem Tutor
III. Work group Identifying and clarifying the terms Tutor and students
III. Work group Defining the problem and drawing a list of processes to clarify Tutor and students
III. Work group Analyzing the problem and emitting/proposal/ the hypothesis Tutor and students
III. Work group Systematizing the hypothesis Tutor and students
III. Work group Clarifying the learning objectives Tutor and students
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II. PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN ENGINEERING
EDUCATION
Main steps Phases Actors
IV. Individual work Individual study Students
V. Validation the knowledge Systematizing and validating the solution and the hypothesis Tutor and students
V. Validation the knowledge Tutorial evaluation Tutor and students
VI. Self-evaluation Self and peer evaluation/ Individual balance/efficiency of the results Students
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III. HOW TO DO PROBLEM DESIGNING

• PBL perspectives
• Some researches prove that PBL is not appropriate
  as a method for acquiring basic skills such as
  reading or computation,
• Some researches show that PBL enhances the
  quality of learning for specific competences,
• Relevant and engaging instructional models
  should be developed in concordance with learning
  environment.

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III. HOW TO DO PROBLEM DESIGNING

• Requirements of a good PBL problem
• to be engaged and oriented to the real world,
• to generate multiple hypotheses,
• to be consistent with desired learning outcomes,
• to build upon the previous knowledge and
  experience,
• to promotes development of higher order cognitive
  skills.

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III. HOW TO DO PROBLEM DESIGNING

• A SIMPLE CASE IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING - Example
  -
• ELECTRIC CAPACITOR AS ENERGY STORAGE DEVICE
• PBL for the undergraduate students
• an opportunity to activate the old concepts and
  to discover new concepts in EEE
• old concepts electrical field physical
  quantities electric charge, capacitance,
  electric energy and forces ideal capacitor,
• new concepts static and dynamic processes of
  charging and discharging, real capacitor,
  equivalent schema, dynamic characteristics
  ageing of the materials reliability of the
  capacitor etc.

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III. HOW TO DO PROBLEM DESIGNING

• THE PROPOSED SCENARIO OF RUNNING THE PBL PROCESS
• A) START MEETING
• Problem-situation exposing
• many electrical capacitors are used today for
  energy storage, but their characteristics are not
  reliable.
• Problem-situation analyzing
• What is a capacitor?
• How is energy accumulated in a capacitor?
• What happens when an electric voltage is applied?
• Is it possible to represent a real capacitor?
• Could the SPICE program be used in showing the
  charging process? Etc.
• How to reduce the charging time for an electric
  capacitor? or
• Does temperature have a great influence on the
  charging time? or
• What charging-discharge characteristics are
  required for the energy stocking capacitors?

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III. HOW TO DO PROBLEM DESIGNING

• Establishing learning objectives
• to clarify the charge-discharge processes in
  capacitors,
• to clarify what a real capacitor is,
• to introduce different equivalent schema for real
  capacitor,
• to apply the electrical circuit methods in
  description of the static and dynamic
  characteristics,
• etc.

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III. HOW TO DO PROBLEM DESIGNING

• B) INDIVIDUAL/AUTONOMOUS STUDY
• References, papers, lab applications, and
  computer applications to find the explanations
  for the list of questions.
• it should also use some computer techniques.
• For example - a simulation of the real RC serial
  capacitor supplied with step voltage, with SPICE
  program.

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III. HOW TO DO PROBLEM DESIGNING

• Solving this problem with SPICE, NEW QUESTIONS
  will be generated
• What is a step signal?
• What is the significance of the time constant of
  the RC circuit?
• What is the connection between the time constant
  of a RC circuit and charge time?
• What is and for what a marker is used? Etc.
• In this step, each student will note on the LIST
  OF QUESTIONS / tasks the plausible explanations
  and also the points of ambiguities.

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III. HOW TO DO PROBLEM DESIGNING

• C) MEETING FOR COMMON USE OF ACQUIRED KNOWLEDGE
• Objective to realize the balance of group, and
  to evaluate if the learning objectives are
  achieved.
• The discussions will generate further questions
• These questions will generate other further
  problems/problem-situations, such as
• How could the charge-discharge times be modified?
• Etc.

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III. HOW TO DO PROBLEM DESIGNING

• It is possible now to establish new learning
  tasks
• A new SPICE program model for real capacitor
  could be proposed, for example, RC circuit with
  two different resistors for charge/discharge
  processes.
• Time of charge/discharge processes can be varied
  by two resistors Rext and RL
• For different values of resistors different
  values of charge/discharge times are obtained.

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III. HOW TO DO PROBLEM DESIGNING - Diagram of
Concepts
Electric field
Capacitor - energy stocking
Energy electric forces
Electric circuits
Capacitor electrods
Dielectric
Charge / discharge processes
Metals
Electrolytes
Anorganic
Organic
Semiconductors
Thin layer technology
Super-capacitors technology
Models
Real capacitor
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IV. CONCLUSIONS

• Education needs to adapt to a changing world
• PBL is of an increasingly interest - to create
  new instructional practices, reflecting the
  environment in which students live and learn now
• Different strategies can be applied, depending on
  several criteria the number of students, special
  environment, and objectives of syllabi/curricula,
  time requirements
• In PBL method, the specific responsibilities for
  the actors involved - teachers, tutors and
  students are required
• In electrical engineering education, the
  problematic of electric capacitor could be use in
  PBL applications, and computer could sustain
  learning and solving problems, initiating the new
  ones.