Networking in engineering education and vocational training

Materials, Metallurgy and Interdisciplinary Co-working Lecture 2.6 Networking in engineering education and vocational training A. Babich, D. Senk De...
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Materials, Metallurgy and Interdisciplinary Co-working

Lecture 2.6

Networking in engineering education and vocational training A. Babich, D. Senk Department of Ferrous Metallurgy, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen Networking as a powerful measure to attract young people to study engineering, to enhance the quality of higher education and to support life long learning. Approaches and experience of RWTH Aachen University and, particularly, Dept. of Ferrous Metallurgy are discussed in this contribution. They comprise of networking of academia with industry, economy and society (e.g. cooperation with steel industry, research centres, federations, alliances, associations, net work of former post graduates), IDEA League of Technical Universities in Europe, networking in steel metallurgical education, networking on Internet Platforms as well as networking inside of RWTH Aachen University. Advanced educational technologies such as eLearning and Distance Learning are discussed in this context as well. 1 Introduction Education and lifelong learning play an increasingly vital role. Companies that effectively develop people – their greatest asset – will be best positioned to succeed and prosper in the marketplace. The demand of society and industry on engineers and scientists is in conflict with drop in enrolment in engineering. In year 2007 there were about 20,000 engineering jobs in Germany which cannot be filled [1]. This is a problem in Europe and many other regions around the world. For example, the demand in graduates and post-graduates in European steel industry will increase by ca. 5% each year. Compared to today’s enrolment twice as much students in metallurgical courses are required [2]. In Germany there are around 7 engineers for every 1,000 people in employment, while in Japan this figure is 11 and in Finland 17 [3]. This trend of declining interest in technical and scientific subjects can be observed in many highly developed countries. Although many people are happy to use technology, only few are interested how it works the principles behind it. Interest in technology must be nurtured as early as possible, at kindergarten or at the latest at elementary school (Figure 1).

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"Science and technology make our lives healthier, easier and more enjoyable." 78

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Main thing is that it works Want to know how something works

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Figure 1: Acceptance of technology and interest in it (source: Eurobarometer, according to [3])

To achieve long-term qualitative growth, Germany needs more highly skilled specialists. Demand for specialists from German industry is high, but the supply of qualified candidates is insufficient. On the other hand, traditional learning methods - books and lectures do not suit new generation of students, who has grown with electronic devices (computers, game consoles, cell phones, and TV remote controls) and who wants to be in control of its own learning process using tools that support its information processing skills. Educational technology has to be changed and it is changing already. Networking as a powerful measure to attract young people to study engineering, to enhance the quality of higher education and to support lifelong learning. 2 Targets of networking 2.1 Enhancement of the quality of higher education Factors determining the quality of university’s education and related to networking are as follows: − Self-assessment programs e.g. via internet before start of studies − Development and use of new educational technologies − Fostering social, lingual and managing competence (mentoring / tutoring) − Partnership, networking resources and competences Networking of Higher Education Institutions (HEI), the exchange of learning resources between them and access to the best experts worldwide via the Internet will stimulate stronger and more transparent

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competition among educators and HEIs and consequently will promote the quality of education. 2.2 Attracting young people Recruiting activities at all 10 departments of metallurgy and materials engineering of RWTH Aachen University are coordinated together. The whole network of secondary schools of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Germany is covered. PR measures are supported by ThyssenKrupp Steel. Further goal is to attract not only nationwide but also the best candidates worldwide. Among 30,000 students at RWTH Aachen University, about 5,500 are foreign students. Exemplary RWTH Aachen University participates in a TU9 (9 German technical universities) project „Deutsche Schulen im Ausland“ (German schools abroad) and organises numerous informative meetings and events at German schools in different countries (there are over 30 such schools, e.g. Nemecká skola v Prace, Gymnázium na Prazacce). Another approach is development of combined curricula of engineering with business administration for technical management positions, with philological studies for improved handbooks and manuals of technical equipment or with languages and cultural aspects. Possibilities of flexible learning, partially discussed in section 4, are an essential factor of attracting young people. Finally, it has to be mentioned that activities listed above and many other resulted in increasing the number of students in Metallurgy and Materials Science at RWTH Aachen University from 43 in 2002 to 152 in 2007. 2.3 Facilitating the training on the job and improvement of its quality Education has to be considered not only towards graduate and postgraduate degrees but also continuing education and lifelong learning. More and more companies are realising they must invest in their employees’ continuing education to stay competitive. Professional training programmers and courses can be developed from within the company, but can also be offered by a team of university faculty members. For example, the Department of Ferrous Metallurgy (IEHK) offers together with the Institute of Education and Information of VDEh seminars and workshops “Casting and

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solidification of steel”, “Electric Arc Furnaces”, “Materials Technologies”, “Industrial Heat Treatment” and “Management seminar” for specialists of German and European steel industry. IEHK supports also company’s training activities e.g. in the scope of established “universities”, “academies”, master programmes etc. For example experts of IEHK participate in a Master Course „Steel Engineering“ organised and sponsored by RIVA Group, 3rd largest steel producer in Europe. This Course primarily aims at newcomers – young engineers graduated from specialities such as chemistry, mechanical engineering etc. IEHK plans to expand these activities beyond Europe. 3 Means and tools for networking The curricula at IEHK facilitate the student exchange and networking. According to the Bologna declaration all diploma-studies have been converted into Bachelor- and Master-degrees from winter semester 2007/08. The bachelor as well as the master is based on modules. Each module is valued with ECTS-points (European Credit Transfer System). Besides the basic study programme Materials Engineering, several international study programmes are introduced, e.g. the international master programme in Metallurgical Engineering. This programme focuses on all disciplines within Metallurgical Engineering and Material Science and takes 4 semesters including the master thesis of 6 month length. It is open to students from all over the world and is offered in German and English languages. Furthermore materials related courses and lectures at IEHK are offered to students of mechanical engineering and business administration. Special tools such as the Erasmus Programme ("European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students") serve to encourage and support academic mobility of higher education students and teachers within the European Union and further European countries. RWTH Aachen University has student exchange agreements with numerous universities abroad including the VŠB-TU Ostrava. Distance education using Internet in connection with powerful computers and new information technologies offers the possibilities to make education more effective, attractive and flexible and thus to motivate young talents to study engineering. New learning tools and methods using the Internet and multi media technologies gain more and more importance. In this context, possibilities for collaborative work support and interactive tutoring should have a priority. Students

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on geographically dispersed sites can collaboratively operate the same process or aggregate, solve a problem in human interaction with remote partners and in such manner teamwork can be trained. Various tools – distributed models, video conference systems [4], Gridtechnologies etc. – can be used for this purpose. Interactive tutoring and supervision are important features of virtual laboratories. The remote tutor has to be equipped with visual front-end software to monitor activity of the students, answer their questions, and analyse the learning results [5]. 4 Sharing of learning resources, technologies and equipment Internet technologies enable dissemination and common use of learning resources. For example, a universal brokerage platform EducaNext orchestrates a sophisticated exchange process between providers of educational content who wish to make their electronic content available to a wide audience [6]. Special features allow EducaNext content providers to customise their offers. They can specify the community to which they wish to make their content available and the type of exchange relationship they wish to establish with consumers. It provides access to a wide variety of learning resources made available through a heterogeneous set of delivery systems such as video conferencing applications, learning management systems, streaming media servers and standard Web servers. Tele-tutors and other providers of tele-conferences and remote lectures can announce these academic events via the portal and grant access to video conferencing applications or streaming media servers to selected users. Course administrators at learning management systems can publish a complete course or a small learning object. Content stored at Web servers can be simply referenced via hyperlinks. Another example is a Web based catalogue of online experiment descriptions. It was created to provide an overview of existing online experiments and laboratories [7]. It is a kind of electronic online repository of experiment descriptions, allowing educators, experiment developers and educational researchers to locate online experiments of interest. They can then contact the experiment owner for further information and negotiate access rights to the experiment, obtain technical information for building their own lab or obtain scientific articles on educational evaluations. The online experiment catalogue is available at the EducaNext portal [6].

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Networking and sharing lab equipment (real and virtual) between universities becomes reality [8-10]. Virtual and remote laboratories and experiments can support group work over the Internet and can be shared by students working from multiple distant locations, 24 hours a day. They open the potential for flexible learning, access to a large number of experiments & simulations and cost savings through laboratory sharing. At RWTH Aachen University, „Centrum für integrative Lehr/Lernkonzepte (CiL)“ (Centre for integrative teaching and learning conceptions) was founded to coordinate the media competences and to integrate eLerning concepts in the university’s everyday life. 5 Networking segments 5.1 Networking inside of University Cooperation and networks within RWTH Aachen University in the field of learning and training management and learning activities is shown schematically in Figure 2.

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Forum Informatics

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Figure 2: Simplified scheme of teaching and learning network (conventional and e-Learning) of the RWTH Aachen University

The University's Centre for Computing and Communication (CCC) offers a wide range of computing and communication services for all

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institutes, employees and students. The CCC provides equipment which is too expensive or too difficult to operate for institutes and offers methodical support and advice. The Virtual Reality Centre Aachen (VRCA) contributes towards the development of new spatial techniques of visualization. For example IEHK develops together with the VRCA and a private company virtual 3D phase diagrams of complex metallurgical systems based on chemical thermodynamics. The CAMPUS information system is linked to a multifunctional teaching and learning portal (L²P). The L²P offers virtual spaces for each CAMPUS event and supports protected exchange and communication between students and teachers. In the course of the European Bologna process with Bachelor- Master-degrees based on utilised degree programmes, the extended CAMPUS system enables online exam management. 5.2 External networks and cooperation Networking of academia with industry, economy and society is a crucial issue in the context of steadily increasing role of education and continuous training. Department of Ferrous Metallurgy cultivates a broad system of networks with: − steel industry, for example: cooperation agreement RWTH – ThyssenKruppSteel; − research centres, for example: cooperation IEHK / RWTH – MaxPlanck Institute for Iron Research GmbH; − federations, alliances, associations, international networks, for example: IEHK / RWTH – Steel Institute VDEh; − steel industry forums, for example: VDEh seminars; Aachen Steel Colloquium (ASK); European Steel Technology Platform (ESTEP), working group “People”; − former post graduates. In August 2007 an association for the friends of the Department has been launched to support the Department and intensify the contacts to former institute members and friends; − networking in steel metallurgical education on a bilateral basis, for example cooperation agreements with MISIS, Moscow, VŠB-TU Ostrava, USTB Beijing etc. The new master program “Materials and Metallurgical Engineering” was successfully initiated at the Thai-German Graduate School in Bangkok. RWTH Aachen University is a member of various alliances and networks like IDEA League of Technical Universities in Europe (Imperial College London, TU Delft, ETH Zurich, RWTH Aachen University and ParisTech) or UNITECH International which is a

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partnership programme between a group of European companies and leading universities of technology. 5.3 Global Internet platforms and international forums A global platform EducaNext for the exchange of educational content and sharing of knowledge between Higher Education Institutions across Europe and elsewhere was developed as the result of one of the most ambitious e-Learning projects of the European Commission. The platform is now in operation online and allows [6]: − To participate in Knowledge Communities − To communicate with experts in fields of interests − To exchange learning resources − To work together on the production of educational material: textbooks, lecture notes, case studies, simulations, etc. − To deliver distributed educational activities: lectures, courses, workshops, case study discussions, etc. − To distribute electronic content under license. Another big project “Network of Excellence in Professional Learning (PROLEARN)” funded by the EU Commission was set up to integrate all European activities in e-Learning into a powerful and meaningful community in order to establish Europe as a world leader in this field [11]. The mission of a consortium of 19 European universities and research centres (including RWTH Aachen University) as well as more than 100 associated (also non-European) partners is “to bring together the most important research groups in the area of professional learning, as well as other key organisations and industrial participants, thus bridging the currently existing gap between research and education at universities and similar organisations and training and continuous education that is provided for and within companies” [11]. The basic aim of the project was to share knowledge and develop it via joint research projects. Meanwhile PROLEARN’s partners have developed some forecasts on what education will look like by 2020. Collaboration will continue to be the key, the partners believe. To realise the potential possibilities for knowledge exchange, flexible learning and cost savings using DL methods, international collaboration is one of decisive points. One of the most significant forums in this context is the International Network for Engineering Education and Research (iNEER) chaired by the Rector of VŠB-TU Ostrava [12]. It is a global networking, professional organisation formed by the world engineering community to promote mutual progress in teaching and learning through international cooperation.

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iNEER helps in developing international understanding and partnership through information sharing and networking. The widening iNEER network of educators and researchers is linked through the website, electronic communication system, various conferences and workshops. 6 Issues to be considered when networking via the Internet Disadvantages of DL should not be ignored. Many educators do believe that the best approach to online teaching is to simulate the traditional face-to-face mode [13]. But distance education pedagogy has to consider the online environment. Cultural, geographical, language and social differences could lead to misunderstandings and dissonance. Online teaching can also cause frustration in students due to technical problems, stemming from inadequate technical support and computer skills, due to a lack of immediate feedback from the instructor, etc. The demands of academic institutions seem contradictory: reducing the educational costs, improvement in quality and increasing the number of graduates in engineering departments. In Etchemendy's study [14] initially three questions were presented, to the effect 1) "Can online delivery improve the quality of teaching?" 2) "Can online delivery improve the access to teaching?" and 3) "Can online delivery decrease the cost of teaching?" The answer to each question asked individually was "yes." However, when each individual question was considered in relation to the other two factors, the answers became different. "Can online delivery improve the quality of teaching?" "Yes, but not without increasing the cost." "Can online teaching increase access at the same cost?" "Yes, but not without a degradation of quality," and so on. The above mentioned contradictory demands can be met by - Replacement of expensive experiments by computer simulation - Sharing lab equipment between universities by remote access via the Internet - Exchanging online learning recourses and courses between universities and share development expenses. 7 Conclusions The module based Bachelor-Master-degree curricula at IEHK facilitate the student exchange and networking. An “International Master Programme in Metallurgical Engineering” is open to students from all over the world and is offered in German and English languages.

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Distance education using the Internet and multi media technologies offers the possibilities to make education more effective, attractive and flexible. Networking, sharing learning resources and lab equipment (real and virtual) between universities becomes reality. A network of institutions supports the learning and training management and learning / e-learning activities within the RWTH Aachen University. IEHK has widening networks with industry, universities, federations, alliances, forums, platforms etc. Global Internet platforms and international networks facilitate the exchange of educational content and sharing of knowledge and information, promote mutual progress in teaching and learning through international cooperation and partnership and bring together the most important groups and individuals in the area of higher education and professional learning. 8 References [1] Ingenieurinnen und Ingenieure wieder unter den gefragtesten Akademikern (07.03.2008), http://www.vdi.de [2] European Steel Technology Platform, European Commission; ISBN 92-79-01283-5, Brussels, March 2006, 116 p. [3] Schulz, E.D.: Challenges and perspectives for Germany as a business location, 22. Aachener Stahlkolloquium, 8-9 March 2007, Aachen, Germany, pp. 19-35 [4] Babich, A.; Senk, D.; Mavrommatis, K.: Laboratories in Engineering Education and Research. Proc. International Conference on Engineering Education and Research (iCEER) 2007, Melbourne, Australia, 2-7 December 2007, pp. 1-9 [5] Babich, A.: Common technical and pedagogical components for virtual labs. Proc. Int. Conference “Interactive Computer Aided Learning” (ICL 2005), ISBN 3-89958-136-9, Villach, Austria, September 28-30, 2005 (on CD-ROM) [6] EducaNext, http://www.educanext.org/ubp [7] Babich, A.; Hagge, N.; Gillet, D.; Faltin, N.; Simon, B.; Navarathna, N.: Web Based Catalogue of Online Experiments, IJEE, forthcoming [8] Kurt, O.; Kubat, C.; Öztemel, E.: Web-Based Virtual Testing and Learning in Material Science and Engineering, IJEE, 22, (2006), No.5, pp. 986-992 [9] Smutny, L.; Farana, R.; Smutny, P.: Virtual Technologies with WEB Solutions in e-Learning, Proc. International Conference on Engineering Education and Research “Progress Through Partnership”

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(iCEER 2004), ISSN 1562-3580, Olomouc, Czech Republic, June 2730, 2004, pp. 1273-1281 [10] Kolberg, S.; Fjeldly, T.A.: Remote Educational Laboratory Systems Based on Web Services Standards, Innovations 2005: World Innovations in Engineering Education and Research, Int. Network for Eng. Ed. And Res. (iNEER), Arlington, VA, (2004), pp. 219-231 [11] ProLearn. http://www.prolearn-project.org [12] International Network for Engineering Education and Research. http://www.ineer.org [13] Babich, A.; Senk, D.; Mavrommatis, K.: Ingenieurausbildung im Internet-Zeitalter, 21. Aachener Stahlkolloquium, 14-15 September 2006, Aachen, Germany, pp. 275-285 [14] Teaching at an Internet Distance: the Pedagogy of Online Teaching and Learning. http://www.vpaa.uillinois.edu

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