Experiences in the use of interactive media in engineering education

Summary form only given. In this presentation, I will share my experiences in the use of interactive media used in engineering education. The traditional concept of engineering education is based on the presentation and derivation of mathematical concepts followed by example solutions presented in the classroom. As a result, students are commonly passive and tend not to participate if classroom discussions. To introduce a larger amount of interactivity several interactive media solutions are possible that are presented here in increasing order of interactivity: 1. Online tutorial solutions: The traditional presentation of example solutions is recorded and offered to the students to do at their own time and pace. This allows the student to solve the example tutorial questions by themselves first and use the recordings only when necessary. This solution does not allow a true interactivity, but is relatively easy to adapt from current practice and does provide the student with the ability to adjust the pace. 2. Online LAMS teaching modules: The Learning Activity Management System (LAMS) is a way to create online activities that are combining recorded lectures with interactive features, such as questionnaires. This allows the lecturer to monitor the progress and encourages the student to actively participate in the module. 3. iBooks for iPads: A novel method of creating interactive content is the use of iBooks that can run on iPads. While currently the technology is relatively limited due to licensing issues, future developments will allow a more widespread use of this method. 4. Wikis: Wikis allow the highest form of interactivity, as a wiki starts with a blank page and needs to be filled entirely by the student. This allows a very high active content creation by the students, but requires the lecturer to clearly state the goals and expectations to channel the work.