Engineering learning objectives and computer assisted tools

ABSTRACT

The different technology fields have increased in complexity, especially during the last two decades, giving place to the concept of Complex Technology. An example is Electronics also characterised as a horizontal technology being incorporated in many products and processes of other technological areas. Bloom’s taxonomy of learning objectives and the revised version of Bloom disciples, which have been used by several experts in pedagogy, suffers from a generalist character and are not adapted to technology learning. In this article an engineering learning taxonomy is presented. Also a computer learning assisted tool called ISETL (Integrated System for Electronics Technology Learning) has been developed to facilitate the Electronics fundamentals understanding. ISETL has been evaluated taking into account not only the results of the theoretical assessments but also through the results obtained in the laboratory. These results demonstrate the advantages of this approach and can be depicted by the progressive improvements registered in student performance.

KEYWORDS:

• Taxonomy
• engineering
• self-learning
• computer-assisted learning tools

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Gilberto Santos is a Professor at Polytechnic Institute Cávado Ave, Barcelos, Portugal. He holds a PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering from Minho University, Portugal. His current research interests include industrial and mechanical engineering, namely innovation, quality systems and Integrated Management Systems. Gilberto participated as a speaker in several national and international conferences and he is currently author of several publications in Integrated Management Systems (IMS) – QES (quality, environment and safety) (books, papers in international and national journals). He is member of the research team of several IMS – QES research projects and also supervises Master and PhD thesis, as well, reviewer of international journals. Gilberto founded a master’s course on ‘Integrated Management Systems QES’ at the College of Technology of Polytechnic Institute Cávado, being the Director of the MSc Programme during the first seven editions. Professor Gilberto Santos is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: [email protected]

Enrique Mandado (S’68–M’69–LM’09) received the B.S. degree in electronic engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain, in 1969 and the PhD degree from the Polytechnic University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, in 1976. From 1969 to 1978, he was an Electronic Application Engineer with Miniwatt (Philips), Barcelona, Spain. In 1979, he joined the University of Vigo (Spain), becoming a Full Professor of electronics with the Department of Electronic Technology and the Director of the Institute for Applied Electronics, developing electronic systems for control and measurement. He is the author and co-author of 10 books about electronics, including ‘Programmable Logic Controllers’ and ‘Logic Devices’ (London, U.K.: Prentice-Hall, 1996), Sistemas Electrónicos Digitales (Barcelona, Spain: Marcombo, 2008) 10 editions, and Autómatas Programables y Sistemas de Automatización (Barcelona, Spain: Marcombo, 2009).

Rui Silva is an Associated Professor in the Engineering and Technology Faculty at Universidade Lusíada – Norte, Portugal. He holds a PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Glamorgan, UK. His current research interests include industrial management, operations management and artificial intelligence. He is cofounder and Principal Investigator of the Engineering and Industrial Management Research Centre since 2006. He is the head of the Engineering and Technology Faculty since 2008.

Manuel Doiro is industrial engineer and holds a PhD degree in Business Management from Vigo University, Spain. From 1995 to present is a Professor at Industrial Engineering School with the Department of Business Organization and Marketing, Vigo University. He was the Director of the Institute for Applied Electronics (2007-2013) developing operations and logistics management R&D projects with Galician firms. He is the author or a co-author of seven books including ‘Parques Empresariais de Galicia e Norte de Portugal’ (CZFV, Vigo, Spain 1999) and ‘La innovación tecnológica en las organizaciones’ (Thomson Paraninfo, Spain, 2003). His current research interests include innovation and operations management.

ORCID

Gilberto Santos http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9268-3272

Rui Silva http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7929-0367