Technology-Enhanced learning in Engineering Education

Please cite as follows: Chan, CKY (2015). "Technology-Enhanced learning in Engineering Education", Engineering Education Enhancement and Research Asia (E3R Asia).

Introduction

With the advanced development in technology, technology has been increasingly employed for teaching and learning in education. It is becoming more economical and convenient particularly among the digital learner of today’s generation. Apart from economical and convenience reasons, the use of eLearning has also brought some positive feedbacks from learners who enjoy this alternative learning experience. eLearning is particularly powerful when used in a blended learning environment in conjunction with face-to-face learning.

There are various technology enhanced learning tools and systems currently in the market, some are developed in-house, some are proprietary developed and some are open-source. Among the technology-enhanced learning tools and systems, learning management systems (LMS) have been used extensively in education, and the two most well-known LMS are Moodle and Blackboard. At the University of Hong Kong, Moodle has been adopted as the university LMS, more information can be found on (http://tl.hku.hk/staff/elearning/).

These LMSs allow students to access and download their course materials online. Teachers can opt to conduct quizzes in class and out of class and allow students to submit their assignments via the system, with automatic marking, recording and time-stamping; this helps teachers to facilitate their work and provides instant feedback to students. Furthermore, students can post ideas and information on the discussion forum, where teachers and other peers can respond and further discuss where they left off in class. This creates an interactive channel, where direct feedback between lecturers and students are received.