To satisfy ABET's continuous improvement criterion, an instructor, teaching a course suggests, at the end of the course, an improvement plan to be implemented when the same course is taught next... Show More

To satisfy ABET's continuous improvement criterion, an instructor, teaching a course suggests, at the end of the course, an improvement plan to be implemented when the same course is taught next time. Preparation of such a course improvement plan may be mandatory if a pre-specified target level of students' learning is not attained. Since, manual preparation of a course improvement plan is difficult, an idea of generating it using an expert system is presented. The objective is to make the task of improvement plan preparation easier and enjoyable. The proposed expert system has a set of remedies and a set of rules in a data base. A web-based interface queries the instructor about teaching and assessment tools used in the course. The inference engine selects the most appropriate remedy based on instructor's preferences. A cloud implementation of the expert system has been used to test it for a course.

Personality traits are very important in choosing future profession because most professions require certain skills that are related to certain personality traits. The aim of our research was to... Show More

Personality traits are very important in choosing future profession because most professions require certain skills that are related to certain personality traits. The aim of our research was to determine which personality traits contribute the most to the distinction between the students of different professions, e.g. helping and non-helping professions. On a sample of 356 students, of which 216 study helping professions, Big Five Plus Two (BF+2) personality inventory was applied. For obtained data, the classification accuracies were tested with different combinations of 184 items and 18 subtraits of the BF+2 using Case based reasoning classifier. Results showed that the best accuracy had the set of all 18 subtraits and this set outperformed the classification of every combination of subtraits or items.

Flipped classrooms have been extensively used by many educators all over the world and are being seen as an alternative to the traditional classroom-based teaching-learning practices. As for... Show More

Flipped classrooms have been extensively used by many educators all over the world and are being seen as an alternative to the traditional classroom-based teaching-learning practices. As for traditional classrooms, face-to-face learning has not brought the personalization of learning capacity, time, attitude, behavior and interests to learners and has not exposed them to experimental activities. The flipped classrooms, on the other hand, enable students to be flexible in their learning and offer more time to go through videos, lectures posted on the Internet, which helps students to acquire the lessons through online learning systems. Flipped classrooms help create environment for more interaction between learners and instructors/facilitators, especially by creating the face-to-face conversations more interactive. However, teaching using flipped classrooms requires adequate additional resources such as; the effective online learning systems, databases, appropriate learning contents and methods, plan, presentations (in various forms like PowerPoint, word, scrom, video, audio) and most importantly minimum technical knowledge for both learners and instructors to use varieties of tools. This paper presents the construction of an environment supporting students to take part in an online activity before and after face-to-face interaction and organization of experimental teaching with the process of learning in groups based on the model of flipped classrooms to facilitate active learning. The quantitative results at the end of the course showed that the flipped learning is highly preferred and useful pedagogical approach when compared to those traditional methods that fostered better learning attitude and behaviors.

Learning professional skills through exposure to real-world contexts demands sophisticated assessment practices. However, complex and often novel genres can be daunting for undergraduate students.... Show More

Learning professional skills through exposure to real-world contexts demands sophisticated assessment practices. However, complex and often novel genres can be daunting for undergraduate students. This study examined student perspectives as they engaged in Portfolio assessment for the first time within a core undergraduate engineering unit. 42 students were surveyed (27%) with 11 participating in a follow-up telephone interview. Students rated content derived from their contributions to team projects as the most valuable component of their portfolio in terms of demonstrating the unit learning outcomes and developing the skills and dispositions needed in professional practice. The team structure of many learning opportunities encouraged students to collaborate and to draw on each other as instructional resources. The data indicated it is highly worthwhile for instructors to develop static resources that reduce students' need to contact instructors with trivial questions, though lecturer contact was deemed essential and effective for comprehending more complex tasks.

The 21st century education challenges educators to expose students to a wide variety of circumstances and problem situations where they are required to apply the skills they have learned. In... Show More

The 21st century education challenges educators to expose students to a wide variety of circumstances and problem situations where they are required to apply the skills they have learned. In engineering education, these are mostly limited to simulated scenarios which are devoid of real and actual interactions with the problems in the community. This article aims to describe how problem-based learning pedagogy and authentic assessment are used in the Computer Engineering program of Ateneo de Davao University as an implementation of the outcomes-based education. This is a descriptive & qualitative research that utilizes focus group discussions as a methodology for achieving its objective. This study uses the frame of experiential learning that is problem-driven, community-based, multi-disciplinary, integrative & collaborative. The computer engineering program uses a multi-disciplinary and integrative approach to problem-based learning through the service-learning program of the institution. This provides the students with an opportunity to interact with a community, identify its problems, analyze and create a concrete solution applying their acquired skills. Since the students are engaged with the community's actual and real problems, they will be assessed using authentic assessment mechanisms. Experiential learning, problem-based pedagogy with authentic assessment open doors of opportunities for a more meaningful and relevant computer engineering program.

In Vietnam, career counseling for students after graduating high school has limitations and advancing the career counseling skills of the high school teachers has not been highly assessed. An effort... Show More

In Vietnam, career counseling for students after graduating high school has limitations and advancing the career counseling skills of the high school teachers has not been highly assessed. An effort for the factor theory and measure proposal is the base for dealing with the problem. The author carried out a survey of 115 teachers belonging 40 high schools in Vietnam. As a result, the reality of career counseling skills of teachers at high schools is at the average level. This research is the base for enacting policies for the training of career counseling skills at high schools in Vietnam in the future. The result is described in the content of this article.