Active-Learning Methods for Control Engineering Teaching Using Web Applications

Abstract

The development of active-learning methods is strongly proliferating nowadays in Higher Education studies. Roughly speaking, active learning can be understood as a way of learning in which students are more directly involved in the learning process. It is commonly accepted that, in contrast to traditional methods, substantial improvement of the own learning process is achieved through active methodologies. In particular, teachers must address an extra effort to engage the interest of students when faced with subjects provided with strong theoretical background (such as automatic control related topics). Indeed, one of the main drawbacks reported by the own students is their difficulty to connect real engineering application and theoretical lessons. In this paper, we present an active learning method conceived for automatic control subjects with the aid of virtual laboratories compatible with a wide range of web browsers for this end. In a first stage, some real engineering problems for students in the classroom are raised. Through a suitable follow-up of intermediate results and the appropriate discussions, teachers will be able to obtain an immediate feedback while evaluating the quality of learning at each stage. It is worthwhile mentioning that virtual labs are developed using the standard web interactive programming language HTML and Javascript, which only requires a web browser to be executed. Hence, in comparison to previous academic years, it is expected to better promote the usefulness of the control engineering for the students' careers with high degree of autonomy for selfscheduling homework and low cost resources, while improving the self-motivation and long-term quality of learning.