Automated control and regulation

Teacher's name: Rosa M. Fernández

Timing: Continued

Methodology: Flipped class, follow-up activities, daily assessable activities in the classroom

Class-group size: >30 students

Level of studies: Degree

Degree, semester within the degree and subject: Degree in Nautical and Maritime Transport (FNB), Q4, 280616 Automatic Control and Regulation

Possible adaptation of the activity to other subjects: Extrapolable to other similar subjects

Description of the activity:

The activity is inspired by the principle of active learning, that is to say that the student in the classroom must be active at all times in order not to lose interest and to come in the classroom because it is an activity that he cannot do alone at home and it brings added value.

Following a "master class" and taking notes is a rather passive activity, in which it is easy to disconnect and, therefore, it is decided to take it outside the classroom and have the students prepare the theory on their own before the session and do the exercises to apply the theory in the classroom..

To prepare the theory outside the classroom, Atenea students have several short videos (maximum duration 10 minutes) that they can view as many times as they want. They are very simple, based on powerpoint on a white background and it is as if the teacher is writing the content on the blackboard as she explains it to them. The idea is that they should take notes as if they were in the classroom, but at their own pace, little by little..

Once the theory has been worked out, the face-to-face session in the classroom is reserved to do the exercises, in pairs, and hand them in at the end of the session. It has been sought that in the classroom they act as if they were in a place of study, studying together and helping each other to understand the problems raised. The exercises have various degrees of difficulty and we always start with extremely easy ones to encourage them, boost their self-esteem and encourage them to continue. Also, at all times, the teacher walks around the tables and helps them.

Teamwork:

Activity carried out in pairs.The work partners have been chosen by them (generally with the colleague who sits next to them)..

Sometimes it is detected that there is one member who knows more than the other but that is also good because that way they help each other. As it is generally more difficult for them to ask the teacher than the friend/colleague, this activity is ideal for getting the doubts out.

Activity evaluation system and impact on the evaluation of the subject:

The partial exam together with the exercises of this activity account for 20% of the final grade of the subject (15% partial exam + 5% the exercises of the inverted class).

The grade for the exercise is the same for both team members and accounts for 5% of the final grade for the subject. A delivery not made counts as zero.

Promotion of attendance in the classroom:

Attendance is encouraged because they must work in pairs in the classroom and hand in the exercises at the end of the session. If one person does not come, they leave the other person hanging and both are left with an undelivered course activity.

I think it worked. Absenteeism has been greatly reduced this year, but it is also true that several actions have been implemented to reduce it, not just this one.

Another indicator that they have taken this subject more seriously thanks to all these activities is that the week they had the mid-term exams, the teacher of another subject came a little annoyed to tell me that this year they only had studied automatic (apparently they answered one of their exam questions with block diagrams and Laplace transfer functions following the notation/approach of my subject :-p ).

Evidence of student assessment:

Feedback on the activity comes from interviews with students and comments collected throughout the activities.

The students' assessment of the videos is very good. Throughout the course, they have told me several times that the videos were very useful to them. Being short, they didn't weigh them down and they could also view them as many times as they wanted. They ended up asking for more videos even if they weren't related to the activity for the entire course syllabus. Seeing the enthusiasm, there was a moment when I jokingly told them to leave "likes" and subscribe to the YouTube channel.

Some have commented that they understand the theory better with the videos than when I explain it live in class. And others have asked for more classes in this style because they are more entertaining and shorter.

Proportion of hours dedicated by the teaching staff to the hours dedicated by the students:

The calculation is teacher hours / student hours. Faculty hours include preparation, execution and evaluation. Studentship hours include both in-classroom and out-of-classroom work.

Estimate per session (a total of 3 sessions have been done in this format):

Teaching hours: 15 hours

• • Activity design: 2 hours
  • Elaboration of the videos (script/content selection, powerpoint preparation, recording):  8 hours
  • Classroom activity: 2 hours
  • Correction of the delivered activities:  3 hours

Student hours: 5 hours

• • Watched videos before the activity: 3 hours
  • Classroom activity: 2 hours

Percentage 1st year: 15 teaching hours / 5 student hours

For the following courses, the activities are already designed and the videos made, so only small tweaks will be needed (changes in the exercises, redoing some videos, etc.). So the percentage of dedication once the activity is launched will be: 5-6 hours for teachers / 5 hours for students

Recommendation for colleagues when implementing this activity:

Make videos.

The flipped class is based on students working on the theory individually on their own before class and doing the exercises in pairs in the classroom. At first I had thought of uploading notes and readings to them, but in the end I found that recording small video capsules has given a much better result.

I have also used the videos with the students who had passed the partial exam. To those who showed interest in raising their grade, I assigned them a job consisting of making and delivering the summary of some of the videos and solving and delivering some additional exercises based on the content of these selected videos. Three students took part in this "internal rehearsal" and the result they obtained in the final exam was very gratifying.