Innovation in Teaching Learning By Faculty

Engineering Education for Generation Z

Generation Z students are with different experiences and skill sets than the Generation X and Baby Boomer instructors teaching the majority of their classes. New educational techniques are evolved to address these differences but they are also simply being grounded in good andragogy. There are five areas which are integrated into the classroom with a complete revamp of the curriculum which was carried out in 2017 Regulation.

a) Use of ICT

Google Classroom: All the faculty members of the Department of Electronics & Instrumentation Engineering use Google Classroom extensively and a sample page is shown below in Figure L1

We manage the following tasks through the use of Google classroom.

1. Posting the teaching materials to facilitate flipped classroom mode (Figure L2).

2. Posting the time-bound assignments and manage all the submissions digitally (Figure L3).

3. They are free to submit their work even at late evening hours (Figure L4).

4. Evaluation of the students’ work are quick (Figure L5).

5. inviting other teachers to review and comment on the course contents (Figure L6).

6. Reviewing of the progress of the course by the Academic Auditor and Head of the Department.

7. Archiving the completed courses as records for future references (Figure L7).

8. Encouraging students to ask questions privately and also react to sensitive comments posted during assessments (Figure L8).

9. We let the students explain their shortcomings when not able to do a complete their work (Figure L9).

10. We post announcements for students (Figure L10).

11. Mobile learning experiences and home work for students. They can learn and work from anywhere and anytime. And Faculty members can also view the students’ work from anywhere and anytime with their hand phones (Figure L11).

Use of Mentimeter

1. We do a quick checking and consolidation of students’ learning through Mentimeter (Figure L12).

2. Students love to participate in the quiz with a lot of enthusiasm as the privacy is protected.

b) Small Group Learning

Recent calls for instructional innovation in undergraduate education has led to lot of andragogical research. Its analysis demonstrates the following benefits of small-group learning (Figure L13).

• Effective in promoting greater academic understanding
• More favourable attitudes toward learning
• Increased persistence through core courses and programs

c) Integrating Online Resources 

1. Major core courses in the curriculum are linked with massive open online courses (MOOC). Sample Syllabus of the course “MEMS AND SENSOR DESIGN” is shown below in Figure L14:

2. Beyond this, the instructional materials prepared by leading universities like MIT and Stanford are taken as reference for preparing most of the course materials (Figure L15).

3. Majority of the instructional materials prepared, integrate practical components to the theoretical concepts as most of the courses are offered in the embedded mode.

4. To encourage flipped class mode of learning, the video and text materials are posted in Google class room (Figure L16).

5. The state of the art experiments to meet the current change in the technology are included in the syllabus and a detailed students’ user manual has been prepared in consultation with industry experts.

6. The laboratory facilities and the instructional materials of the Virtual Labs (V-Labs) and Virtual Terminal Units (VTU) are being used by our students as our institution is a nodal centre for the College of Engineering, Pune

7. The facility to access e-books, journals and magazines are provided by the institutional library through Web OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue) and M-OPAC (Mobile OPAC) for search of books and other academic materials of the  library  (library.kct.ac.in) as shown in Figure L18

d) Project Based Learning

Researches in the learning methods have opened new vistas in Project Based Learning. Project based learning focuses on developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills in the students. Its inquiry-based method of learning to solve the problems given as projects to the students is a style of active learning. “Project Based Learning integrates knowing and doing” when student apply what they know to solve authentic problems with intentions to produce results that matter.

Advantages are:

• Determines the Actual Knowledge
• Improves Interpersonal Skills
• Develops the Concept and Creativity
• Choice of Selecting Real World Problems
• Better Model of Assessment of Students’ Skills

In project based learning students undergo various stages of problem solving through structure of the project which include various stages like project scoping, work planning, activity performing and tracking, managing uncertainties presented during problem solving activities of the project, presentation of the project, and closure. Students have opportunities to develop skills of observation, survey, research, reporting, presentation, communication, and collaboration with people involved, team building, and leadership in problem-solving approach of project based learning (Figure L19).

This experience is given right from first year through “Engineering Clinics” course and the students gain confidence and appear for national and international project competitions and a sample winning certificate of the first year students is given in Figure L19 

Prototyping, Student Start-up and Research

Coimbatore Innovation and Business Incubator (CIBI) is a Section-25 Company incorporated under the Companies Act-1956 on the 21st of March, 2014, is hosted by Kumaraguru College of Technology. CIBI is a Technology Business Incubator (TBI), supported and catalysed by the Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India under the NSTEDB scheme.

FORGE is the incubation enterprise launched by the CIBI, founded with the vision to create & catalyse innovation powered enterprises that harness the power at the intersection of hardware, software, and computing technologies to solve real-world problems, creating economic gains and delivering social impact.

FORGE FACTORY – the 20,000 sq.ft incubator established in Coimbatore, includes HW junction – the fully integrated lab for full-spectrum hardware innovation offering equipment, tools, and resources in computing (AI/ML), IoT, electronics, desktop fabrication, 3D printing, drones, and automation & robotics, to support the design, development, and testing of ‘manufacturing’ ready prototypes.

ProtoSem is a first-of-its-kind program launched by FORGE that embeds an innovation centred approach to engineering education right into the core of the engineering curriculum. It is offered as a 20-week intensive process of prototype design and development aimed at comprehensive skills and competencies development. Students will immerse in deep problem validation, customer discovery and continuously validate their innovative idea and with the guidance of industry experts design prototype to test permanently deployable solutions. In this process, the students will also learn core technical concepts and develop key engineering skills (Figure L20).

Students across all the departments are recruited for this program based on their skills and interest.

A minimum of 10 % of students of E&I during their course of study, undergo this rigorous training and many of them came out with flying colours with innovative products and start-ups.

iQube Centre is an established project centre filled with all necessary infrastructure for multidisciplinary project making exercises. This centre is active in bringing students from all branches of engineering who are passionate about building technologies. The centre facilitates with the formation of students groups based on their skill sets to work on various projects and help them to present their prototype model in national and international project competitions. Students of E&I enthusiastically involve in such projects and spend their time effectively during late evening hours and holidays. The outcomes are obvious as there are international and national level project winners from the Department of E&I with the support of iQube Centre.