Author(s):
A Student-Centered Personalized Learning Framework to Advance Undergraduate Robotics Education
Need: A common challenge hindering the advancement of undergraduate majors in robotics and community college training programs for robotics technicians is the scarcity of qualified instructors proficient in cutting-edge STEM topics. Additionally, robotics instruction necessitates an interdisciplinary approach encompassing physics, mathematics, and programming. Given that undergraduate students exhibit diverse learning paces and preferences, their educational trajectories can significantly differ. Moreover, various workforce outcomes prioritize distinct facets of robotics.
Guiding Question: We would like to study two research questions: 1) How to teach robotics undergraduate courses with a general instructor lacking robotics knowledge? 2) How to enable students to learn course materials based on their own preferences?
Outcomes: Our team has created an innovative student-centered learning module-based robotics instructional framework. Students take the central role, with instructors serving as facilitators rather than leaders. Educational content is jointly developed by faculties from ECU and UNR, with input from industry robotics experts and academic instructors. Instructors are responsible for guiding students’ progress in each session and gathering questions from them. Within the same classroom, students have the flexibility to engage with diverse topics requiring different hardware setups. Computationally intensive tasks will be performed on servers within the personalized learning platform, alleviating the need for students to possess high-powered devices. Two user studies have been conducted: User Study 1 assesses how students used the Personalized Learning Platform, as well as their perceptions of its quality and usefulness. A total of 105 students were involved. Results indicate that 83.6% agreed or strongly agreed that the proposed method enhances learning of main concepts, 78.9% agreed or strongly agreed that it helps students understand how topics are connected, and 77.3% agreed or strongly agreed that it helps students gain skills useful in other courses. User Study 2 focused on students’ general course experiences and the effect on their interest and motivation in robotics and future career plans from a two-week mini-course. Sixteen students were involved, with most showing positive feedback.
Broader Impacts: The user study results show that our proposed method is promising in enhancing students’ education, particularly in understanding the connections between topics and mastering the subjects. These instructional benefits may extend to other fields that require expensive equipment and suffer from a dearth of qualified instructors. Other STEM disciplines, such as civil engineering and biology, may similarly benefit from the project outcomes.
Coauthors
Ponkoj Chandra Shill, UNR; Jiullian-Lee Vargas Ruiz, University of Puerto Rico Arecibo
