Engineering made easy by Integrating Instructional Design Strategies and Pedagogic Approaches

Tulika Sett Mission10X, Wipro Technologies, India

Wipro Technologies, 2,3 4, Knowledge Park-4 Greater Noida, Gautam Budh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, India +91 9818736827 Email:Tulika.sett@wipro.com

ABSTRACT
"Scientists investigate that which already is; Engineers create that which has never been.'' - Albert Einstein Engineering education, undoubtedly, is one of the most important streams of education. It requires integration of knowledge, skills, comprehension and implementation, thus making engineering education CHALLENGING. To meet the challenges of engineering education and to increase the attractiveness of engineering education, the need of the hour is to introduce alternate and active learning methodologies. These alternate modes of training not only makes learning easy and interesting but also ensure higher levels of learning of the subject matter by providing insights into the implementation aspects of the concepts learnt. Mission10X, a not-for-profit trust of Wipro Technologies, was conceived primarily to transform the culture of learning in the institutions of engineering education and to introduce alternate teaching-learning practices. To meet the challenges prevailing in engineering education, Mission10X developed a teaching-learning methodology, referred as Mission10X Learning Approach (MxLA). The Mission10X Learning Approach positions the learner at the centre of the educational discourse and is highly critical about the teacher centered pedagogy. This paper details how Mission10X facilitates the process of bringing about innovation in teaching-learning approaches used in the various streams of engineering education by integrating instructional design strategies and pedagogic approaches. Mission10X provides a platform to the engineering faculty to share their innovative techniques and real-life cases with the other engineering fraternity which spans across 23 states of India. This paper provides statistics and case studies on how such techniques and models have been used by approximately 12,000 faculty members in bringing about a revolution in the teaching-learning practices adopted in engineering education in India.

The paper also includes examples of how faculty members across the country have used multiple approaches while teaching the same concept. In addition, this paper also highlights what peers and students felt about the usage of such approaches in the regular classrooms of engineering education.

Keywords
Pedagogy, Active Learning, Skills & Competencies, InstructionalDesign

1. INTRODUCTION
To ensure success of a teaching-learning process, it is important to make the process interesting and attractive for the students. The same is true for engineering education. Use of alternate modes of training as a method to improve the quality of a training program to ensure higher levels of understanding of the subject, has been prevalent in business studies and other soft-skills training programs. However, engineering education has always been tagged as serious and technical where such alternate methods cannot be used. This has made engineering education boring and monotonous leading to students not being able to retain and apply concepts learnt in practical scenarios which have led to poor employability skills in engineering graduates. Wipro Technologies, an industry leader, identified this challenge in engineering education and initiated a not-for-profit trust Mission 10X, as an innovative educational initiative to radically transform engineering education and improve the employability skills of the engineering graduates. It was formally launched on 5th September, 2007, that is observed as the Teachers Day in India. The key objective of this program is to empower the engineering teachers across colleges in India with innovative teaching techniques and tools that would enable them to help students imbibe higher levels of understanding of subjects, effectively apply the concepts learnt and develop key behavioural skills that are required for better employability. In order to develop a learning approach that would meet these objectives, the Mission10X research team studied other similar global initiatives [11] and constructed the Mission10X Learning Approach (MxLA). This learning approach is not aligned to any one learning approach or pedagogy but is a blend of the best practices of multiple approaches. Since its inception, this approach has been constantly evolving, by imbibing best practices and learnings, and has been used to 413

WEE2011, September 27-30, 2011, Lisbon, Portugal. Editors: Jorge Bernardino and Jos Carlos Quadrado.

deliver training to over 12,000 teachers in India. These teachers have been an integral part in making this learning approach more robust. The implementation of this approach involves: research in engineering education, empowering engineering teachers on instructional design based pedagogical practices through layered set of workshops, developing and disseminating technology enabled learning aids, creating teaching-learning materials that integrate technology, instructional design models and theories and pedagogical approaches.

An overview of how the ADDIE (Analyse, Design, Develop, Implement and Evaluate) Model and the other models and learning theories are integrated in the Mission10X Learning Approach is given in figure 2.

Training on Pedagogical Approaches

Provide Reference Materials

Provide Easy to Use

Template

Provide Training on Authoring Techniques

Ensure Continuous Mentoring During and Post Authoring

Figure 2. Mission10X Instructional Design Methodology Following sections detail how the Mission10X Instructional Design methodology follows the ADDIE model.

2.1 Analysis
Figure 1. Mission10X Implementation Approach The focus of this paper is on how Mission10X integrates instructional design models and theories and other pedagogical approaches to bring about an innovation in the teaching-learning practices followed in the engineering colleges of India. This paper also provides statistics and case studies on how such techniques and models have been used in India. In addition, this paper also highlights how peers and students felt about the usage of such approaches in regular classrooms of engineering education. During this phase, the instructional goals and objectives are established and the learning environment and students existing knowledge and skills are identified by the teacher. This helps the teacher to plan for their sessions better.

2.2 Design
Having identified the existing knowledge and skills of the students and to meet the desired goals and objectives of the session, in this phase, a teacher designs an elaborate plan that captures every aspect of the training session. To enable the same, an educational learning template was conceptualized and structured. The template has three sections - Objectives, Session Plan and Session Inputs. The key elements of Gagnes Nine Events of Instruction, ARCs Model, Merrills Component Display Theory, Blooms Learning Taxonomy, Gardners Multiple Intelligence and Kirk Patricks Theory of Evaluation are in-built in this template. This structure of the template helps teachers to thoroughly plan for a classroom session by formulating various active learning ideas and reconciling upon an approach that best suits the demographic and the intellectual-emotional nature of their students. The key benefit of this template is that it ensures a teacher plans and prepares for a session well in advance and is able to deliver the session as per the plan unlike the earlier practice of conducting a session without any prior defined plan. Additionally, the teachers carry all the ancillary teaching-learning material required for the effective delivery of the session. This template also helps in improvising their sessions by self-reflection and doing the required modification post their session. A sample session plan is shown in figure 3.

2. THE MISSION10X INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN METHODOLOGY

For successful training delivery, it is important that the teachinglearning process is a smooth, enriched and enjoyable learning experience for the student while they transition from their current state to the desired state of learning. Instructional Design is the practice of maximizing the effectiveness, efficiency and appeal of instruction and other learning experiences by ensuring systematic design of a training program. The systematic/structured design of training is a way to ensure the quality of instruction. In other words, a systematically designed training is more likely to meet the genuine needs of the customer that is the student in this case [2]. Mission10Xs Instructional Design methodology is primarily based on the ADDIE model [4] which forms the base for other current models like the Dick & Carey and Kemp ISD models. In the various phases of the ADDIE model, the Mission10X Instructional Design methodology integrates other Instructional Design and learning theories like Robert Gagnes Theory of Instruction [3], John Kellers ARCS model [6], Merrills Component Display Theory [8], Blooms Learning Taxonomy [1], Gardners Multiple Intelligence [5] [12] and Kirk Patricks Theory of Evaluation [7].

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Gain the Attention of the Students

At the beginning of a session gaining the attention of a student by arousing their curiosity is a good way to motivate the students. This tool encourages the teacher to start a new topic in innovative ways such as story-telling, cracking a joke and scenario building to name a few. In the sample in figure 5, the teacher is planning to narrate a joke to introduce the topic.

Figure 3. A Sample Session Plan from the Document, Rankine Power Cycle, authored by V. Uma Maheshwar, Osmania University, Hyderabad- available in the Mission10X portal To summarize, this template helps the teacher to: Focus on the entire syllabus Segment the entire syllabus into individual sessions Plan every moment of a session so that we optimize and improvise the delivery process to achieve excellence Focus on both technical content and innovative learning methodologies Focus on interpretation and explanation of Facts, Fundamentals, Principles, Concepts and Processes The approaches to plan and design the training content using this tool are detailed in the following section.

Figure 5. A Sample Plan to Gain Attention by Means of a Joke from the Document, Rankine Power Cycle, authored by V. Uma Maheshwar, Osmania University, Hyderabad - available in the Mission10X portal

Associate New Information with Prior Knowledge

It is easier to remember and retain concepts that are learnt by means of relating existing knowledge to new knowledge. The tool encourages, the association of existing knowledge with the new concepts to be taught. In the first example given below, the trainer plans to introduce the topic of Software Engineering Principles with the help of some common and known questions on building a house and relating them to the technical topic. On the other hand, in the second example, the teacher plans to introduce the new topic by recapping the existing knowledge of the student on the same topic.

Define the Objective

A learning objective sets the context of a course or a session. It specifies what the learner will accomplish and acquire by the end of the course/session. The template ensures that the objectives are set at the beginning of the session and ensures the student continuously moves from lower order thinking to higher order thinking as per Blooms taxonomy.

Figure 6. A Sample Plan to Associate New Information with Prior Knowledge from the Document, Software Process Models, authored by Mrs. Pooja Grover, BRCM College of Engineering &Technology, Haryana available in the Mission10X portal

Figure 4. Sample Session Objective In the above sample, the faculty member plans to take her students to the Application Level of Blooms Taxonomy in the given session.

Figure 7. A Sample Plan to Introduce a New Topic with Brainstorming from the document, Information Theory and Coding, authored by P. Jothilakshmi, Velammal College of Engineering and Technology, Tamil Nadu available in the Mission10X portal

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Chunk & Organise Content and Use Multiple Media & Methodology
To engage learners that have varied learning styles and intelligences, a variety of media like graphics, audio narration and video should be used. Also, while presenting the content in addition to using multiple media, we should use multiple methodologies like graphical representations, mnemonics, roleplays, brainstorming, group discussions, and analogies to name a few. The usage of these methodologies makes the session more interesting and engaging and also improves the retention of the content delivered. The structure of the Session Plan component of the tool ensures splitting the main topic into smaller sub-topics ensuring that a proper flow is maintained in the overall delivery of the content. It also ensures the session is completed within the stipulated time. In addition, when read horizontally, the session plan ensures the learning aid and the methodology for each subtopic is wellplanned and designed, the teacher and the student activities for the sub-topic are well identified and hence the learning outcome interms of levels of learning and intelligences tapped are focused upon. For example in the sample given below, the trainer plans to make use of media like videos and LCDs and methodologies like Gaming, Demonstration and Presentation.

Figure 9. A Sample Formative Exercise

Figure 10. A Sample Formative Exercise from the Document, Software Process Models authored by Mrs. Pooja Grover, BRCM College of Engineering &Technology, Haryana available in the Mission10X portal A very high focus is also given to the fact that, wherever and whenever possible, all intelligences as per Gardners Multiple Intelligences of a learner are honed and that, the learners are taken to higher order of thinking and learning as per Blooms Taxonomy.

Figure 8. A Sample Plan that uses Multiple Media and Methodology from the Document, Introduction to Formal Languages and Machines, authored by M. James Stephen, ANITS, Visakhapatnam - available in the Mission10X portal

2.3 Develop
The actual development of learning material is completed in the development phase. Here, each row of the plan that was made using the Session plan is elaborated as shown below:

Practice the New Skill Acquired with Formative Exercises

Eliciting performance provides an opportunity for the learners to confirm the correctness of their understanding of the concept taught, and the repetition further increases the likelihood of retention. To ensure the same, the students can be asked relevant questions on the topic and also provided specific and immediate feedback of their performance. The tool ensures, these formative exercises within the content are used to check their understanding of the subject. In the examples given below, the teacher plans to use Jumbled Words and Stick-the-Right Answer activities as Formative Exercises and thus ensure practice of the new skills acquired.

Figure 11. A Sample Session Plan Elaboration 416

A trainer is provided with an Authors Manual by Mission10X to facilitate the authoring process. The manual enables the teacher to: Choose alternate methods for effective delivery of content. Author the various components of the template effectively. Get tips on language and formatting issues. Get guidance on the template to be used for authoring.

The Pick and Place activity elaborated in figure 14 is a board activity that involves multiple learners to actively participate in the classroom session.

Some samples depicting how an elaboration is done for a plan that is made using a session plan are shown in the following section. In the example given in figure 12, the trainer elaborates the joke that is planned out to be cracked in the class to introduce the topic of Energy. Figure 14. Elaboration of a Board Activity from the document UML Class Diagrams, authored by Prof. H. Srimathi, SRM University, Chennai available in the Mission10X Portal

2.4 Implement and Evaluate

Having planned an active learning session, the faculty is expected to implement the same in their regular classrooms. While they do so, the teachers ensure the presence of a fellow teacher who could act as an observer and peer-review the delivery process. Feedback and reflections are collected from both the observer and the students, to ensure that a holistic feedback taken from all stakeholders of the teaching-learning process. A sample form is provided in figure 15. Figure 12. Elaboration of a Joke Used to Introduce a Topic from the Document: Rankine Power Cycle, authored by V. Uma Maheshwar, available in the Mission10X portal The example quoted in figure 13 shows how a picture quiz can be conducted to recap the concepts taught in the class.

Figure 13. Elaboration of a See and Tell Activity used to Summarize a Topic from the document, Interrupt of 8085, authored by Mr. Sambit S. Mondal, AEC, Asansol, Kolkata available in the Mission10X Portal

Figure 15. A Sample Feedback and Reflections Form

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3. Data Analysis
As a part of the faculty empowerment program, Mision10X in a little over three years has trained over 12,000 faculty members from various engineering colleges in India on active learning implementation methods in regular classrooms. Further, over 7800 faculty members have been provided advanced training on the usage of the tool. The outcome of this program has lead to the creation of a rich and varied repository of over 5968 innovative teaching-learning support material that are developed using the Mission10X template and have been uploaded onto the Mission10X portal [9]. These materials, from 19 streams of engineering, are accessible to all these 12,000 Mission10X trained faculty members. This repository is used by the engineering trainers to get varied ideas on conducting a single topic and thus improvising the quality of their individual sessions [10][13]. The table below provides an idea of the number of teaching-learning support material available on a single topic in the Mission10X repository. Table 1. Teaching-Learning Support Material Availability on a Single Topic in the Mission10X Repository
No. of TeachingLearning Support Material

4. IMPACT
A formal Misssion10X impact assessment across its stakeholders is on the anvil. Narrated here are a few qualitative parameters spelt out byMission10X trained teachers during formal interactions with them subsequent to their training: 1. 2. 3. 4. An Instructional Design based planning template is very student-friendly. They have found themselves more prepared and planned for their classes. Their students were more interactive and engaged in their classrooms. Many teachers have noted a definite reduction in the absenteeism in their classrooms and improved retention of the content taught.

5. CONCLUSION and FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Mission10X was initiated to bridge the gap between the industry requirements and the skills required in engineering graduates. In over 3 years of its journey, some of the noticeable achievements of Mission10X are: Trained over 12,000 engineering trainers across the country on alternate modes of teaching engineering, who are now regular practitioners of the same. Empowered over 100 Mission10X trained teachers to acquire coveted Cambridge International Certificate for Teachers and Trainers. Created a country wide community of practice of engineering professionals who seamlessly interact with each other by means of the first ever engineering community portal that supports various social networking methods like chats and discussion forums. Created varied forms of teaching-learning support material repository. The usage of these materials enhances and makes engineering education more interesting and caters to learners with different learning styles. Collated some of the best practices in active learning in the form of a booklet and also an e-Module for faster and wider reach. Moving forward, to achieve and sustain wider and deeper implementation of these approaches in all disciplines of engineering, virtual collaborative interaction platforms such as Blogs and Podcasts, Webex, On-line Chats, Discussions Forums, Social Networking Methods would be adopted.

Branch Computer Sci. / Information Tech.

Topic

Introduction to Stack Introduction to Data Structures Dead Lock Introduction to Software Engineering Database Systems Introduction to Queue Introduction to UNIX

58 48 34 33 32 30 29

Electrical / Electronics / Commn. / Instrumentation Engg

Introduction to Basic Electronics Introduction to Signals and System Introduction to 8051 Microcontroller Introduction to Transformer Introduction to Digital Signal Processing Introduction to Transistor Introduction to Control Systems

65 63 45 40 37 30 27

Mechanical / Industrial / Production Engg

6. REFERENCES
I C Engines Introduction to Robotics Introduction to Refrigeration I.C.Engine Development of Surfaces Stress and Strain Nuclear Power Plant 26 14 14 10 7 7 6

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Bloom, B.S. et al. (1956), Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Cognitive Domain, McKay, NewYork, NY. Felder, R.M., Brent. R., & Prince, M.J. (2011). Engineering Instructional Development: Programs, Best Practices and Recommendations. Journal of Engineering Education, 100(1), 89-122

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3.

Gagne, R.M., Briggs, L.J. and Wager, W.W. (1992), Principles of Instructional Design, 4th ed., Wadsworth Thomson Learning, Belmont, CA. Grafinger, D.J. (1988), Basics of Instructional Systems Development. INFO-LINE, Issue 8803. Alexandria, VA: American Society for Training and Development Howard, G., Thomas, H. (1989), Educational Implications of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Educational Researcher, 18( 8), 4-10. Keller, J.M. (1987), Motivational design, in Encyclopedia of Educational Media, Communications and Technology, 2nd ed., Greenwood Press, Westport, CT. Kirkpatrick, D.L.(1959a), Techniques for evaluating training programmes, Journal of ASTD, 13(11). Merrill, M. D. (1983). Component Display Theory. In C. M. Reigeluth (Ed). Instructional-design theories and models: An overview of their current status, Hillsdael, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 279-333

9.

Mission10X Portal, (http://www.mission10x.com)

4.

10. Rajeev Sukumaran, Tulika Sett Creating TeachingLearning Materials for Faculty Empowerment and Quality Enhancement, Proceedings 9th Annual ASEE Global Colloquium on Engineering Education, 2010, Singapore. 11. Senge, P.M. (1990), The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, Century Business, London. 12. Toni, N. (2004), Integrating the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy with Multiple Intelligences: A Planning Tool for Curriculum Differentiation, Teachers College Record, 106 (1), 193-211. 13. Tulika Sett, Rajeev Sukumaran, Creating Engineering Educational Learning Materials: A case study on Mission10X Learning Initiatives in India, Proceedings Intl. Conference on Reforms in Technical Education-Global Trends, 2010, India.

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