IEEE Revista Iberoamericana de Tecnologias del Aprendizaje

This paper presents the results of applying an educational data mining approach to model academic attrition (loss of academic status) at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Two data mining models were defined to analyze the academic and nonacademic data; the models use two classification techniques, naïve Bayes and a decision tree classifier, in order to acquire a better understanding of the att... View full abstract»

This paper proposes to apply data mining techniques to predict school failure and dropout. We use real data on 670 middle-school students from Zacatecas, México, and employ white-box classification methods, such as induction rules and decision trees. Experiments attempt to improve their accuracy for predicting which students might fail or dropout by first, using all the available attributes; next,... View full abstract»

In this paper, we propose the utilization of augmented reality (AR) in a smart classroom (SaCI). The architecture of a SaCI has been proposed in a previous work, based on the paradigm of multi-agent systems. In this paper, we propose an agent that provides services of AR to display and design, among other things, augmented scenarios. In addition, we define an experimental real environment in SaCI ... View full abstract»

This paper describes the experience during the execution of a project that applied the project-based learning (PBL) methodology for teaching an undergraduate course on image processing at the Universidad de los Llanos. During this project, the learners, the students of electronics engineering and computer science, were able to complement their lectures, process and manipulate images, and build the... View full abstract»

We developed a proposal of a usability evaluation by the experts of a learning management system (LMS). The instrument is designed on the basis of the general criteria for the heuristic evaluation proposed by Nielsen, as well as on international standards, guides, and recommendations for software quality (ISO 9241 and ISO 9126). We present the results from applying the usability evaluation instrum... View full abstract»

This paper describes the development of courses in the field of digital design that use Arduino boards as their main platforms. Arduino offers an intuitive development environment and multiple hardware and software resources that allow rapid development of microcontroller-based projects. However, due to the vast amount of information available, students were losing the capability to design their o... View full abstract»

This paper describes a learning activity on computational thinking in ethics classroom with compulsory secondary school students (14-16 years old). It is based on the assumption that computational thinking (or better “logical thinking”) is applicable not only to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics subjects but to any other field in education, and it is particularly suited for decisio... View full abstract»

The number of mobile phones and tablets has notably been raising in last few years, which allows to extend its potential applications. In the field of education, the possibilities offered by augmented reality are yet to be explored. The experience which is proposed in this paper pretends to implement QR codes in subject teaching belonging to an industrial engineering degree. In particular, changes... View full abstract»

This paper describes a project-based learning case example developed at the University of Lleida, Spain. This proposal was addressed to third-year engineering students and combines knowledge from computer vision and robotic control to complete an automation project task. The learning target was to develop a computer vision system that must detect a small object placed randomly on a target surface ... View full abstract»

This paper intends to establish the relationship between the heritage content of mobile pedestrian navigation system-augmented reality application and learning processes through mobile devices. In this context, a teaching-learning process will be developed that is linked to urban heritage, determining the educational effectiveness with these tools. The methodological research focuses on two dimens... View full abstract»

A rapid control prototyping system for the MIC955 module of the feedback instruments is described. The system is supported on a computer with open source tools GNU Linux Fedora, Scilab/Scicos, and RTAI-Lab. The following are the phases of a control system design: 1) specifications: 2) modeling and identification; 3) analysis controller; 4) simulation; 5) implementation, and 6) verification in a de... View full abstract»

Although several definitions of gamification can be found in the literature, they all have in common certain aspects: the application of strategies, models, dynamics, mechanics, and elements of the games in other contexts than games, and the objective of producing a playful experience that fosters motivation, involvement, and fun. In this paper, our approach gamifying the learning process of a sub... View full abstract»

This paper presents an experience based on the use of m-learning in higher education. The application developed aims at learning control sentences in structured programming languages. The objective of this experience is to determine the degree of acceptance and use of Educational Apps for mobile devices among our students, and the perception they have of how this kind of tools helps them to reach ... View full abstract»

This paper contains an exploratory study on self-regulation by a group of students during a second-year computer programming course (data structures). Self-regulation was measured through the implementation of an instrument that evaluates motivation and learning strategies. From the results of the implementation, the relation between self-regulation and academic performance among the students was ... View full abstract»

This paper presents the analysis of recent research on mobile learning and usability areas, applying a systematic mapping study. The aim is to understand the tendencies and needs in the m-learning field. The results demonstrate that research in the area has grown significantly since 2013, and we identify a necessity when we see that not all the m-learning applications have used usability tests; we... View full abstract»

This paper discusses how Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) users learn and participate in cooperative environments that promote learning communities within external hypermedia environments, such as the social networks. In order to develop this paper, researchers analyzed the interaction of users enrolled in a course developed under the iMOOC platform, which is based on concepts like connectivism, ... View full abstract»

Learning analytics (LA) is a multidisciplinary area of research, where education, statistics, and technology experts collaborate with other disciplines to get insights from learning data sets. This involves a continuous cycle of gathering data from teachers' and students' interactions, filtering and translating it to proper formats, using a wide range of analysis techniques and starting again afte... View full abstract»

The global economic crisis makes it necessary to increase business competitiveness. Lean is a manufacturing philosophy that deserves the attention of employers and their employees, since its objectives are to increase productivity, reduce waste, and optimize available resources. The 5S method is a lean tool that can improve productivity by improving the organization of the workplace. A brief surve... View full abstract»

The Robot@Factory competition was recently included in Robotica, the main Portuguese Robotics Competition. This robot competition takes place in an emulated factory plant, where automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) must cooperate to perform tasks. To accomplish their goals, the AGVs must deal with localization, navigation, scheduling, and cooperation problems that must be solved autonomously. This rob... View full abstract»

Previous research studies have reported strong evidence that the emotional state of students may have a considerable impact on their learning. In this paper, we present an empirical study that evidences that it is possible to influence the user's affective state in a controlled way, by adapting the system's response. As part of this paper, we have analyzed the affective impact of varying the level... View full abstract»

This paper investigates the use of learning management systems as tools constituting student's personal learning environments in the degree of informatics applied to education in the National University of Chimborazo-Ecuador. The main result of this paper is that there is an increasing number of courses that rely on virtual classrooms, but learning occurs both in and out of these learning environm... View full abstract»

A blended learning teaching experience conducted at Spain’s National Distance University is described. The project consisted of integrating technology (a virtual learning platform) and teaching methodologies (multimedia contents, weekly deliverables, continuous self-assessment, mentoring, a four-month timetable, and webinars) to enhance student engagement, performance, and satisfaction. A statisti... View full abstract»

More than ever, the economic globalization is creating the need to increase business competitiveness. Lean manufacturing is a management philosophy oriented to the elimination of activities that do not create any type of value and are thus considered a waste. One of the main differences from other management philosophies is the shop-floor focus and the operators' involvement. Therefore, the traini... View full abstract»

In the context of the European Higher Education Area, it is needed to propose new motivation ways to engage university students in lectures. Since they prefer the application of active methodologies rather than passive ones, and they enjoy the use of interactive devices, using technology in the classroom seems promising. Thus, this paper presents an experience conducted in four technical subjects ... View full abstract»

Computational thinking is a cognitive process that allows generating solutions to problems through the use of skills, such as abstraction, decomposition, and algorithmic design. This paper presents the proposal to evaluate computational thinking of new students to relate knowledge indicated in the subject methodology of programming and to offer an initial environment of learning. This paper descri... View full abstract»

This paper explains how a software architecture was planned, designed, and implemented to help in the support of eLearning activities within a virtual laboratory inside the Second Life Virtual World. It delves into the problems related to this kind of systems and architectures and detects the possible benefits they could provide to eLearning processes. This paper shows how the software engineering... View full abstract»

This invited editorial introduces a special section of the IEEE-RITA journal devoted to the INTERACCIÓN’2014, the 15th International Conference on Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) held in Tenerife, Spain, in September 2014. This section includes the revised and extended version of three papers selected in the last edition of this conference. This editorial summarizes the subjects and interest topi... View full abstract»

The process of learning correct pronunciation can greatly benefit from the twin disciplines of information visualization (InfoVis) and human-computer interaction (HCI). HCI concerns with design, evaluation, and implementation for the ease of use of users, while InfoVis is responsible for representing multidimensional data in a specific information context. The two disciplines can, therefore, compl... View full abstract»

This paper presents the research work carried out by an interdisciplinary group of technologists, educators, and entertainment experts from the University of Deusto to develop a serious game to practice generic skills in job-oriented education. This innovative serious game focuses on entrepreneurship skills and problem solving competences. Technology is a facilitator for a new teaching methodology... View full abstract»

The application of the information and communication technologies to teaching and learning processes is linked to the development of new tools and services that can help students and teachers. Learning platforms are a clear example of this. They are very popular tools in eLearning contexts and provide different types of learning applications and services. In addition, these environments also regis... View full abstract»

The traditional teaching-learning processes used by Chilean universities are changing. This document describes two innovative strategies applied to teach software engineering (SE) at two universities in Chile. Teaching experiences are part of our ongoing effort to improve the current teaching-learning strategies of SE in the mentioned universities. In this paper, we describe our teaching experienc... View full abstract»

Self-regulated learning is an active field of research in pedagogy, and a key element in the current European higher education. One of the main problems found by educators in the programs centered in the promotion of self-regulation is that they need to monitor all their students constantly and thoroughly. If the number of students is large, which is typical in higher education, this becomes a pro... View full abstract»

In the last few years, undergraduate university courses with a practical orientation, such as programming, have had a high drop-out rate and low number of students who pass the course. One important issue of these courses is that in order to learn new content, previous skills must be consolidated. Therefore, a progressive and continuous feedback is essential to increase the motivation of the stude... View full abstract»

Remote laboratories are software and hardware tools that allow students to remotely access real equipment located in universities. The integration of remote laboratories in learning tools (learning management systems, content management systems, or personal learning environments) has been achieved to integrate remote laboratories as part of the learning curricula. A cross-institutional initiative ... View full abstract»

Classroom safety, especially in laboratories, is a frequent concern in engineering. This paper addresses the results obtained from an assessment regarding the students' use of a laboratory practice manual that incorporates the different types of technology, with the final aim of introducing good safety practices as a standard part of the teaching process. Thereby, students are encouraged to play a... View full abstract»

The learning habits of a new generation of students, i.e., those growing up with cell phones, access to social media, and video games, are significantly different from the habits of the educators who are preparing them for the future workplace. The effectiveness of traditional lecture-based classrooms has been questioned by educators, parents, industry, and government. In the field of science, tec... View full abstract»

The traditional teaching-learning processes used by Chilean universities are changing. This document describes two innovative strategies applied to teach software engineering (SE) at two universities in Chile. Teaching experiences are part of our ongoing effort to improve the current teaching-learning strategies of SE in the mentioned universities. In this paper, we describe our teaching experienc... View full abstract»

This paper is the editorial for the TAEE special issue of the RITA journal. This special issue is devoted to improve the teaching/learning process in electronics using different technologies and approaches. View full abstract»

Combining learning objects are a challenging topic because of its direct application to curriculum generation, tailored to the students' profiles and preferences. Intelligent planning allows us to adapt learning routes (i.e., sequences of learning objects), thus highly improving the personalization of contents, the pedagogical requirements, and specific necessities of each student. This paper pres... View full abstract»

Educational video games are increasingly present in the classroom. While their success as a learning tool has been demonstrated in technical fields, they have been little used in the arts. Plays, for example, would be excellent subjects for video games, as they are similar in terms of design and narrative. However, few video games are based on plays, and, of those that have been created, their eff... View full abstract»

This paper describes how an educational digital material supports the improvement of skills in the development of algorithms within math problems, which belong to a part of an operative computational thinking, in students of the subject logic programming. This paper reflects how students lack the fundamentals of math and the algorithmic thinking which is required to solve the problems established ... View full abstract»

Peer assessment is a form of collaborative learning in which students evaluate learning products prepared by other students. We present the results of an analysis of the assessment of oral presentations by students. A group of students solves a problem, writes a document with the solution, and makes an oral presentation in class to other students. Another group assesses the written document and or... View full abstract»

This paper describes the development of an integrated virtual/remote lab for teaching induction motor starting methods used in the Civil Engineering School at the Polytechnic University of Madrid. View full abstract»

The classic didactic approach that has been applied in the classroom for learning algorithms focuses on the use of lectures combined with practical exercises. In our approach, we propose a novel way for learning algorithms through interactive and collaborative experimentation. Furthermore, as far as we know, there are no existing studies that analyze the relationships that these approaches may hav... View full abstract»

In the last decade, we have witnessed a significant proliferation of remote laboratories, unconstrained by temporal or geographical considerations, in all fields of engineering education, thanks to the exponential revolution of digital technologies and computers. In response to these needs, this paper provides a literature review on the commonly encountered hardware and software implementation iss... View full abstract»

This paper presents the design and application of personalized formative self-assessment tests, in the framework of adaptive learning in virtual learning environments. The tests were customized taking into account the predominant learning styles in the groups and the knowledge level of the domain item. The experience compares two groups of university students, which belong to different semesters o... View full abstract»

This paper presents an experiment in which visual programming environments have been used in programming courses aiming at helping students to acquire the competencies of a course on object-oriented programming. This paper is centered on the analysis of the acceptance by the students of this type of environment, as well as its effect on the motivation of the students. The results obtained show dif... View full abstract»

Applications for e-learning platforms must deal with certain variability inherent to their domain. For example, these applications must be adapted to the variations of each teaching-learning process. Thus, they must be changed manually, according to the particular environment in which they will be deployed. This manual adaptation process is costly and error-prone. Our hypothesis is that software p... View full abstract»

This paper reports an experience of ICT application using mobile devices on an educational scenario on a basic education environment. We present a pilot project developed by the Remote Experimentation Lab (RExLab), from the Federal University of Santa Catarina and coexecuted by the School of Basic Education Maria Garcia Pessi in Santa Catarina, Brazil. The project has the support of the National C... View full abstract»

This paper presents the design of an academic level simulation for an industrial plant and the current status of practice activities proposed for an undergraduate course on industrial automation for electronic engineering students. Strongly focused on professional processes and methods, in particular, it deals with the specific activities developed by electronic engineers at the lower levels of th... View full abstract»