Supporting Distance and Flexible Education
Challenges in the Design and Development of Online Learning Resources
Mihai Dupac
Department of Design and Engineering, Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, U.K.
Keywords: Distance Education, Engineering Education, Learning Resources.
Abstract: In This Study, the Challenges in the Design, Development and Implementation of Online Learning
Resources to Support a First Year Distance/Flexible Education Students for Their Final Assessment in an a
Computer Aided Engineering Design (CAD) Class Have Been Considered. since a Majority of the
Flexible/Distance Learning Students Are Active Workers (Mature Students Involved in Different Industrial
Sectors) They Want to Gain the Appropriate Skills and Practical Knowledge They Need for Their Careers.
It Is Quite Evident That the Provided Resources Should Meet Student Expectations and Improve Their
Academic, Transferable and Employability Skills. in This Regard, the Learning Resources Should Be
Developed Considering the Actual Challenges in Delivering a Good Engineering Education, Unit
Specification and Students Difficulties (Identified through the Received Feedback) in following and Fully
Understanding Some of the Guided Reading. Questions regarding the Level at Which the Mathematical
Theory Should Be Taught in the Class, as Well as the Amount of Engineering Knowledge the Students
Should Gain, Should Be Considered. the Use of CAD Simulation Software - Very Effective in Delivering
Technical Subjects and Self-Directed Learning - Should Be Considered for Improving Student’s Computer
Knowledge and Abilities They Should Develop along the Learning Process. the Study Illustrates the
Challenges in the Design and Development of Engineering Learning Resources - Complex Engineering
Problems Which Would Traditionally Involve a Classical Form of Instruction - Generated as Electronic
Documents outside the Traditional Learning Environment. the Study Presents Learning Strategies and
Shows That Computer Simulations and Visualization Represents Powerful Tools in Self-Directed Learning.
to Validate the Findings, an Evaluation Procedure Was Considered.
1 INTRODUCTION
The actual advance of learning environments, due to
the technology integration into classroom and
advance into teaching methods enhance student
learning and equip them with the essential skills
needed in the actual society. As mentioned in
Guzdial and Soloway, 2002, regarding the advance
in teaching methods and IT technology, integrating
students in an advanced technological environment
while providing the necessary abilities and skills
makes them more adaptable and successful
professionals. Specific IT technology - hardware and
software based - have been developed in this regard
for the improvement of the mentioned cognitive
skills (Hassan, 2000; Tan and Thoen, 2000). As
stated in Sankar et al. 2008, Raju and Sankar, 1999,
and Mbarika et al., (2001), instructional materials
such as audio and video are considered to be
valuable tools in dealing with complex engineering
problems.
Learning integration with hypertext (Spiro and
Jehng, 1990) have been considered very prolific in
in problem-solving skills, while the development of
multimedia studies provide distance and flexible
education students with “anchors” which support
active learning (Bransford et al., 1990). In as study
performed by Oliver and Omari, 1999, about the
delivery of online ‘teaching’, it was considered that
this environment better supported active learning
activities when comparing with the classical printed
materials.
As mentioned in Goodhew, 2012, teaching
engineering in Distance and Flexible Education add
new challenges to the tutors. As summarised in
Goodhew, 2012, technology sustained learning,
team working, and quantitative treatment of the
topics represents essential key factor in delivering
491
Dupac M..
Supporting Distance and Flexible Education - Challenges in the Design and Development of Online Learning Resources.
DOI: 10.5220/0005454804910496
In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU-2015), pages 491-496
ISBN: 978-989-758-108-3
Copyright
c
 2015 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

‘good engineering teaching’, that is, the use of
engineering simulations software boost engineering
teaching (Ibrahim, 2011). Moreover, well designed
engineering materials (Raju and Sankar, 1999; Kulik
et al., 1984) supports students learning while
providing good opportunities to review the teaching
material and assess student’s competence and
knowledge. In addition, it provides an insight into
tutor expectations and allows students to prepare for
their assessments/examinations (Snooks, 2004). It
was also shown that their use represents a key
element in delivering ‘good teaching’ due to the
improved student’s performance (Sankar and
Clayton, 2010; Snooks, 2004).
Located in the South of UK, Bournemouth
University (BU) recruits students worldwide which
increase the need for the use of the e-learning
environments. One of the last approaches in the
School of Design, Engineering and Computing
regards the development and delivery of a flexible
learning Engineering Education programme. This
flexible delivery approach actively pursued by the
Faculty of Design and Technology, shows
Bournemouth University dedication to increase
focus on diversity, to actively consider the role of
distance and flexible learning (Crede and Borrego,
2012; Madden et al., 2013; Porter et al., 2014). As
mentioned in Weller, 2002, providing support
(developing effective learning environments) to the
flexible and distance education students is essential
for their success. As part of the Engineering
Education programme, a Computer Aid Design
module is delivered to a cohort of approximately 20-
30 students which are active industry workers and
want to maximize the course related knowledge and
to obtain skills that are most practical and useful to
what they are doing on a daily basis.
To answer the student’s needs and to facilitate an
effective flexible learning environment, new
learning resources have been designed, developed
and implemented as online materials for the
Computer Aid engineering Design (CAD) module.
The developed learning resources (containing
computer simulations and analysis) which responds
student’s difficulties in following and fully
understanding some of the guided reading while
preparing for their examinations (Macdonald et al.,
2002), represents a key strategy of enhancing
student’s creative thinking and learning (Sankar et
al., 2008). Due to the importance of the new created
resources in supporting students learning different
strategies have been considered and used in their
design. Questions regarding the amount of
mathematical and engineering knowledge the
students should gain as well as the effectiveness of
computer programming have been considered. To
validate the findings and obtain a comprehensive
picture of the learning resources efficiency and
effectiveness, an evaluation procedure has been
considered.
2 THE DESIGN AND
DEVELOPMENT PROCESS OF
LEARNING RESOURCES
The content of the learning resources should be
designed following the unit specification and its
educational objectives (UKPSF policy – “Design
and plan learning activities and/or programmes of
study”
UKPSF
). The resources should consider the
actual challenges in delivering a good engineering
education (Feisal and Rosa, 2005) and provide a
good understanding (critical reading, thinking and
evaluation) of the design limitations as well as the
knowledge level/threshold the students should gain.
The resources should consider the analysis and
interpretation of engineering data and results, while
reflecting at the mathematical theory behind.
Moreover, the analysis should be performed using a
user friendly CAD system which would allow
improvement of their computer knowledge.
Due to the agenda of flexible/distance education
students - usually mature students actively involved
to different industrial sectors – which want to gain
skills and knowledge that is most practical for their
careers (motivation to learn), it is evident that the
learning resources should be designed to meet their
expectations through developing theirs academic,
transferable and employability skills. The learning
resources content should relate to real-world
problems by identifying, analysing and discussing
criteria for solving non-conformal engineering
problems in unstructured situations, therefore
motivating student’s active learning. As mentioned
by P.K. Raju, a Thomas Walter Professor at Auburn
University, “Some students learn textually, that is,
they literally have to have the words in front of them
to understand engineering concepts. Others are very
visual in their approach to learning, and have to have
some degree of visual simulation in order to
understand the material.”
ISSUU Fall Magazine
. An
extended analysis of different learning styles (visual,
sensitive, intuitive, verbal, active, reflective,
sequential, global) and design of learning activities
is highlighted in Ferrer and Kirschning, 2014.
The effectiveness of the learning resources
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highlighted by the use of analytical and computer
programming (Kattan, 2008; Hahn, 2009) and visual
techniques (Kurowski, 2014; Huei-Huang Lee,
2014) includes (UKPSF policy – “Develop effective
learning environments and approaches to student
support and guidance”
UKPSF
):
i) analytical example(s) which explain and
relates analytical engineering to the mathematical
theory behind (identify criteria to solve problems)
ii) computational resources used as a pattern in
solving similar problems (analyse alternatives –
unstructured situations) and to enhance students
interests
iii) Solidworks/Autodesk Inventor tutorial(s) as a
visual formative resource (motivate students) to
enhance understanding, and improve students skills
and knowledge.
3 STRATEGIES USED IN THE
DESIGN OF THE LEARNING
RESOURCES
Due to the importance of the learning
materials/resources in: (i) supporting students
learning performance/satisfaction, (ii) providing an
insight into tutor/students expectations, (iii)
providing helpful materials for the students to
prepare for their assessments/examinations, and (iv)
providing opportunities to review the teaching
material, the next principles/strategies (Sankar and
Clayton, 2010; Sankar, Varma and Raju, 2008) have
been considered for their development in a Student
– Tutor relation:
A: STUDENT - Dissemination and Use
A1. Critical Reading – Clear tutor expectation
regarding the careful reading of the technical
resources in order to analyse, reflect and discuss
finding with tutor and colleagues (students should be
directed to discuss the findings using the myBU
forum provided by Bournemouth University)
A2. Self-directed Learning - Provide
opportunities for different students to modify and
adapt the provided learning resources and to share
the obtained results with the tutor and colleagues
(using the provided myBU forum)
A3. Self-evaluation and Feedback – The students
should be encouraged to use the BU forum to
communicate with each other and with the tutor. In
addition, students could be asked to record their
progress - reading and evaluation - on the self-
directed learning.
A4: Individual and Team Works - Encourage the
students to work both individual and in teams (to
enables students brainstorming and teamwork
strategies) based on their interaction through myBU
forum, etc. Tutor guiding should be used to help
group interaction.
All the mentioned resources dissemination and
use (A1 to A4) include the use of the myBU forum
which should “provide a sense of community with
constructive feedback”, that is, an important aspect
in increasing students satisfaction (Boling et al.,
2012).
B: TUTOR - Design, Development and
Implementation
B1. Partnership – Due to the educational
importance of the learning resources, it is quite
essential for the Design, Engineering and Computing
faculty members to get involved in this development
(development of learning materials). Moreover, it
may be beneficial to develop resources in
partnership with professional from industry.
B2. Quality – Enhance the quality of the
provided resources by reviewing them with
professional from industry, testing them (if possible)
in an engineering environment, and eventually
publishing them in engineering education journals
and/or conferences.
B3. Competency – Great competency of the
learning resources can be achieved by sharing with
industry professionals/students before using them in
flexible or distance learning (feedback expected).
B4. Organisation/Storage – Organize and store
the learning resources in such why (electronic
repository) so it can be easily retrieve by
students/tutors based on different/combined search
criteria such as index, topic, discipline, field of
application, etc.
4 EVALUATION OF THE
LEARNING RESOURCES
In order to obtain a good idea about the effectiveness
of the developed learning resources as well as the
effort put by the students in the learning processes
(Spiro and Nix, 1990; Sankar and Clayton, 2010;
Sankar et al., 2008), two evaluation forms have been
developed/considered (UKPSF policy – “Assess and
give feedback to learners”
UKPSF
). The first evaluation
form is using the descriptors, (i) the clarity of the
developed case studies, (ii) the study relevance,
(iii) the amount of time spent (individually or group
working), and (iv) instructionally helpfulness. The
clarity, relevance, helpfulness and time descriptors
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are considered on a 4-point scale, from unclear to
clear, irrelevant to relevant, not helpful to helpful
and short period to long period of time respectively,
as below (Table 1).
Table 1: A 4-point continuum scale form for evaluation of
student learning.
1 2 3 4
Clarity of the developed
resources
← Unclear Clear →
Relevance of the
developed resources
← Irrelevant Relevant →
Amount of time spent on
the developed case studies
← Short Long →
Instruction helpfulness of
the developed case studies
← Not helpful Helpful →
The second evaluation form shown in Table 2
present questions such as “I developed my CAD
skills” or I’m confident to use stress and strain
analysis to design engineering systems” on a 4-point
Likert scale
LITEE
. The scale has a rating from 1 to 4
which represents answers starting from not
favourable or “Strongly Disagree” response, to
answers representing the very favourable of
“Strongly Agree” response.
Table 2: A 4-point Likert scale form for evaluation of
student learning.
← Disagree Agree →
1 2 3 4
I improved my capacity to
appraise stress and strain
I developed my CAD skills
I’m confident to use stress
and strain
I understand meshing
process
In addition, the students may be asked to answer
some questions (Sankar and Clayton, 2010; Sankar
et al., 2008) regarding learning resources strengths
and weaknesses, and to suggest other specific
descriptors/constructors, which will make data
analysis manageable and meaningful (UKPSF policy
– “Develop approaches to student support and
guidance”
UKPSF
). Finally, a statistical evaluation
should be performed on the student’s feedback, to
obtain o clear perspective of how the learning
resources affected students learning, and to convey
new possible developments which will further assist
the new generations of flexible/distance education
students.
5 TUTOR AND TECHNOLOGY
ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT
OF LEARNING RESOURCES
It is easy to see how the teacher’s role, in the
development process of the learning resources,
becomes that of a facilitator
ISSUU Fall Magazine
directing
students through the developed materials: the clearer
the provided resources (tutorials, media, case
studies, etc.) are to the students the better the
chances are that the student’s expectations will be
met (learning and examinations). Moreover, the use
of computer programming in the development of the
learning resources should enhances students learning
experience (Gibbons and Fairweather, 1998).
Computer programming (Ibrahim, 2011; Tiernan,
2010) plays an important role in engineering
education by developing student’s skills while
stimulating “their interest and enthusiasm”, that is, a
key factors for a good education. Running and
understanding the provided programs/resources and
eventually using them as patterns in solving similar
problem represent another guarantee that different
learning styles are addressed.
Especially in engineering education, computer
simulation has been shown to be very effective in
delivering technical subjects and to respond to the
student’s needs (due to a series of technical
characteristics such as visualization and simulation
tools). As mentioned in Bradley et al., 2007, and
Mbarika et al., 2001, an excellent pedagogical
method for the delivery of engineering concepts in
the field of ITC and engineering is given through the
use of instructional materials which involve
simulations, materials which provide a valuable
interactive experience for students (Sankar and
Clayton, 2010). It is to be mentioned that all the
consideration above are in direct agreement with the
UKPSF policy regarding the “use and value of
appropriate learning technologies”
UKPSF
while
“engaging” and “incorporating the research,
scholarship and the evaluation of professional
practices”
UKPSF
in the teaching disciplines.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The challenges in the design and development of
online learning resources for answering student’s
needs and for facilitating an effective distance
learning environment have been considered in this
study. The created learning resources (computer
simulations, analytical and numerical solutions,
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tutorials, etc.) - which present themes related to
engineering - respond student’s difficulties in
following and fully understanding some of the
guided reading.
Due to the importance of the learning resources
in delivering and supporting students learning,
different strategies have been considered for their
design. Questions regarding the amount of
mathematical and engineering knowledge the
students should gain, the effectiveness of computer
programming resources, and improvement of their
transferable skills (such as critical reading, thinking
and evaluation) and abilities they should develop,
have been considered.
It was concluded that the use of learning
resources containing simulations and visualization,
as well as multimedia materials, can be successful
applied outside the traditional learning environment.
Considering student’s feedback, an evaluation
procedure has been presented for a clear view of the
efficiency/effectiveness of the generated resources.
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