[2017] EoE Rome Tor Vergata

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Table of Contents 1. BEST Events on Education

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2. Facilitators Team

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3. Experts Panel

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4. List of Participants of EoE Rome TV 2017

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5. Objective

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6. Schedule

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7. Sessions Skills and Challenges Teacher’s Role Mentoring - The Art of Collaboration Internships Engagement Active Learning Non-Formal Education in Higher Education Superiority of classical methods and disadvantages of Non-formal Education and Informal Education Possible Modifications on Classical Methods Final Presentation

11 11 33 48 56 61 67 74 84 90 97

8. Conclusion

102

9. Contacts

103

10. References

103

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1. BEST Events on Education Definition BEST Events on Education (EoEs) are events where students gather to discuss, share knowledge and contribute to new ideas on specific education-related topics. EoEs increase Higher Education students’ awareness of educational issues by initiating discussions amongst them and between the other stakeholders of higher education participating in the event: Universities, Companies and European Organisations and other Partners of BEST. Participants in EoEs, along with 22 European technology students, are mostly important foreign experts in the field of European Engineering Education (EEE), either present as experts from different organisations or professors from other universities.

The sum of these events and all the related activities, such as surveys and workshops, constitutes the so-called BEST Educational Programme.

Through its Educational Programme, BEST strives to encourage and facilitate discussions related to Higher Engineering Educational matters between the stakeholders of education (universities, companies, student community) in Europe, to gather the students’ input on these issues and, finally, to disseminate the outcomes to other interested and relevant parties, through publications in international conferences and journals.

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EoE Rome Tor Vergata 2017 Event on Education Rome Tor Vergata 2017 was held by our local BEST group in the University of Rome Tor Vergata , from the 23th until the 30th of July.

During the event, 19 STEM students from various Universities around Europe had the opportunity to participate in discussions, exchange experiences related to their academical studies and make suggestions on the improvement of Higher Education, the help of the content team, consisting of members of BEST, as well as an invited expert from the Tampere University of Technology.

The topics tackled in the event were Skills and Challenges of the Next Generations and Future Changes on Education and Teaching Methods. The outcomes of the discussions and workshops

were collected by the content team and are hereby presented in this conclusive report, which will be disseminated through our papers and within our network of Higher Engineering Education (HEE) partners in Europe.

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2. Facilitators Team Event Coordinator: Adrià Balcazar Castell | Polytechnical University of Catalonia

Facilitators: Christina Gouvatsou | National Technical University of Athens Ivona Stojanovska | Saints Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje Metin Oktay Balaban | Orta Doğu Technical University

3. Experts Panel Tampere University of Technology Maria Penttilä, Researcher & Doctoral Student - Teacher at TUT and researcher on innovative teaching methods

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4. List of Participants of EoE Rome Tor Vergata 2017 Surname

Name

University

1

Bogdanowski

Arkadiusz

Technical University of Denmark

2

Çobanlar

Mustafa

Yıldız Technical University

3

Corongiu

Chiara

University of Liege

4

Costa

Ana Marta

University of Lisbon

5

Cuadrado de Marcos

María

Carlos III University of Madrid

6

Dragan

Vlad

University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest

7

Ernst

Felix

8

Hamplova

Agata

Czech Technical University in Prague

9

Janisch

Tscherina

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich

10

Köseci

Firat Can

KTH Royal Institute of Technology

11

Kowalewska

Alicja

Gdansk University of Technology

12

Leventakou

Danai

National Technical University of Athens

13

Monacelli

Francesco

University of Rome Tor Vergata

7

Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg

14

Osadcheva

Yuliya

Ural Federal University

15

Palchevska

Ana

Saints Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje

16

Penar

Piotr

Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice

17

Pons Pardo

Bárbara

Technical University of Catalonia

18

Proesmans

Stijn

KU Leuven

19

Rifà Rovira

Pol

Technical University of Catalonia

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5. Objectives The main objectives of this event were the following:

● Raise students’ awareness on educational related subjects and the gather input from Tertiary level students of technology on various subjects, under the umbrella of the main topics of "Skills and challenges of the next generations and future changes on education and teaching methods". ● Realization of the impact students can have in shaping the Future of HEE. ● Students, individually, have the opportunity to practice and develop several soft skills such as presentation, interpersonal and communication skills, as well as improve their international interdisciplinary cooperation and teamwork.

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6. Schedule

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7. Sessions The following sections are dedicated to each of the sessions of the EoE RomeTV 2017. They include an explanation of the used methodology, the presentation of the results gathered and the facilitators’ team conclusions regarding the results.

Skills and Challenges Introduction Skills and Challenges was the first session of the Events on Education Rome TV. The session was facilitated by Christina Gouvatsou (Athens) and Metin Oktay Balaban (Ankara). The main goals of the session were: ● To find out the future challenges for engineers to face ● To find out the future skills the engineers are going to need ● Suggestions on how to overcome these challenges and ways to improve and modify higher education according to the future needs The session was structured in two main blocks. The first block was focused on defining the terms of soft and hard skills, thinking of what kind of challenges engineers might face in the future, and the role of universities in preparing students for these challenges. In the second block, students focused on the ways of enhancing their soft & hard skills as students of STEM faculties.

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1st Block Part 1 Methodology The session began by clarifying the definitions of Hard Skills and Soft Skills, since they would be later used on other activities as well Three different percentage meters were introduced: -

Importance of Hard Skills vs Importance of Soft Skills Effectiveness of Higher Education on Hard Skills Effectiveness of Higher Education on Soft Skills

In the first meter, participants are asked to evaluate the relative importance of Hard Skills to Soft Skills for an engineer and place a post-it on the meter according to their opinion. If the post-it is closer to the Hard Skills indicator, the participant considers that Hard Skills are more important of a skill for an engineer compared to Soft Skills, and vise versa.

In the second and third meters, participants are asked how effective they believe higher education on engineering is on acquiring Hard Skills and Soft Skills. 0% holds for not effective at all and 100% perfectly effective.

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Results

Importance of Hard Skills vs Importance of Soft Skills Hard Skills

Slightly Hard Skills 030%

Medium

Slightly Soft Skills 030%

Soft Skills

Average

5

10

3

1

0

Hard Skills 25%

Effectiveness of Higher Education on Gaining Skills Soft Skills 0%-25%

25%-50%

50%-75%

75%-100%

Average

8

10

1

0

35%

Hard Skills 0%-25%

25%-50%

50%-75%

75%-100%

Average

1

6

9

3

65%

Conclusion On the first meter, 15/19 participants said hard skills are more important for an engineer, while 3 participants were neutral and only one said soft skills are more important. However, while more than 75% of participants said hard skills are more important, the average is around 25% on hard skills, which is not a very big difference but still notable.

On the effectiveness of soft skills, the average effectiveness is found somewhere close to 35%.

Only 1 participant marked more than 50%, which was somewhere around 70% and everybody else marked below 50%. 8 participants marked between 0%-25%.

On the effectiveness of hard skills, the average is found around 65%. 12/19 participants marked below 50%, while 3 of them marked 75%-100%. Among the participants who marked below 50%, only 1 participant marked 0%-25%.

What should be noted from these meters is that while participants think there is a slight difference between the importance of hard skills and soft skills (25% hard skills), the difference between the emphasis given on these skills in higher education is very big and the effectiveness

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of hard skills acquisition is almost twice as much as that of soft skills. 8 participants who marked between 0%-25% in effectiveness of gaining soft skills in HEE also gave the result that almost half of the participants think their universities are not that useful when it comes to acquiring soft skills.

Part 2 Methodology Participants were asked the following question: “What challenges do you believe engineers are facing now or will face in the future, that did not exist some years ago?”. Participants were expected to write down as many challenges as they could per each small paper provided to them, and place it in a box. Once this stage was completed, a round of feedback followed, by randomly selecting a piece of paper from the first box, and evaluating the challenges that were noted based on the following criteria: 1) How accurate is this challenge?

2) How critical the challenge is?

3) How difficult it is to overcome the challenge?

After they had commented, the evaluated papers were put into a second box. The same step was repeated one final time for the papers placed in the second box and then placed in a third, final box, and collected by the facilitators team.

The same activity was repeated for the next question, “Think about hard and soft skills which were not needed ten years ago but now or in the future are going to be necessary for engineers?”. Once again, 2 rounds of evaluation were had for the produced ideas in the box.

While evaluating, participants were asked to consider the following criteria: 1) Will I need this skill?

2) Do I feel prepared?

3) Did University prepare me?

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Results “What challenges do you believe engineers are facing now or will face in the future, that did not exist some years ago?�

The challenges proposed by the participants were clustered in 4 main categories based on their general context. Each table represents a category, where the times mentioned is displayed, as well as the feedback provided during the rounds of evaluation. Apart from the 4 main categories, the participants mentioned unemployment as an all time problem, and other factors that, indirectly, could lead to the following major categories.

Information Awareness Times mentioned: 10

Feedback

Old fashioned education and lack of practical knowledge

Accurate, very critical for some countries, difficult - although some progress is being made, it will need time

Many cross-discipline projects/ fields of engineering that require universal knowledge, however we usually enter job market as specialists

Accurate, critical, somewhat difficult - laboral relations should be reconsidered, being specialised but with wide/concrete knowledge from different areas could be solution

Better information/ knowledge management in order to adapt to all projects, and not let information/knowledge get lost

Accurate, critical, somewhat difficult depends on improving the educational system, enhancing one's skills, although managing is getting better

Understand the needs of all stakeholders, of the long term coordinated international projects

Accurate but not just for engineers, critical, difficult - no direct solution but step-by-step changes

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Technological Awareness Times mentioned: 6

Feedback

Rapid Changes in Technology

Very accurate, very critical, not that difficult to overcome

Computer Skills

Accurate, ok but not too critical, not difficult- one can learn in faculty or by oneself

Communication Times mentioned: 4

Feedback

More interdisciplinary projects that require extreme communication and coordination skills

Accurate, critical, easy to overcome

Have to "sell" your profile through social network

Accurate, but you can apply without social network, not very critical, easy to control and use as benefit

To improve communications between countries

Mainly accurate for ICT engineers, somewhat critical- not so much for engineers, rather easy to overcome

People are not going to communicate, they will only focus on their work

Accurate, somewhat critical since engineering group projects are important, it can be solved

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Environmental/ Social Awareness & Working Environment

Feedback

Times mentioned: 4 Adjustments to Environmental Policies, Industrial Engineering

Very accurate, somewhat critical, medium hard - strengthening the links between politics and science could be a solution, improving the existing ones

Fast changing working environment

Accurate, critical for engineers that have to adapt, difficult - can be overcome with seminars/ workshops

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“Think about hard and soft skills which were not needed ten years ago but now or in future going to be necessary for engineers?�

The hard/ soft skills proposed by the participants were clustered in 7 main categories based on their general context. Each table represents a category, where the times mentioned is displayed, as well as the feedback provided during the rounds of evaluation.

Technological Awareness and Skills Times mentioned: 6

Feedback

Fast-living world stay up-to-date with technology

I needed, never enough prepared

Adapting new technologies rapidly

I need it, I do not feel prepared yet, University did not prepare me enough

Skills about new sources of Energy

Necessity depends on job, I need to improve my knowledge on this skill, my department did not prepared me

Agile and Lean Production Practices

Obviously I need it, I feel quite prepared, University prepared me a little bit

Adapt to new and fast evolving technologies

I need it, I do not feel prepared enough, university did not prepare me

Other Soft Skills Times mentioned: 6

Feedback

Project Management

I need it, feel 50% prepared, had courses in uni but not efficient but university prepared me with different means

Great Flexibility

I need it. I feel prepared. University prepares you but not directly, I had to show my initiative

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Adaptability and Flexibility

I need it, I feel prepared, university prepares you for adaptability and flexibility

Knowing specific management models

Yes I need, Yes I feel prepared, University prepared me

Facilitation

I need it, I feel prepared, University did not prepare me

Emotional Intelligence

I need it, I feel prepared, University did not prepare me

Marketing and Manipulation Skills

I need it, I don't feel prepared enough, university did not prepare me enough

Agile approach

I need it a lot, I feel prepared, University did not prepare me

Computer Skills and Programming Times mentioned: 6

Feedback

Computer Competence

Answer 1 - Necessary, I feel prepared, University prepares Answer 2 - Of course I need it. I do not feel prepared. University did not prepared me enough, only basics

Mobile Code Development

I don't need (Industrial Engineer), I do not feel prepared, My department do not prepare me but there are class to learn in uni

Programming

I need it, I feel prepared, University prepared me 50%

Computer languages

I need it, I'm not prepared, the uni did not prepare me

Coding

Coding is needed since the computers are

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existed, Yes I feel prepared, Yes university prepared me Programming (for engineers who study other areas as well)

Yes, I need it, I do not feel prepared, University do not prepare me

Understanding and interacting with smart algorithms and A.I. systems

We really need that, I do not feel prepared, University did not prepare me (in high letters)

Communication Times mentioned: 6

Feedback

Online Networking

Necessary, I feel prepared, University don't prepare

Publishing Yourself in Social Network

Depends on the social network channels, University didn't prepare for this, I was able to adapt by growing up in the 21st century

Information Communication Technology

I need it, I don't feel prepared enough, university did not prepare me enough

Technological communication

I need it, I feel prepared more or less, I think university prepared me

Use of Social Media

I do not need it, I feel prepared, University did not prepare me

Efficient effective communication and coordination (online as well)

For only online - Yes I need (it's new). 50% feel prepared. University did not prepare me

Presenting

I need it, I feel prepared, University prepared me

Coping with communication and working speed due to immense computer usage

I need it, I feel prepared, University did not prepare me

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International Abilities and Global Awareness

Feedback

Times mentioned: 5 International Awareness

Necessary, I feel prepared, University does not prepare you for international awareness

Mobility & Adaptability

Yes I need it, I feel prepared, University prepared me

Language and Cultural Comprehension to make a better approach to international business and exchanges

I think English is enough and your school should prepare you. I feel prepared. For language not from university, the second one is not really a skill

Knowing other languages very well (globalization)

Probably I need it, I feel prepared, University didn't prepare me

Languages

Yes, Yes, No

Foreign Languages

I need it, more or less I feel prepared, University not really prepared me

Data And Information Times mentioned: 4

Feedback

Being able to choose from a huge amount of information

It is needed to have, I feel prepared and university gives the background

Using Google Efficiently

It is necessary a lot, I don't know many lectures of it for sure, university never prepared me

Management of Information

I need it, I feel prepared, university prepared me

Validating Knowledge (if it is true and up-to-

Yes, I need it. Yes, I feel prepared. Yes,

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date)

university prepared me but not that much

Statistics, collecting and managing information to understand the world

It always existed, I feel prepared, university prepared me

Environmental and Public Awareness Times mentioned: 2

Feedback

Being even more aware of fast changing market while creating solution

I need it, I don't feel prepared, University did not prepare me

Taking into account environmental and societal instability while providing solutions

Of course I need it. I feel quite prepared.

University prepared me but not much.

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Conclusion The previous tables show a great concern when it comes to Information Awareness and the application of the knowledge required to finalise a multidisciplinary project. Students feel that projects and stakeholders’ demands require far more information, skill and attention to detail than they used to a few years ago, and believe that traditional educational methods fail to provide the practical experience one needs to meet these demands.

Moreover, due to the rapid technological advancements, a greater necessity towards technological awareness and computer skills was expressed, however students reported that University prepares them only partially in order to acquire such skills and the adaptability to change. The need of adaptability is also shown by the views young people have nowadays towards globalization. More and more students develop an international mindset and see globalization as an important factor for future working field of engineers, given that many large-scale projects are handled on an international level. As stated by the students, University life nurtures mobility opportunities and thus, enhances the sense of abroad experiences, nevertheless not a lot of progress is being made when it comes to Language and Cultural Comprehension so as to make a better approach to international business and exchange opportunities and benefits.

A large portion of the participants, also mentioned the lack of soft skill development in University, such as Project Management, Flexibility, Marketing skills etc., that in combination with the lack of communication skills, are some of the biggest challenges, and therefore skills that are crucial, not only in the field of engineering but in all careers.

Students mentioned that although they feel prepared enough, they do not consider that modern formal education prepares them in a direct way at least.

A few of the participants mentioned “Adjustments to Environmental Policies�, social changes or awareness of the fast changing working environment, as significant challenges an engineer will have to face from now on, and be able not only to adapt to them, but most essentially provide solutions for the improvement of their infrastructure. As this is something, that requires actual work experience and dealing with different situations, students mentioned that they are partially prepared for these challenges, and that University takes a partial role in their preparation.

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Part 3 Methodology 4 groups were formed for the last activity of the first block. The groups were asked the following two questions: - What do Universities currently do to prepare you for future challenges?

- What more can Universities do to prepare you for future challenges?

After being given 15 minutes of work time, the groups presented their ideas on the previous questions.

Results The following tables represent the unaltered answers as given by students. Each colour represents a different category that the ideas were clustered in.

What do Universities currently do to prepare you for future challenges Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Real Life Experience

Exchange Programs

Teaching Stress Management

Teach how to teach ourselves

Internships

Group Projects

Teaching Time Management

Empower systematic, critical thinking

Flexible & Dynamic Curricula

Job Fairs

Teaching Responsibility

Teach Time Management

Interdisciplinary Projects

Work in Team Projects

Teach Source Management

International Experience (Erasmus etc)

Solving Problems

Teach Being efficient

Online Courses

Facilitation Sessions

Group Projects Blue: Career Related Orange: Course Related Green: International Related Yellow: Soft Skills

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Pink: Group Projects Purple: Self-education

What more can universities do to prepare you for future challenges Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Updating courses & methods

Soft Skill Classes

Analyze & inform students of current situation

Bring companies and students together

More attention to feedback

More freedom to choose courses

Soft Skill Trainings on Teamwork

More practical experience and knowledge

Faster responses to market & tech changes

Career center for advice

Soft Skill Trainings on Presentations

Interdisciplinary Courses

Discussions about future opportunities

Special courses, sharing with professors

Soft Skill Trainings on Job Interview

Connect other universities for update education

more flexible on acquiring competences

Long-term study corners with companies

Soft Skill Trainings on Yourself and Your Work

More soft skill trainings

Compulsory internships

Practical Applications

Compulsory Languages

Learn Languages Seminars on computer skills

Red: Course Related Blue: Career Related Yellow: Soft Skills Green: Hard Skills

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Conclusion What universities are currently doing Career Related (Blue): Career related answers are mentioned 3 times in total. They are only mentioned by 1st and 2nd group.

Course Related (Orange): Course related answers are mentioned 3 times in total. They are also mentioned only by one group, which was group 1.

International Related (Green): International Related answers mentioned 2 times in total, by Group 1 and Group 2. While Group 2 said Exchange Programs, Group 1 said International experience with the specific example of Erasmus that they probably also mentioned Exchange Programs.

Soft Skills (Yellow): While soft skills have a lot of mentions with the total of 6 times, one of the groups did not mention them at all.

Group Projects (Pink): Group Projects are the only group mentioned by 3 groups. Group 3 also emphasized on teamwork while mentioning group projects.

Self-Education (Purple): Self-education is mentioned 3 times in total, by Group 3 and Group 4.

The interesting observation that can be seen from this data is the different areas of concern amongst the groups. Group 1 and Group 2 answered more from the point of views of Career support, Teaching in courses and international experiences, while group 3 and Group 4 answered more from the point of views of Soft Skills and Self-Education. This proves us that there are different perceptions on what universities are doing for future challenges.

What can universities do more Course Related (Red): Course related answers came from 3 different groups, Group 1,2 and. 3 of the answers came from Group 4 only.

Career Related (Blue): Career Related answers were the most mentioned answers, with 7 times in total. They are also the only group of answers mentioned by all groups.

Soft Skills (Yellow): Soft skills are mentioned 6 times in total by 3 groups in total.

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Hard Skills (Green): Hard skills are mentioned 4 times in total, by 2 groups. 3 of them came from Group 3.

There were also some unique answers such as “more attention to feedback” and “being more flexible while acquiring competences”, which came from Group 1.

2nd Block Part 1 Methodology Participants were divided in two groups, based on the individual answer given to the question “Effectiveness of Higher Education on Soft Skills”, in “Part 1” of the 1st Block. ● Group 1 - participants who answered below 35% ● Group 2 - participants who answered above 35% After that, two groups were formed again (different from the previous ones) in order to answer the question: “Can soft skills be effectively taught or can they only be caught?”.

Following the discussion, groups were asked to write a short outcome of the result of their discussions.

Results Group 1 Outcome: Soft skills are teachable. We all agree that soft skills require some practice to be completed. There are two parts: theoretical and practical. It is possible to learn the theoretical part in classes while the practical part is more diffıcult.

Example: Time management. One can learn a list of things to do or not do, but cannot practise time management during the class. A possible solution to this could be a theoretical approach during class, and practice later on.

It is also very important to have mixed models (hard skills and soft skills).

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Group 2 Outcome: Some people do not need to learn soft skills thanks to their personalities.

But there are other people that may need more time to develop/learn them. Books and theory can be very useful to improve them.

Soft skills are more important in the business field, people with business experiences that are able to make a good presentation can inspire and motivate others. It is possible to be taught and their teaching must be implemented in the educational system.

Conclusions Both groups reached the conclusion that soft skills are possible to be taught in class, however it is a more complicated process compared to hard skills. The first group suggested that theory could be taught in the class and practical examples could be done later. Both groups emphasized on the importance of soft skills and suggested that there is a need for change in the educational system in order to involve more soft skill training (mixed teaching models and implementations to foster both hard skill and soft skill development).

Part 2 Methodology For the final activity of the session “Skills and Challenges�, participants were divided in four groups, and were asked the following questions: - What are other opportunities for students to raise their hard skills?

- What are other opportunities for students to raise their soft skills?

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Results The following tables contain the unaltered answers of the participants, as they were presented by the groups.

What are the other opportunities for students to raise their hard skills?

H A R D S K I L L S

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Student job/ Internship

Internet

Online Learning of University

Technical Seminars

Self-learning (Online)

Online Courses

Solving Real Life Problems.

Practising & Trying (Photoshop, Latex, PPT, Excel etc)

Competitions (eg.

European BEST Engineering Competition)

Learning by having fun/ games

Multidisciplinary Teams

Extracurricular Courses

Competitions

Hobbies (Video/ Music editing)

Internships

Art

Workshops

Associations Competitions (Hackathons, EBEC etc)

Based on the previous table, the following clustering was made: Online Material (Yellow): Online Material related answers were mentioned 4 times by three different groups, twice by Group 2. Students mentioned free online tutorials/courses for selflearning, the use of Internet in general, for a wide variety of topics, and also official online courses provided by the University. Although, some students stated that the knowledge acquired from the Internet can be theoretical sometimes rather than practical, they all agreed that it is a useful tool.

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Extra Curricular Activities/ Hobbies (Blue): Extra Curricular Activities/ Hobbies related answers, were mentioned 4 times in total, extra-curricular activities or hobbies are enjoyable ways for students to improve their hard skills. This was also associated with working by being part of a group with the same interests, thus a more sociable way of learning. An intriguing comment was made, by Group 2, about Art as a form of raising hard skills, since one can find many different techniques in movies, music, etc.

Participation in Competitions (Red): Participation in Competitions related answers, were mentioned 3 times. Students presented the idea that taking part in competitions, can give young people the opportunity to put in practice their knowledge and skill, create a project, present it and receive feedback, essential for their improvement of hard skills.

Internships(Brown): Internships related answers, were mentioned 2 times in total. According to the students presenting, one can “learn by doing�, something more useful than just learning theory, and can develop their hard skills in practice.

Participation in Workshops/ Seminars (Green): Participation in Workshops/ Seminars related answers, were mentioned 2 times. Taking part in technical seminars or workshops providing knowledge transfer on certain hard skills.

Other(Beige): Group 3 presented as opportunity of enhancing one’s hard skills, the participation in multidisciplinary groups and solving real life problems, learning by trial and error.

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What are other opportunities for students to raise their soft skills?

S O F T S K I L L S

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Leave your Comfort Zone

Travel

Scouts

Career Center

Feedback from professors

Parties

Student Organisations

Student Union

More Cultural Activities & Sports

Being active during classes

Internet (Youtube Gathering Text Production Sharing)

Debate Theater

Workshops

Extra activities

Travelling

Exchange Program

Social Interaction (Parties)

Organising events

Conferences

Art

Internships Association Competitions (Hackathons, European BEST Engineering Competition etc) Case Studies

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Based on the previous table, the following clustering was made: Cultural Activities/ Travelling (Orange): Cultural Activities/Travelling related answers, were mentioned 4 times. Travelling, exchange programs and cultural activities, all fall in this category and seen as a holistic personality and soft skills improvement.

Extra Activities (Blue): Extra Activities related answers, were mentioned 4 times. From organising an event to taking part in debate talks or being involved with art, participants explained that the aforementioned ways can contribute in raising their soft skills. Again art, was presented with enthusiasm as a means of inspiration for young people to develop their skills by communicating with other people and learn techniques from them.

University (Purple): University related answers, were mentioned 3 times. Based on their presentations, students agreed that professors can provide valuable feedback and advice. Also, a well established career center that provides input and guidance was suggested as an opportunity of raising soft skills. Finally, active participation and involvement of students during lectures shows a sense of responsibility and eagerness to develop oneself.

Student Organisations (Green): Student Organisations related answers, were mentioned 3 times. Student organisations or a Scouts’ Club can help with the development of soft skills.

Being part of them, gives students the opportunity to interact with other young people, work in teams and learn new soft skills or improve them.

Social Interaction (Red): Social Interaction related answers, were mentioned 2 times. Students thought parties or other social activities, can be a means of improving soft skills, since there is a lot of communication and interaction with individuals of different character and likings.

Workshops/ Conferences (Yellow): Workshops/ Conferences related answers, were mentioned 2 times.

Participation in Competitions (Grey): Participation in Competitions related answers, were mentioned 2 times.

Other (Beige): Other answers covered Internships and stepping out of one’s comfort zone for higher progress.

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Teacher’s Role Introduction Teacher’s role was the second session of the EoE Rome TV and the first session of the second working day. The session was facilitated by Adrià Balcazar Castell (Barcelona) and Metin Oktay Balaban (Ankara).

The main goals of the session were: ●

Defining the current roles (actions, duties, responsibilities) of teachers in Higher Education of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields in the modern society

●

Defining students expectations and needs from teachers currently and in the future

●

Understanding what role should teachers have in Higher Education of STEM fields in the future

●

Suggestions on overcoming the difficulty of handling STEM students with diverse learning preferences and styles.

The session was designed in 2 main blocks. The topics of the first block were of general nature and focused more on teacher responsibilities and their role in the current system. The second block was more specific and focused on overcoming the difficulty of handling STEM students with different learning preferences and styles.

1st Block Part 1 Methodology Participants were divided in 4 groups, and each group was asked to provide a definition of a Teacher.

When done writing the definition, all groups received feedback on their definition from the other groups. After the feedback round ended, the groups finalised their definition of a “Teacher” by applying the suggestions.

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Results Definition 1 -

Person that helps others gain knowledge and skills Has experience and expertise in a certain field and life Motivates, inspires students curiosity and boosts confidence and growth Provides tools for learning yourself

Definition 2 A person who transfers knowledge and provides sources and tools for the students to support learning process. He should be a good speaker and have many soft skills to motivate students.

Definition 3 Teacher is a person who has expert knowledge in a certain field and transfers this knowledge and experience to others, teaches them and motivates them in their learning process, inspires and supports.

Definition 4 Someone who has a lot of knowledge and feels the need to pass it on to others, he/she should be able to “reach� students through an a array of different methods; he/she should be aware of breakthrough and progress; he/she should always be looking for ways to improve his/her teaching methods and to accommodate the different coming generations.

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Conclusions The main points that participants mentioned are summarized in the following table, color-coded for similar topics: Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Help gain knowledge

Transfer knowledge

Transfer Knowledge

Transfer Knowledge

Help gain skills

Support learning process

Transfer Experience

Inspiration

Expert in a field

Provide Sources

Expert Knowledge

Motivation

Expert in life

Good speaker

Expert in a field

Expert Knowledge (also update)

Boosting curiosity

Motivating

Motivating

Guiding

Support learning process

Adapting student needs

Inspiring

Improve their teaching methods

Motivating Inspiring Boost confidence Help growth Provide tools for learning yourself

Teaching Roles (Blue): The first thing groups mentioned in their definitions were teachers’ teaching roles. It is stated 6 times in total. All groups emphasized on “transfer knowledge”, and 2 groups also added “help gain skills” and “transfer experience”.

Motivation for learning Roles (Pink): The second role of the teacher mentioned by every group was the motivation to learning role of the teachers. All groups except the 2nd group also added inspiration after motivation. Group 1 also mentioned boosting curiosity. It is mentioned 8 times in total.

Expertise (Green): Expertise and Experience is mentioned by all groups in their definitions except the 2nd group. Groups 3 and 4 included Expert Knowledge, while the 4th group also emphasized on updating their knowledge. Groups 1 and 3 mentioned expertise in a certain field. The 1st group also included “Expert in life”, which is more about mentoring and experience.

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Supporting in Learning Roles (Yellow): Besides teaching and motivation, supporting in learning role is the third aspect of teachers, mentioned by all groups. Supporting learning process is common between 2nd and 3rd group. While 1st group selected to use terms such as “Tools”, the 2nd group selected “Sources”. Group 4 only mentioned guiding and adapting.

Besides these main roles mentioned by all groups, Group 1 also included “Boost Confidence” and “Help Growth” which are unique, except for some slight connection that could be made with “Guiding”, mentioned by Group 4. Group 2 also mentioned “Being a good speaker”, while Group 4 included “Adapting to student needs” and “Improve their teaching methods”.

In the 1st group’s definition, the teacher has more of a supporting role, similar to a guide. As opposed to all other groups who said “transferring” knowledge, they said “help” gain knowledge and “help” gain skills. They are the ones who included three roles of the teacher as motivator, the only ones to include uniquely with boosting curiosity. They are also the only ones mentioned help growth and boosting confidence, and added “providing learning tools”.

Group 2 provided the shortest definition, which emphasizes on the the classical figure of the teacher inside a class. They focused mostly on the Teaching and Learning Roles of the teacher, being the only group including “Good Speaker” in their definition.

Group 3 also provided a more classical figure of teacher in class, but in addition an expertise on his/her field. Finally, the teacher is seen as somebody who is responsible for the knowledge transfer to the next generations.

Group 4 provided the longest definition of teacher. What is interesting in their definition is that they also emphasized on the responsibilities teachers have in order to improve themselves. They state that a teacher should look for ways to improve their teaching methods and also adapt to students needs.

Along with Group 1 they are the only only ones to to highlight the teacher’s role of help students’ growth with guiding.

Part 2 Methodology Participants were divided in 4 new groups. After forming the new groups, participants were reminded about the results of the session of Day 1, “Skills and Challenges of the Next Generations”. Following those results, groups were asked to discuss “How should teachers answer to the future problems?”.

After the discussion was over, they presented their outcomes.

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Results

Group 1

Group 2

Keep up with technologies

open, curious, flexible, adaptive, dynamic

Experiment new teaching techniques Tailored approach to students needs Up to date & innovative course content, addressing current needs Interdisciplinary assistance

Up to date professor

Project-Based learning

Try new teaching methods

Practical examples

Group 4

Share his/her experience Be up to date on topics with others and provide references

Stay up to date

Motivate active learning

Teach how to filter the information

Contact with field experts and aware of the job Inspire and guide stuck Simulation of interviews market projects Company visits

Online teaching Critical discussions Open-mindedness to new teaching methods Teamwork

Accepting feedback and improving skills & methods

Group 3

Don't give direct answers, but advice on how to find them Create awareness of the differences among people

Sharing sessions

Blue: Being up-to-date Related Red: Teaching Related Yellow: Communication and Guiding Related

Conclusion Being-up-to-date Related (Blue): Being up-to-date is mentioned 7 times in total. It is related with different areas, such as technologies, contents, field expertise and awareness.

Teaching Related (Red): Teaching Related answers are mentioned 10 times in total. 7 of the answers came from the 2nd group only. Other groups only mentioned it once. The 1st group and the 2nd group

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suggested try and experiment new teaching methods, while 2nd group made a list of which teaching methods should be followed. 4th group suggested to teach how to filter information.

Communication and Guiding Related (Yellow): Communication and Guiding Related answers are mentioned 10 times in total. All of the suggestions were from different areas.

Part 3 Methodology Participants were divided in 4 new groups, then they were asked to brainstorm on the following questions: ●

In the current curricula, what are teachers' responsibilities?

●

What responsibilities do instructors have in "higher education", outside of the curriculum towards students?

What new responsibilities should instructors in "higher education" have in future? Additionally, which current responsibilities shouldn't instructors have anymore?

●

After they were finished brainstorming, the groups presented their outcomes.

Results

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Teaching

Inside Current

Inside Current

Inside Current

Be available

Make students reach learning outcomes

Transfer Knowledge

Organize the study process

Expertise

Approaching depending Encourage on student levels

Implementing Theory

Improve Teamwork

Do some research

Support students

Providing Guidance

Tutoring

Outside Current

Prepare for Exams

Answering the questions

Understand generation Inspiration, example gap

Outside Current

Using tools

Future

Research

Outside Current

Support students

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More focused on one subject

Be close with students

Administrative tasks

DropsShould be cut

Create atmosphere

Prepare students for real world

Teachers should not be seen as encyclopedia, Improve cooperation & information is reachable networking between students

Provide connections between companies & students

Networking and collaboration

Guest lectures

Orienting advice

Extra study activities

Future

Future

Online communication

Research can be optional

Interdisciplinary and collaboration

Future

Be updated

Mixed projects of students & teachers

Sharing sessions

Master language of the lecture

Lead innovation

Able to work with new technologies

Company collaboration

Be concerned about changes and do something about it

Should be cut

Increase the field awareness of students in general Be agile and flexible

Theoretical Knowledge Interdisciplinary courses Administrative tasks

Should be cut

Prepare for Exams

Be authentic Be repetitive Stop using old-fashioned methods Stop being boring Stop exam-based evaluation

Red: Teaching related Yellow: Supporting and communication related Green: Expertise Related Blue: Career and Preparation Related

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Conclusions Teaching Related (Red): Teaching Related answers are the most mentioned answers, 20 times in total.

They are also the related group of answers every group gave firstly. While being the only group of answers for “Drops” except administrative tasks, with the total of 8 times, they are the least mentioned for future with Supporting and Communication Related answers, with mentioning only once.

Supporting and Communication Related (Yellow): Supporting and Communication Related answers are mentioned 10 times in total, 9 of them being mentioned in current responsibilities. Supporting and Communication Related answers are the group which the participants had least ideas for future changes by far, with only 1 related suggestion for future.

Expertise Related (Green): Expertise related answers are mentioned 11 times in total, with only 3 of them mentioned in current responsibilities. Expertise related answers are the group, where groups had most ideas for future responsibilities with 7 mentions. They are also the group where participants were most controversial. While Group 2 mentioned 7 times, 6 of them about future which is all of the answers for future from this group, Group 1 and Group 3 mentioned 2 times each and Group 4 didn’t mention at all.

Career and Preparation Related (Blue): Career and Preparation Related answers are mentioned 10 times in total. They are also has the most diverse answers comparing other groups of related answers.

There are also some other answers which are not clear for which group the participants answered; which are “Mixed Projects of Students & Teachers” and “Company Collaboration”. There is also one unique answer, which is “Administrative Tasks”.

2nd Block In the second block, the main focus was more about learning styles and suggestions on overcoming the difficulties due to different learning styles in students. In this block, the content team took “Learning and Teaching Styles in Engineering Education (2002)” by Richard M. Felder as reference in many points of the block, such as definitions and explanations of learning styles and research results on professors and students according to their learning and teaching styles.

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Part 1 Methodology The second block began with brief information about what are the learning styles according to Learning and Teaching Styles in Engineering Education, in order to provide the adequate knowledge to participants about the topic. Following this, every participant was asked to define their learning style and write it on a paper. After everybody was finished, participants were asked to form groups with similar learning styles. They were also asked to be no less than 4 people and no more than 6 people.

The Learning Styles the participants had to define themselves from were: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Intuitive vs Sensor Global vs Sequential Active vs Reflective Visual vs Auditory vs Kinesthetic* Inductor vs Deductor

*Kinesthetic was ignored, as kinesthetic learning is less frequent in HEE. Instead, participants were asked to define themselves either as Visual or Auditory learners, depending on which they feel more related to.

Results

Group 1

Group 2 (3 People) “Failed”

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5

Sensor

Intuitive

Intuitive

Intuitive

Sensor

Global

Sequential

Sequential

Active

Active

Deductive

Visual

Visual

Visual

Visual

Deductive

Deductive

Global Reflective

Reflective

Deductive

●

Groups are identified only if at most 1 people is conflicting with the declared preference of the group. If 2 or more people are in conflict, they are left unidentified and colored black in the table.

●

Group 2 could not manage to form a group with the minimum number of people (at least 4 people needed

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Conclusions Group 1 and Group 3 managed to form perfectly identified groups (perfect or almost perfect agreement on every characteristic), while group 4 and 5 managed to form 4/5 identifiable groups. 3 people couldn’t find any suitable groups for themselves, and only intuition and reflection were common preferences for them. 16/19 participants were able to find somewhat suitable groups for themselves.

Another notable thing is when comparing Group 5 and Group 1, all of their preferences are the same except the unidentified preference of Group 5, either Active or Reflective.

Regarding Sensor vs Intuitive, Reflective vs Active learners and Global vs Sequential, the participants seemed to find it easier to identify themselves in each category.These 3 are also the most equally distributed learning preferences.

All formed groups (except for Group 2) prefered visual and deductive learning, however only Group 4 could not identify themselves neither deductive nor inductive. The results related to deductive/inductive learning do not conform with what the book“Learning and Teaching Styles in Engineering Education (2002)” indicates, as it was expected to have most of the students inductors (and not Deductors as resulted from the activity). All the other results are somewhat consistent to the book’s suggestions. This is probably because Inductive/Deductive learning was the most confusing for the participants, as assumed by the frequency of clarifications asked for this part compared to others.

Regarding the question if it is possible to form classes taking into consideration the different learning styles, which was one of the main reasons of the activity: according to the results above, it can be assumed that the most feasible way to form classes according to Intuition/Sensing, Active/Reflective or Global/Sequential learning styles. Active/Reflective, Intuition/Sensing differences are the most fairly distributed styles, while in the other three classifications, one preference dominates above the other.

It should also be noted that while Intuition/Sensing and Active/Reflective learning styles are easier to be tackled by teacher’s teaching methods and roles, Global/Sequential learning style needs an answer from structure of the curriculum and course more than the teachers’ teaching methods. If the structure of the course stays same, it is more logical to make classes according to Intuition/Sensor and Active/Reflective learning styles.

What is promising is that 16/19 students were able to form groups, which can be considered as a success, given the limited knowledge and time available to them.

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Part 2 In the second part, every group was asked the following questions: ●

Do most of the engineering students are intuitors/sensors, visual/auditory learners, active/reflective learners, sequential/global learners?

●

Do most of the engineering instructors are intuitors/sensors, visual/auditory learners, active/reflective learners, sequential/global learners?

●

Which learning types of students do current engineering curricula and teaching methods favour in general?

After answering the above questions, the statistical answers to these questions were given from the book “Learning and Teaching Styles in Engineering Education”. Participants could compare their answers with the ones given, and had some time to comment and ask questions, in order to prepare for next part of the session.

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Results

Group 1 Sensor Visuall Reflective Global Deductive Group 2 (“Failed”) Intuitive Reflective

Group 3 Intuitive Visual Active Global Deductive Group 4 Intuitive Visual Active Sequential Group 5 Sensor Visuals Sequential Deductive

Students

Instructors

Favouring

Intuitors Visual Reflective Sequential

Intuitors Auditory Reflective Sequential

Intuitors Auditory Reflective Sequential

Sensors Visual Active Sequential

Sensors Less reflective than other fields Global Deductive

Sensors Visual Sequential Deductive

Sensors Visual Active Sequential Induction

Sensors Visual Reflective Global Deduction

Sensors Visual Reflective Sequential

Sensors Visual Active Sequential Deduction

Intuitors Visual Reflective Global Deductive

Sensors Auditory Reflective Sequential Deduction

Sensors Visual Reflective Sequential

Sensors Visual Reflective Sequential

Visual Reflective Sequential

Green: Matching with groups preferences Red: Not Matching with groups preferences

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Conclusions Expected answers according to Learning and Teaching Styles in Engineering Education were the following:

Students Sensor Visual Active Inductive

Instructors Intuitors

Favouring Intuitors Auditory Neither Active nor Reflective Sequential Deductive

Some deeper analysis to the participants’ answers: ● All of the groups gave the expected answers of most students being visual and sequential learners. ●

All of the groups answered that engineering education favours sequential and reflective learners more than the other learning styles (except Group 2 who blanked reflective or active).

●

For students’ preferences, 4/5 groups gave the expected answer of “sensors”, while the answer “intuitors” came from Group 1 who were, in fact, also sensors.

●

3/5 said students are “active learners” while 2/5 said “reflective learners”. What is notable here is that, except for Group 2, all the groups gave the same answer with their own preferences (not including Group 5 who doesn’t have a dominant preference)

●

4/5 groups gave opposite answers of their preferences for students’ preference on intuition/sensing (e.g. sensor group - intuitive students) believing they are the minority.

●

3/5 groups gave opposite answers for instructors on intuition/sensing (e.g. sensor group intuitive instructor), believing there is a certain mismatching between instructors and groups regardless of their answers.

●

All of the groups gave opposite answers of their preferences for the question “Which learning types of students do current engineering curricula and teaching methods favour in general?”(e.g. sensor group - intuitive preference) regardless of their preferences. Only Group 5 left the question blank.

What is notable is that, there is a certain tendency for groups to believe they are the minority regarding intuition/sensing. Also, none of the groups believed they have the advantageous preference regarding their learning style, while 80% said their learning style is in direct conflict with the teaching methods and

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systems at their university. It should also be noted that the expected answer for this question was “favouring intuition learners”, while 3/4 answered “sensors” and one “blank”.

Comparing group preferences with the answers to the instructor preferences gives a similar result. 3/5 groups give opposite answer of their preferences. While being 3/5 intuitives, 3/5 of the answers are sensors, whereas the expected answer was intuitive again.

In total of 15 answers about intuition and sensing, 11/15 was not conforming with groups’ preferences, while only 3/15 is matching and 1 is blank. 7/15, less than half are the answers the expected answers according to the research, while 10 answers of instructors and favouring combined, which are more directly related with teaching, only 3/10 are the expected answers.

Part 3 Methodology Following the second part, groups were asked to discuss the following questions, and note down their thoughts: ●

How can instructors in engineering education overcome the problem of different learning styles?

●

How aware do you find instructors about the topic?

After they were finished, all groups were asked to present their outcomes.

Results Regarding awareness, most students stated that their teachers appear not to be aware of the different learning styles, and that they have not noticed their professors do anything specific in that regard. On the question of “How can instructors in engineering education overcome the problem of different learning styles?”, their ideas were the following: Group 1 Versatile learning materials Making students and teachers aware of learning styles Taking into account students feedback

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Group 2 Mixing teaching methods (books, videos, lectures, presentation...)

Blended learning

Less time spent (more flexible) on reflective and auditory

Teamworking (awareness of differences, diverse teams) Another approach - recent graduate more conscious of students ways + young - easily relatable for students; also with a different teaching style Assistant teacher

+ positive view - a fresh perspective can help students feel more welcome + plurality - there is diversity in the room on the teaching side, it will be easier to address the diversity on the students side

Group 3 Educate teachers and students about different teaching/learning styles Students test themselves -> teachers use the outcomes to adapt their teaching styles

Group 4 Smaller learning groups Flexible duration of the classes Implement different methods during the classes

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Conclusions There are two main blocks of ideas mentioned here: â—?

Variety and versatility of teaching methods, formats and materials, which was mentioned by every group.

Specific ideas are: using different teaching methods to address all different styles, adapt or flexibilize the format and duration of presential work to ensure that every student can make good use of it, have varied and versatile teaching materials so that students have different options and can choose according to what works best for them and having an assistant who brings into the classroom a new set of styles and learning options for students. â—?

Three groups mentioned the importance of awareness, as in: both students and professors should be aware of the different learning styles and act accordingly.

Specific ideas are: educating students and teachers on this topic, taking them into consideration when creating classes and remembering them during teamwork.

One idea unites both blocks: Starting with awareness, have students assess their preferred learning styles and pass the results to the professor, who can then adapt the teaching methods to this particular group’s preferences.

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Mentoring - The Art of Collaboration Introduction “Mentoring - The Art of Collaboration” was the second session of the second working day. It was divided in two parts and was facilitated by Adrià Balcázar (Barcelona), Christina Gouvatsou (Athens) and Ivona Stojanovska (Skopje).

The session was divided in two parts, focusing on gathering ideas on how to include and also improve the involvement of mentoring in Higher Engineering Education (HEE).

The main goals of the session were: ●

To find and collect the best practices of mentoring in Universities

●

Assessing the benefits of the mentoring system in higher education

●

How teachers can use the mentoring system and promote an effective learning experience

Part 1 : Finding existing best practices of mentoring in HEE Methodology After being presented with the topic and the definition of mentoring, students had an open group discussion, where they shared their experiences with mentoring in their universities. Following this discussion, students were divided in groups of four, in order to write down all best practices of mentoring currently applied in HEE. In each group there was at least one student who had experienced a form of mentoring in their studies so they rotated in the four groups, for diversity purposes and experience sharing.

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Results **The following table contains the unaltered answers of the participants, as they were presented by groups.

Best Practices of Mentoring in HEE Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4 1. Aula LLiure (Free Classroom)

Introduction to the contents and the university life

Providing Academic Orientation ●

Grants

●

Material

●

Advice

Mentoring 1st-year students (admin. stuff, campus visiting, get-toknow games, educ. advices etc)

Group of older students that tutor but also mentor 1st year students

●

Team of voluntary teachers

●

Groups of 20-30 people

●

Dynamics of cooperating

●

Informal Mentoring

2. Study Groups Mentoring "the weakest" classmate in a certain subject (voluntary)

Giving academic feedback and suggestion to others in order to make right choices in courses

- Autonomous groups(4-10 people) - Organised by teacher - Online matching - Meeting and problem solving - Sharing Knowledge 3. Call-Up Week

Connecting Students

Buddy-system for intern students

Helps students to adopt the new environment, traditions and local life

- Matching seniors and new students - Providing Information {Accomodation, cities-life, courses, legal stuff) - Friendship - Supervision (Deadlines)

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Informal Advice

Official mentoring Program between professors and students

Transferring their own experiences to the others to create a common understanding

Positive and wise opinions

Mentor gives suggestions and does brainstorming which are shaped by the menties’ characteristics and needs

Prioritize

Mentors need to obtain the need of security for the menties and express that the mentee is not alone and not the only one who is going through the same situation

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Part 2 : Brainstorming in new ways to improve the mentoring system Methodology Part 2 of the session “Mentoring - The Art of Collaboration” was divided in two sections.

In the first section, participants discussed about what could the new opportunities in the mentoring system. Some of those were: ● ● ● ●

Student Unions General Knowledge Exchange Similar Experience Improve Traditional Ways

In the second section, they were divided in 4 groups where they had to define those new methods of improving mentoring. Similar to the previous exercise, participants rotated between the groups, depending on their mentoring experience.

Results During the first section, most of the participants agreed that would prefer to work in groups in order to provide the problems and then solve them by collaborating. They had the following ideas about the new opportunities:

Student Unions

Every year a newcomer comes in the union and receives a mentor in order to work together on solving the problems.

General Knowledge Exchange

By working with other students, they can exchange the knowledge between them and thus become each other's mentor/mentee

Similar Experience

Students with similar experience can mentor other students based on their similar fields of knowledge.

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Improve Traditional ways

Improving the style of studying/teaching with and addition of more visuals and company visits can also help develop a mentor/mentee like relationship between the teaches and student as well.

In the second section, they presented the following outcomes on new ways that could improve the mentoring system. **The following table contains the unaltered answers of the participants, as they were presented by teams.

New Methods of Improving Mentoring Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Focus on mentoring the first year students in fields that are Hold regular meeting to associated with helping detect the them become more improvement accustomed the their new circumstances

Have a mentoring program

Promote mentoring program

Hire professional mentors and organize small sessions (one-toone)

Give experienced students a reason to become mentors (extra credits)

Focus on mentoring the “weakest� classmate in a certain subject

Hold spontaneous meeting depending on the availability

Reward people for trying mentoring and use that tool to motivate people to become mentors

Give trainings to future mentors like courses on time management and study methods

Include buddy system for international students

Focus on the motivation and putting the students in the right direction

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Online mentoring

Make sure that there is some follow up to the mentorship program

Events where mentors and their mentees can participate

Give the opportunity to mentees to change mentors if they don’t feel compatible to the previous mentor

Include an official mentoring program between professors and students

Involve open and direct communication between the mentor and mentee which will include honest and critical discussion

Help them when it comes to making the right decisions

Part 3 : Open Space Technology Methodology During the last part of the session, participants were given the opportunity to walk freely around the classroom, where flipcharts containing the following questions were place, and individually note their opinions. ● ● ● ●

Why there is not a lot of mentoring in HEE? Why should mentoring be applied in HEE? Students role in mentoring Teachers role in mentoring

The reason to why this part was introduced was because the participants could give their own, honest opinions regarding these problems that HEE in Europe deals with nowadays, thus collecting more input on the matter, while allowing participants to experience an interactive way of brainstorming.

Results

Why not a lot of mentoring in HEE?

Why should mentoring be applied in HEE?

Teachers don't share it because they don't like to share authority

To provide more comfortable, secure and efficient environment for the students, and also for

Students role in mentoring

Teachers role in mentoring

Students should ask for advice

Teachers could encourage other older students to join the program and recommend it to

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more logical academical decisions

younger students

People are not motivated to become mentors

To help students find their path in life and career

Students should listen to the advice given

Teachers can offer supervision and guidance

There is not enough support from the University

To ease the teachers of some tasks

Students should feel free to contact older students

Teachers can create and atmosphere of closeness

There is no initiative from the University and students wait for the University to provide it instead of taking initiative

Promotional goal mentoring can attract students and companies during the study year

Students can help improve the mentoring system with suggestions

Teachers can share other previous stories, experiences and by that they can inspire

Lack of international students

Knowledge transfer and Students should take avoiding mistakes active part in mentoring

Teachers should be available to support the program

There is no motivation between the students because they believe that they can also make it without it

Students be open, honest

Teachers should have active participation

No time

Students should remember how mentoring helped them, and become a mentor later

Teachers give advice to mentors about time management and stress management

There is no tradition with mentoring

Students should become aware that mentoring is beneficial for both sides

Teachers role needs to be also academic

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Poor promotion

Students should prepare themselves to guide other students in the most meaningful way

Teachers role is not as important as the students role because teachers are not aware of everything the students have been through

Difficult to find good mentors

When it comes to engineers, they are under the influence that they should manage everything themselves No motivation leads to no reward which concludes with no knowledge

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Internships Introduction Internships was the first session on the third working day of the EoE Rome TV. The session was facilitated by Adrià Balcázar Castell (Barcelona) and Ivona Stojanovska (Skopje).

The main goals of the session were: ●

To understand the benefits and problems of internships

●

To find ideas on how to solve the problems without losing the benefits

●

To find solutions to the problems regarding finding internships

Part 1 In the first part, the focus was to find out what were the main traits, related to an internship, that students cared about.

Methodology Participants were asked to write the top 3 most important things they look for in an internship.

Afterwards, they had the chance to share them with the group. The idea behind the exercise was to gather input regarding what is the main thing that attracts students to the internships.

Results In the following table are the factors that participants think are a priority when it comes to choosing an internship. In the amount column its stated the total participants that agreed to that specific factor out of the 19 participants.

Priorities in internships Factors

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Amount

Learning Experience

10/19

Verifying the Knowledge Needed in the Industry

9/19

Practice the Field of Study

8/19

Payment

7/19

Introduce New Things

4/19

Be Introduced to the Company and Colleagues

4/19

Professional Teamwork

3/19

Connections That Can be Gained

3/19

Internships Should be Provided by University

2/19

Networking

2/19

Working With Mentors

1/19

Conclusions Regarding the previous table, the highest priorities are the learning experience you can gain from being an intern in a specific company, verifying the knowledge and the practice that is mostly needed in that specific field of study and the payment.

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Part 2 The second part was dedicated to finding precise problems of internships and coming up with solutions for them.

Methodology Students were split in two groups. Each group held a facilitated discussion, firstly geared towards brainstorming of problems in internships and secondly reviewing every problem to discuss possible solutions to them.

Results The mentioned problems and proposed solutions were: Problem

Proposed Solutions online platform where you can write down your skills

Nepotism - inequality of access chances

tests - not only about the knowledge, but also psychological job fairs

Problem

Proposed Solutions Feedback system for students to rate internships Project based internships

Useless tasks

Agreement about the intern's tasks before starting Clear task assignment Practice-oriented internships

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Send only students who have skills/knowledge that will be useful for the company

Problem

Proposed Solutions Not make them mandatory - allow taking more classes as an alternative More networking opportunities

Not enough internship opportunities

Dividing students throughout the year, avoid having all of them taking internships in the same timeframe Make companies aware of the benefits of having interns Support financially (state) the internships to make them more attractive for companies Create an institution that could deal with internships and help students

Problem

Retribution not matching the invested effort

Proposed Solutions Follow-up from the university - to ensure an acceptable minimum Project based internships

Conclusions Three main focus areas of improvement show themselves: internship accessibility, content of the internship and retribution. Content and retribution are very closely tied together, as the more meaningful the intern’s job is, the more valuable it is also for the companies.

Regarding the work and financial aspect, a strong solution was the precise agreement on tasks at the start of the internship, possibly through a project-oriented internship in opposition to a by the hour

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base. From the university side, ensuring the quality of the internship as well as the sufficient skillset of the intern, would have a very positive impact on the success of the internship. One way to accomplish the first part would be a feedback system where interns can rate the company once their stay is over.

The other main focus is accessibility of internships, or the lack of opportunities. Many students are concerned that access to internships is also not done in a fair way. Solutions regarding the last part are about creating ways of assessing students skills, and encouraging companies to use that as a base for their selection, or about increasing the networking opportunities given to all students. Other solutions for internship accessibility, besides making them optional and redistributing students though the whole year, are the support (financial, promotional and organisation) of internships, in order to increase their value for companies.

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Engagement Introduction Professor Maria Penttilä, from Tampere university of Technology (TUT), is conducting research on student engagement in courses by applying engagement techniques and ideas inside her classroom and in the whole organisation and teaching methods of her subject. During this session, students helped find advantages and disadvantages of some of those engagement strategies and brainstormed on ideas for solving them and other situations related to engagement. The goal was to find problems and solutions for the following topics: ➔ Learning by feedback (Teachers and students) ➔ Continuous learning through semester ➔ Increasing amount of students (which is happening at Prof. Penttilä’s courses) ➔ Student engagement & involvement ➔ Grouping and group work Methodology Professor Penttilä first gathered, via mobile survey, some data from the audience - regarding which teaching and learning methods and materials they were used to from their university. She then proceeded to explain her work at TUT regarding student engagement: she explained the techniques she uses and the setup of her courses. This should serve as background for the students’ following discussion.

Participants were split in 5 groups of 4, each group facilitated by one of the facilitators or Professor Penttilä herself, and brainstormed on a flipchart on one of the five topics. They were asked for advantages, disadvantages, problems and ideas to solve them. After the brainstorming, a second round of brainstorming was conducted after rotation the flipcharts. Therefore, every participant worked on two of the topics.

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Results The following tables contain, in an organised way, the points stated by participants regarding the different topics, and their ideas on how to solve those problems or improve those situations.

Learning by feedback Problems

Ideas

Instructions are not used to giving feedback

Online contact with teachers

Teachers are not available for giving feedback

More surveys, with more specific questions

Teachers are afraid of the feedback

Official surveys for teachers and courses, to allow using variable income as a motivator

Students don't care about the feedback, but about passing only

Extra exercises after the feedback, for extra points

Students may feel shy or offended

Closer personal relationships between students and teachers

Students and teachers can think they don't deserve any feedback

Electing a head of the class to deliver the feedback

Teachers can feel "hierarchical" and not care about students' feedback Students can be egoistic

Continuous learning through the semester Pros

Cons / Problems

Ideas

All time focus

Passive membership in groups

Split year in 4 quarters instead of two semesters

Specific role for each member

Procrastination

Only applying this in some of the courses

Motivation by observing other groups

Forgetting parts of knowledge through the semester

Periodical quizzes to keep knowledge fresh and which help the final grade, for motivation

Less stressful

Difficult to keep an overview, Regular workload check and adaptation possibly information overload by professors

Knowledge stays fresh

Too big workload

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Allow flexibility

Up to date with work

Presenting parts of the courses in a compact format

Limited time

Use this for bonus points, make it optional

Avoid procrastination Valuable for skills that need practice Time management skills

Increasing amount of students Positive Reduced cost > Reduced fee

Negative Not well dimensioned courses

Increased diversity Full courses

Ideas Combined courses with different universities together Online courses

Less participation / interaction

Give responsibilities to some students

Lack of facilities

Flexibility in attendance More elective courses Interactive materials More elective subjects More groups in one subject at different times Record evolution and predict Online streaming of classes Work in groups Peer2peer learning

Student engagement and involvement How to increase it Approachable teacher (open to feedback, friendly) Interactive methods (apps, videos, physical movement, surprise) Continuous feedback for the teacher

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Bonus for active participation Field work / company visits Practical work Students showing gratitude to teachers' efforts International exchanges / guests Teachers showing the added value of participation Balanced proportion of quality/quantity ini exercises Continuous performance evaluation for students Elective courses (so students choose their interests)

Grouping and group work Positive

Negative

Experience in teamwork

Time can be wasted in Greater results as a team communication Discussion of topics

Ideas try different processes for group generation

More ideas, diversity

Distribution of tasks becomes and Evaluation of the group process, added task support, reflection

Different approaches to the problem

Unequal distribution of the workload

predefined roles to avoid misunderstandings

Specialization

conflict potential

periodically change leader

Experience different less time for studying theory or team roles and dynamics solving exercises Learning from each other Feedback & questions Motivation

Avoidance of tasks they don't know how to do, instead of learning Group generation can be difficult

Teambuilding outside exercises/labs group leader updates professor regularly Bonuses for teamwork try different communication channels Get-to-know activities and tests to understand their skills Team members can give extra points to the best teamworker

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feedback on groupwork Changing groups often Training on team dynamics

Conclusions From the collected advantages, disadvantages and ideas, we can conclude the following: Learning by feedback. The two main problems found were A) the lack of teachers’ availability to receive feedback (meaning that, probably even in cases where teachers are willing to improve through feedback, that’s not students’ perception) and B) students not caring enough to put any effort into it (and just wanting to pass the subjects).

The main focus of the solutions revolves around improving the feedback giving system either through premade surveys or by electing a head of the class to transmit the feedback in a personal way.

Continuous learning through the semester. The main advantages of continuous learning were related to keeping up a positive workflow (refreshing knowledge, staying up to date, staying motivated, practicing skills repeatedly) and learning time management skills. The disadvantages relate to the difficulty of not indulging in procrastination and the big workload continuous learning supposes.

Solution ideas revolve around: -

Limiting the workload (for example, by making shorter semesters and having more of them, the effort needed to keep the knowledge fresh is reduced)

-

Recurrent checking by the teachers (through quizzes, for example) in a non-mandatory way

Increasing amount of students. This tendency appeared to bring only two advantages (reduced cost of education and rise of diversity), whereas problems were deemed very important: full courses not allowing more students to take them, physical constraints for conducting the courses and limited interaction between students and professors.

As ideas to solve this problem, the following ideas were given: -

Record student numbers and predict further development in order to adapt Using online learning and streaming lectures Combine courses from different universities together Flexibility in subject choice and in attendance Trespassing some responsibility to the students, either by having experienced students as helpers, increasing group work or peer to peer learning

Student engagement and involvement. Ideas on how to increase this were brainstorming upon:

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-

Teacher should make sure to be approachable, give continuous feedback, and show the added value of participation Methods should be varied and engaging: apps, video, movement, surprise. They should include practice, such as field work, or connection to the outside world, such as company visits

Grouping and group work. Students found many positive points to group work: learning to work as a team (dynamics, roles, etc), diversity of ideas and approaches so students learn from each other, higher motivation, ‌ Weaknesses of group work were also found: wasting time on communication and coordination, wasting time forming groups and uneven distribution of the workload.

Solutions were thought of to keep the benefits while reducing the inconveniences: -

Grouping process: put effort into making it effective (improving continuously) Predefined and rotating roles Valuing the team effort and feedbacking the teamwork Teambuilding activities for the students Training activities on teamwork

Student engagement in Higher Education is a factor of high impact in the learning experience. Many teachers try to use some techniques, but they can be hard to use - particularly without the proper analysis and feedback systems. Getting the students perspective on what works for them and what doesn’t brings added value and allows the development of the teaching methods used.

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Active Learning Introduction The session was divided in two parts, focusing on gathering ideas on how to include and also improve the involvement of mentoring in Higher Engineering Education(HEE).

The main goals of the session were: ●

Students presenting their ideas on how we can apply Active Learning (AL) in Higher Engineering Education (HEE)

●

Pros and Cons of the application of Active Learning (AL) in Higher Engineering Education (HEE)

Following the previous session, facilitated by Professor Penttilä the sessions offers a continuity to students’ engagement and active participation in class.

Part 1: Applying Active Learning on a university subject Methodology Participants were split in three groups of 6 or 7 members. They were given the task to design the teaching methodology of a course: working hour distribution, teaching methods used, evaluation types and amount of participants per class. The description of the course was the following: -

The subject of the course is calculus (this information was not meant to be critical, but to help them frame their thoughts)

-

There are 90 students registered for the course

-

Students are expected to dedicate 7h a week at university for this subject

-

The duration of the subject is one semester, 5 months long

Upon completion of the task, participants presented it as a poster on the wall and, while one member of each group stayed by the poster to explain their ideas to fellow participants, the rest could go to other

groups’ posters and feedback them.

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Results The following table contains, in an organised way, the distribution of hours, teaching methods, evaluation systems and amount of students in class, that each group presented: Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Distribution of hours

4h lecture 2h exercises 1h tutorial

2h lecture 1h Lab 4h Group work

[not specified by the group]

Teaching methods

> 2h lectures: 50min interactive lectures + 20min video + 50min interactive lecture > exercises: gamified competitions > Project Based Learning for exercise sessions > Tutorials: working on tasks in groups of 4, assistants around the room for questions

> 2h Lectures > 1h guided Lab work > Big project based on a company - task presented by the company - students work in teams throughout the semester - weekly meetings with the companies for follow-up - peer review among groups - final presentation

> Lectures (applied theory).

Focused on during the first month, very little weight afterwards > Videos > Presentations by guest speakers > 8 projects/exercises: 3 individual, 2 group, 2 group projects, 1 case study (5 students per group)

Evaluation

> Evaluation based on PBL - it's the project results that get evaluated, no tests

> Quizz every 2 weeks > Evaluation of the project by > Evaluation survey a jury including company > Projects grade -> representatives company representatives in the jury

Amounts

30 students per class for [not specified by the group] 30 students per class exercises and tutorials

Conclusions From the Results table, we can extract the following conclusions: Distribution of hours. Only two of the groups answered this part, with relevant discrepancies among each other. Students’ opinion is not defined regarding amounts, but they agree on the importance of: -

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lectures, in order to receive knowledge labs and tutorials, in order to put knowledge into practice with expert guidance exercises and group work, in order to freely implement their learning outcomes

Teaching methods. The following teaching methods were mentioned: -

[3 times] Lectures: participants specified the need of lectures to contain applied knowledge and be interactive. They also underlined the benefit of using videos and guest speakers.

-

[3 times] Projects / Project based learning: students see this as the vertebrating element of a subject. Projects take a big share of importance and are the main evaluation focus. Participants want projects to be industry-related, done through teamwork and span through the whole semester.

-

[2 times] Guided tutorial: participants prefer lab work to be in groups and led by assistants, for a more personal approach. Gamification was mentioned for these exercises.

Evaluation. Participants agreed on evaluating the project(s), instead of tests. Only one group mentioned tests as evaluation method, in the format of fortnightly tests to check their knowledge, meant as feedback for their learning experience. The main evaluation of the subject, the project presentation, would be done by a jury including company representatives.

Amount in students in class. Only two groups answered this point: Both mentioned 30 students per class as a reasonable number, but there were a difference: Group 1 referred to tutorials and exercise classes and Group 3 referred to interactive lectures.

Part 2: Benefits and Difficulties of applying Active Learning in Higher Engineering Education Methodology A flipchart was divided in two columns “Benefits of Applying Active Learning in Higher Engineering Education” and “Difficulties of Applying Active Learning in Higher Engineering Education”. Students brainstormed individually about these two different aspects of Active Learning, writing their ideas on seperate post-its and placing them on the respective column of the flipchart.

Results The participants submitted 31 post-its in total for “Benefits of applying Active Learning in Higher Engineering Education (HEE)”.

The following Table summarizes the participants’ opinions on the benefits of AL.

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Application of Theory in Real Life Projects Direct application of the theory either by University projects or projects provided by companies. This offers a better, more practical, understanding of what students are being taught.

Motivation to Participate Students feel more engaged in the learning process, they are more eager to participate and curious to learn new things since the lesson is conducted in a more dynamic and captivating way.

Soft/ Hard Skill Development Contrary to traditional lectures, AL includes more group projects, therefore it encourages a team spirit throughout the semester, and students depend on communication skills to work in groups. This way they have the opportunity to work on skills that will be also needed in their future career.

Effectiveness of Learning All the benefits aforementioned, fall under the umbrella of “Effectiveness of Learning�, which is seen as the main idea of applying AL in HEE. Participants suggested that through AL each subject can be

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understood more effectively and knowledge is imprinted in their mind in long term. All in all, the semester becomes more interesting and offers continues, deep learning experience.

Despite its multiple benefits, AL is still not recognised widely and only the past few years has it been receiving the attention of the academic community. According to the participants, this could be due to the following reasons, as summarised on the next table. (27 post-its submitted for “Difficulties of

Applying Active Learning in Higher Engineering Education�)

Difficult application on certain subjects Some subjects, especially those that consist mostly of theoretical parts, are more difficult to become part of practical application. Moreover, it can be a challenge for the professors to organise interesting activities that will provide engineering skills, and create tasks that students will find motivating enough to participate in.

Fear of change The fear of change from, both professors and students, is another point that participants mentioned as a preventing factor of the application of AL in HEE. The above, in combination with the students' low

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expectation of improvement of the quality of education, are not allowing AL to flourish in the modern educational system.

Logistical Difficulties The number of students, the complexity of creating a grading system adapted to AL needs compared to the classical examination system, the need of different materials for the subjects and the necessity to radically change the structure of the lesson, are a notable hindrance.

Preparation is a time consuming process for teachers It demands time and flexibility for the professors to adapt to the new methods and evaluate their effectiveness to the learning process and the needs of the students. It requires an extra effort from the side of the professors to introduce AL in the curricula, in order for it to become more productive and interesting, while maintaining the quality of the knowledge transferred.

Problems in Group Projects Given that AL may consist of several group activities, participants mentioned the risk of conflict appearing among group members, due to communication or coordination problems, as well as problems due to the level of understanding one has reached and the willingness to contribute.

It worth noting that Group Projects were also listed in the benefits of AL, as a way of improving one’s soft/hard skills, but here are also consider of having a negative effect.

Professors' lack of awareness of application methods Professors are not aware of how to introduce AL in their class, are lacking the skills to do it effectively or ignore the benefits of AL.

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Non-Formal Education in Higher Education Introduction Non-Formal Education in Higher Education was the first session of the last working day. The session was facilitated by Christina Gouvatsou (Athens), Metin Oktay Balaban (Ankara) and Ivona Stojanovska (Skopje).

The whole working day was designed as a continuation of sessions. “Non-Formal Education in Higher Education” was the first of the 3 connected sessions, followed by “Superiority of classical methods and disadvantages of Non-formal Education and Informal Education” and “Possible Modifications on Classical Methods”. The main goals of the session were: ●

Finding out how Non-Formal Education is integrated in different countries and universities in the eyes of students

●

Finding out the reasons why Non-Formal education is well/not well integrated in the universities.

●

Finding solutions to certain problems in higher education with Non-Formal Methods

●

Finding out how student clubs/organisations can be more integrated in engineering education.

The session was designed in 2 main blocks. The first block was a more general introduction to NonFormal Education in Higher Education, while the second block focused on student clubs/ organisations.

1st Block Methodology The first part of the session was designed as a preparation part for the rest of the session. Firstly, there was a short presentation explaining the terms of “Formal Education”, “Non-Formal Education” and “Informal Education”. Once the terms were explained, an open sharing was made focusing on the following questions: ●

Have you had Non-Formal Education experience?

●

How did you find this experience?

●

How do you believe NFE is integrated in the universities in your country?

●

What are the reasons behind NFE is well integrated/not well integrated?

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Conclusions From the discussion, the following points were emphasized: -

Student associations teach you many things with less effort

-

Student associations organise many activities

-

Group cooperation on teaching is helpful, you learn while teaching (peer learning)

-

Integration of NFE needs teachers and resources

-

Company Visits organised by universities are a possibility

-

Universities can make cooperations between themselves for supporting student clubs

-

Some universities support students who participate in International Competitions

-

Some universities have facilities and buildings for open uses for projects, workshops etc.

-

Universities sometimes are not aware of how useful the student associations are

-

Universities could promote the work of student associations more

-

Having Non-Formal Education in Groups improves communication

-

Some student clubs voluntarily organise open courses before the exams

-

Size of university makes it harder for control and integration of NFE

-

The system and the mindset of education is old and an obstacle to the integration of NFE

-

Student tutors can be a possibility

-

In many universities, there is only one association which has a big power and they are the only representatives. Other associations do not have these opportunities. There should be a platform for more communication

-

If university and professors understands what is happening with student associations, they would value and support the things these associations do

-

More laboratories are needed for experiments

-

Management Projects are a possibility

-

More support for arts and sports is needed

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Keywords/ phrases NFE Experience compared to FE: ● ● ● ● ● ●

more specific, more focused on the topic focused on skill, more useful less stressful than FE, main idea of NFE is to get the skills, ability more self based, more voluntary, if you find something interesting you can focus more than the parts you don't like more motivating to participate more relaxed, you are not graded; downside of not being graded is that you don’t always attend/ pay attention

One word/ phrase to describe NFE: ● ● ● ● ● ●

Useful Personal-development Active Practical Unnecessary Interest in the topic

The majority of students found the idea of NFE as something more practical that enables students to gain experience or enhance certain skills on a topic that is of interest to them. Student volunteering organisations were mentioned by a few students as an effective means of applying NFE in universities and it was stressed that their work should be promoted and encouraged more by professors. Despite that most students perceived NFE as something beneficial, there were some students who found the idea of it redundant and, according to them, the classical FE is very efficient as it is.

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2nd Block Part 1: Introduction to Student Organisations/ Clubs Methodology For this part, a more interactive activity for collecting data was implemented, which involved the participants standing up and moving around, in order to sort themselves, based on their individual answers.

The table below shows the questions asked, and its respective activity.

Questions:

1

Are you a member of any student organisation/ club?

Activity:

Participants that are members should stand up

Participants are given a few minutes to sort themselves from left to right, left being the university with the most student org./clubs and right with the least

2

How many student organisations/ clubs does your university have approximately?

3

How supportive is your university towards student organisations/ Clubs?

Participants sort themselves from left to right, left being the university showing significant support, and right showing the least

4

What kind of support does the university provide?

Participants keep their sorting and a small group discussion follows

*The above questions, expect answers based on the participants’ experience in university life, and therefore the following results could slightly diverge from actual numbers.

Results From the first question, “Are you a member of any student organisation/club?�, 9/19 people said that they belong in a student organisation/club.

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The following table shows the decreasing order that participants sorted themselves, for the question “How many student organisations/ clubs does your university have approximately?”. The table also contains the name of the university, number of clubs by students who were more certain.

How many student organisations/ clubs does your university have approximately?

Place

Number of Clubs/ Organisa tion

University

more than

100

approximately

50-60

more than

20

approximately

20

Student Comments

1

Ural Federal University

2

Gdansk University of Technology

3

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich

4

KU Leuven

5

Technical University of Catalonia

6

Technical University of Catalonia

7

University of Lisbon

8

University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest

9

Yıldız Technical University

10

Carlos III University of Madrid

11

KTH Royal Institute of Technology

many national student associations, easy to establish a new one

12

Technical University of Denmark

university covers for mostly everything, you need to justify why you need a student org./club in order to establish one

13

University of Rome Tor Vergata

14

Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice

15

National Technical University of Athens

eg. space photography etc, but sports and music you have to pay

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16

Friedrich-Alexander-University ErlangenNuremberg

17

Czech Technical University in Prague

18

Saints Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje

19

University of Liege

approximately

10

university covers for everything so no need for more

5

one per faculty

Sorting Based on Support that the clubs/ organisation get from the University University Support

Students

Student Comments

YÄąldÄąz Technical University Ural Federal University Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich 7/19 Full Support

KTH Royal Institute of Technology University of Lisbon

Financial Support Room/ Office provision Travel Expenses Framework and Infrastructure Support Promotion of Organisations and their Events

Gdansk University of Technology

Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg University of Rome Tor Vergata University POLITEHNICA of 6/19 Bucharest Partial Support Saints Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje

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University will only provide assistance, if there is a clear benefit for it, from such organisations/ clubs

Technical University of Denmark Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice Technical University of Catalonia University of Liege

5/19 No Support

National Technical University of Athens

Technical University of Catalonia

Carlos III University of Madrid

Part 2 Methodology Participants were divided in 4 groups and then were asked the following questions: â—?

How helpful are student clubs in engineering education to raise hard skills of students

â—?

How can student collaborate with universities for education on engineering of students

After taking notes of their ideas, the participants presented their work.

Results How helpful student clubs in engineering education to raise hard skills of students Group 1 Creates connection between the good students and bad students

Group 2

Group 3

Provide opportunities to practice more and gain more knowledge in

Competitions

Group 4

Tutorial Session

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specific field

WIN Group for telecommunication Students can get advices students; Formula races from other for mechanical students without paying engineering students Student clubs provides a They provide resources chance to and money put into practice our for projects hard skills The opportunity to be heard, creative

Programming and case studies

Technical Competitions

Career support by trainings

Student Exchange Programs/Events

Math competitions

Courses on Specific Subjects

Fundraising Blue: Practicing Knowledge Green: Club Resources and Providings Yellow: Interaction Between Students Red: Trainings and Courses

How can student clubs collaborate with universities for education on engineering of students Group 1 Promotion for existing clubs Incentives for students (at least one ECT for project)

Group 2 Clubs can extend knowledge from mandatory courses

Professors can also be involved in the clubs to Improving communication between observe and focus on the universities and the "gifted" students (for the future projects) student clubs Create clubs related to

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Group 3

Group 4

Competitions

Mentorship

Workshops

Assisting formal educations

Training Sessions Seminars Having access to university online platform for promotion and communication

the subjects studied in classes (like formula students) Challenge PhD students to form a group to discuss topics and make projects

Involve the professors in students clubs for network, certification and validation, knowledge and and site visits

Students can provide surveys and feedback Student companies spinoff Company and university sponsorship Blue: Extracurricular Practices Green: Communication and Support Between Students and Professors Yellow: University Resources and Support

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Conclusions How helpful student clubs in engineering education to raise hard skills of students Practicing Knowledge (Blue): Practicing knowledge was the most popular group of answers mentioned by the participants, with 8 times in total. Competitions took a big place in the answers. It is also the only group of answers mentioned by all of the groups. There is also unique answer, which is “The opportunity to be heard, creative”, which is effective in practicing their knowledge on more creative areas.

Club Resources and Providings (Green): The answers are focused more on how clubs use their institutional powers to help students. Apart from their resources, exchange programs by activities is another idea of this group. It is mentioned 3 times in total by 2 different groups.

Interaction Between Students (Yellow): It is mentioned 2 times by different groups. The main emphasize is the help of successful students to not-that-successful ones, mentoring or mutual cooperation. The international exchange programs are also helpful (it is put under green) Trainings and Courses (Red): Trainings and Courses mentioned 3 times in total, by 2 different groups.

A notable thing from these results is half of the answers are about practicing knowledge, and competitions are taking a huge place under it. Combining with other sessions’ results which emphasizes lack of practice in education, student clubs are good foundations for this area.

How can student clubs incorporate with universities for education on engineering of students Extracurricular Practices (Blue): Extracurricular practices were the most mentioned group of answers, with 9 times in total. It is mentioned by all of the groups and with varied answers and suggestions.

Communication and Support between Students and Professors (Green): This category of answers are mentioned 4 times in total by 3 different groups. The answers are varying, such as professors monitoring and support of networking, consultation and students’ feedback and surveys.

University Resources and Support (Yellow): There are 3 answers by 2 groups under this category. 2 of the answers were about promotion of student clubs using university resources.

There are also 2 unique answers, which are “Incentives for students (at least one ECT for project)” and “Student companies spin-off”.

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Superiority of classical methods and disadvantages of Non-formal Education and Informal Education Introduction “Superiority of classical methods and disadvantages of Non-formal Education and Informal Education” was the second session of the last working day of the EoE Rome TV. The session was facilitated by Ivona Stojanovska (Skopje) and Metin Oktay Balaban (Ankara).

The session was designed as the follow-up session of the first session of the day, “Non-Formal Education in Higher Education”, and it also served as a preparation for the next session “Possible Modifications on Classical Methods”. The main goals of the session were: ●

Finding superior/ vital points of classical methods over new methods

●

Finding reasons why the classical methods are still being used throughout the years

●

Finding out disadvantages of non-formal and informal education in order to learn their weaknesses

●

Reach certain list of points of inferiority of the new developing forms of education

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Part 1 After an open discussion in the first part of the session, participants were divided in 2 groups. Then, they were asked the following questions: ●

How effective are the classical methods in Higher Education of Engineering?

●

How dominant are the classical methods in your country?

Results Group 1 This group ranked both the dominance of classical methods and their effectiveness from 1 to 10. They assigned scores for every country present in the group.

Spain: Dominance 8/10. There are some projects and instructors that are trying to open their minds.

Effectiveness Depends on the faculties of each field of study. For engineering it’s not very effective.

Poland: For computer science, dominance is 5/10. There are many projects. The effectiveness of classical methods is not fixed... The score is 5/10.

Belgium: Dominance 8/10, but there are taking measures to improve it. The effectiveness of classical methods is very good, 8/10.

Italy: Classical methods are very dominant, 9/10. There are 4-5 projects in total for a Bachelor's Degree.

The effectiveness depends. You learn a bit of everything and you can decide which road you want to take later. The skills of italian students are appreciated abroad and considered relatively good.

Effectiveness score 7.5/10.

Czech Republic: They are still using classical methods on a large scale, depending also on the field of study. Dominance, 8/10, effectiveness 6/10.

Greece: Dominance 9/10. Effectiveness 8/10.

Switzerland: Very long lectures. Dominance 6.5/10, Effectiveness 5/10.

It is worth mentioning that one participant mentioned that he is always taught by classical methods, and he feels he does not learn that way. Another participant said that the best approach is a combination of classical and innovative methods, as the effectiveness of one method alone is very low.

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Group 2 The second group gave qualitative answers to the questions, again split by country: Denmark: The traditional ways of teaching are changing and there is a lot of new, innovative ways implemented in the higher education.

Germany: The classical methods are starting to be less dominant, as there are also new methods that are implemented.

Portugal: Higher education here is considered very old-fashioned, meaning that the classical methods are still very dominant.

Romania: There are innovations such as open rooms for project works, but they are not mandatory and are still very new which means that students here are used to classical methods.

Russia: Classical methods are more dominant.

Turkey: There is a planned schedule on the academic year, which is focused around using traditional ways of teaching.

Sweden: Education system is not really focused on a specific plan, it allows more flexibility.

FYROM: There are efforts being made in some departments to try and involve some new and innovative methods, but mostly there are still traditional ways dominating.

In general, group 2 focused on trying to think of whether classical methods of learning are useful to be used still and if they need an alternation.

Conclusion Both groups focused on different aspects and discussions about the ways of teaching they have experienced. However, except for the approach, everyone shared their experience from their counties and what they have come across and looking at their results, the most common thing between everyone is that classical methods still are very dominant in almost every country. In places like Turkey, Greece and Russia, the most influential learning methods are still the classical, while in places like Romania, Germany, Poland there are some innovations made in the already very dominant methods. In countries like Denmark and Sweden there is a lot of flexibility and a lot of new ways are implemented in higher education.

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Part 2 In the last part of the session, participants were divided into 4 groups. Then they were asked the following questions: â—?

What are the reasons behind classical methods are so dominant and hard to leave.

â—?

How indispensable do you think classical methods are? What are their strengths?

Also, in the middle of the discussions, 2 members of the groups were asked to interchange with other groups, in order to create more interaction and feedback on the discussion part. After they are finished, groups have presented their outcomes.

Results

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

More time to repeat, assure learning process

Social inertia

Efficient

Effective

Discipline

Good for certain engineer profile

Tested for a long time

Comfort Zone

Best way to give introduction

Standard education, people know what to do

Develop Time management

Resource efficient

Easiest way to reach larger number of students

Too many students

Develop Work under Pressure

World-spread, popular

Somehow effective

Develop Challenge Good introduction to topic Management

Pushing your boundaries

Students need to be ranked; Fair evaluation

Good to classify and evaluate

Authoritical relation between Few resources; Affordable students & teachers

Group 4

Serialisation/Ford approach to transfer information

All the materials are designed for classical approach

Easy for teachers

Easy to keep up/follow

Exams are motivating (but can make learning meaningless)

Change is risky

Lack of money to seminars for teachers

Teachers were though in that way

Easy for teachers

Time efficient

Students know how to deal with

Easier to grade (but can be unfair)

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Pink: Effectiveness Related Green: Experience, Stability and Being Used to Related Yellow: Easiness for Teachers Related Blue: Financial and Feasibility Related Violet: Evaluation and Ranking related

Conclusions Effectiveness Related (Pink): Effectiveness related reasons were the most mentioned reasons for spread use of classical methods, mentioned 12 times in total. Checking the answers of the groups, it can be seen as groups seen this effectiveness, or efficiency (group 3), for a way to teach large number of students. There are also some mentions of classical methods benefits on development of students.

Experience, Stability and Being Used to Related (Green): This is the second most popular group of reason after effectiveness related answers, mentioned 9 times in total. Most of the answers were about the accumulated experience on this methods, risk of change, not being enthusiastic to change and also the difficulty of change along with used materials developed for classical methods.

Easiness for Teachers Related (Yellow): Easiness for teachers related answers were mentioned 5 times in total. It was mentioned by only 2 groups and 4/5 of the mentions came from Group 2. Group 1 only mentioned “Easy for Teachers�, which was repeated by Group 2. Group 2 also gave more reasons which were about discipline, authority and monitoring.

Financial and Feasibility Related (Blue): Financial and Feasibility related answers were the 3rd most popular answers with 7 times in total. The mentions about feasibility varied in different areas such as, time.

Evaluation and Ranking Related (Violet): While it was only mentioned 3 times, it was mentioned by 3 different groups, which gives the result that it is one of the major reasons of the popularity of classical methods. It should be also noted that the area covered by this group of answers were not as big as other areas, which could be the reason of only 3 mentions.

Conclusions The main focus of the session was to gather inputs on the effectiveness of the methods from the students, which already known and used. The goals were reached, which were set before the session. In the first part of the session, where the reasons why the classical methods are still superior was discussed, through their own experiences and in the second part, from the participants, who thought their work in groups, gathered inputs on the strengths and the reasons why the classical methods are still used.

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Possible Modifications on Classical Methods Introduction ‘’Possible Modifications on Classical Methods’’ was the last session of the EoE Rome TV. The session were facilitated by Metin Oktay Balaban (Ankara) and Christina Gouvatsou (Athens).

The session were designed as a conclusion session of the event. The session was also a direct continuation of the previous sessions of the day, Non-Formal Education in Higher Education and Superiority of classical methods and disadvantages of Non-formal Education and Informal Education. The main goals of the session were: ●

To have some ideas about the little changes or new additions on classical methods and also to have better class learning

●

To sharing the experiences of implemented ideas among the participants

Part 1

Methodology In order to propose possible modifications on the existing classical teaching methods, participants were asked to enlist the main factors according to them that affect education. For this, participants were given small papers to write 3 “Main Factors that affect education”, then openly shared their ideas with everybody else in the class.

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Results The following table includes the outcomes of this activity clustered in seven categories.

Category

Times Mentioned

Environment/ Classroom

6

Politics/ Government

6

Students

12

Professors/ Teachers

12

Economical Factors / Facilities

9

Culture/ Society/ Family

13

Curriculum/ Methods

14

Conclusions According to the students, the Curricula and Teaching Methods followed by the Universities and professors, have the greatest effect on Education. Cultural, social and family conditions, are also accountable, when it comes to the mindset and attitude they nurture to younger generations. Students and Professors, the main parties involved, were also stated as main two separate factors. More specifically, age, gender and other differences between the students, their expectations towards the lesson and motivation to be actively involved in them were commented. When it comes to professors, their enthusiasm and preparation of the lesson and hence its quality, were considered important. Other factors, such as economical parameters, of both the country’s economy and the funds provided for education, salary of professors, as well as the students’ economical background, along with the political situation, play a major role. Last but not least, the participants expressed the opinion that the environment (size of the classroom, comfort etc) should be listed as a factor that affects education.

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Part 2 Methodology In the second part, participants were given post-its and were asked to write down the answer to that question: “What are the biggest problems of classical methods?� , one problem per post-it. After a few minutes, they were asked to place all the written problems on an Importance/Urgency matrix, and freely, but silently, cluster. The method used in this activity is called Silent Clustering.

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Results URGENT

IMPORTANT

≻ Too little interaction, collaboration, practice, interdisciplinarity

≻ When you finish the university you don't prepare for the real job world

≻ Be able to choose optional courses and adapt them well

≻ Social/ economical recognition of teaching professions

≻ Evaluating system, not given the appropriate importance for system

≻ Interaction during the lesson: eg. asking questions keeps students alert

≻ Not updated, not following the technology and the society

≻ Assure that teachers are good not only in their subject but well prepared and well suited for the demanding tasks

≻ Theoretical, not preparing students for the real world (x2 times) ≻ Focus on final exams doesn't help to learn regularly ≻ Based on memorizing, not experiencing the knowledge ≻ Not application-oriented ≻ Not tailored to certain learning styles ≻ Not a good fit with teaching engineering ≻ Accuracy of the exam questions

NOT IMPORTANT

NOT URGENT

≻ Motivation, self directed learning commitment ≻ More appealing and engaging methods that suit the new generations better ≻ Rigidity is a problem, we need more flexibility (x2 times) ≻ An educational system that pays closer attention to the social-cultural differences of the students ≻ Fast changing world, flexibility adaptiveness is lacking

≻ It doesn't allow to students to express themselves

≻ Students' motivation can be low

≻ Classic Methods sometimes empowers memorization

≻ Relationship between teachers and students is not close enough because of a huge amount of students

≻ The amount of information ≻ Make sure that teacher is aware of what is done during practice hours

≻ Lack of responsibility from teachers ≻ Not engaging enough (x3 times) ≻ Subjects too general

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Part 3 Methodology In the third part of the session, 4 groups had been formed. Then, all the groups have been asked to select 3 problems from the chart and come up with suggestions to solve the problems. After working on the problems, groups’ results were given to another group for feedback. After gathering feedback, groups returned working on their solutions a bit more. Finally, they have presented their final outcomes.

Results

Group 1 *Group 1 wanted to work on only one problem extensively

Implement more group Work Use apps for direct feedback and quizzes

Lack of Student Involvement

Incorporation of students' opinions in decisions regarding the course (type of exam, schedule, order of the course)

Short reflective sessions for feedback Sessions in smaller groups Peer to peer learning/teaching Competitions

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Group 2 Quiz at the end of the lessons with extra points Lectures are not efficient (boring & no time to reflect the knowledge)

More interaction (questions) Every 20-25 min do some kind of break or change the activity to suit the focus of student or do a recap Recaps or summaries at the end of the lecture More practical implications of the theory

Focusing more on memorizing rather Changing the evaluation methods than actual learning (stressful, brake it in smaller exams, open questions) Starting the topic with a practical approach Two way regular feedback No student participation to the process

Students explain part of the theory at the beginning of each class Extra points for participation

Group 3 Focus more on testing students' knowledge instead of just evaluating their memorizing skills Different Evaluation System

More projects and oral evaluation instead of testing everything in a final exam Divide the final exam in smaller ones so that the students can focus on the topic at hand Change the curriculum so that there is more time to exercises

More hours of practical classes to solve Get case studies and work in collaboration with different problems and do exercises companies Up-to-date equipments if required Implement group study sessions

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24/7 open study rooms/libraries/buildings

Closed-Minded Professors

Seminars to make sure professors are always up-to-date with the worst diverse issues Implement a penalty system based on students' evaluations Art

Group 4 Variety of Subjects No Flexibility (e.g. in choosing courses)

Major and minor live specialized sessions Flexibility about time (Semester) Flexible Schedules (Lectures) Evaluation System Quiz Games (like polls) Question Survey

Not Involving the Students Too Theoretical, No Practice Work

Feedback Survey More Projects - Team Work Tutories - Students Teaching Laboratories Seminars

More availability from the teachers to solve Doubts

Tutories Question Hours Forum on Online Platform Assistance

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Extracurricular Meeting to Build Trust and Commingling

Conclusions 3/4 Groups worked on the problem of student involvement. Other 4 problems being worked on were about class efficiency and not having practical work. One was about curriculum flexibility and the rest 2 were about teachers. The problems and the solutions are presented in the results section.

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Final Presentation Introduction Final Presentation was the final academical work on EoE Rome TV. It was also the examination of the event. A case study was made for participants, who were divided in 4 groups and presented their results afterwards. They are also evaluated and scored in advance.

Problem The participants are given a fictional situation for a course “Geotechnical Engineering”.

Current Situation : -

60 Students are taking the course in the same class 2h Lectures two times per week 3h of homework/study per week 4h of laboratory once every month 8h of student work per week 14 weeks in per semester

It is expected to have 80 students per semester next years Participants are asked : “Design the teaching methodology for the course and a step by step process to get there in few semesters”

Outcomes Group 1 The first group came with a chart of the organisation of the course and some details and innovations for the course.

Organization

Grading

Lectures

2h

Final Exam

50%

Online Course

1h

Project

30%

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Small Group Seminars

1h

Small Group Seminars

10%

Homework

1h

Laboratories

10%

Teamwork

2h

Quiz/Midterm Exam (Bonus)

10%

Labs

2h / twice a month

Details Theory, frontal standard lectures Lectures

Replaced by other sessions when necessary Practical exercises

Labs

Group work (5 people group choice) Exercises (calculation, methods etc.)

Homework

Individual One big group project 10 groups, 8 people per group

Project

Company collaboration Modern communication and coordination tools Online platform with forum Personality test and expectations at the beginning

Other Details

Regular feedback Company Visits

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Group 2 Group 2 provided a detailed chart of the course

Weekly Schedule Lecture

1h30min x2

Group Project

1h

Weekly Exams

1h

Tutorial Lessons

2h

Lab Sessions

4h/month

Lecture Details

Group Project Details

Guest Professors and experts for interaction

Implement PBL

Lectures in situ

Competition (Top Groups get extra points)

Laboratory Sessions Details

Recaps at the beginning Integrated courses with other departments

Coordinated with Theory

Video lessons available online

Facilitated by a PhD student

Weekly Exams Details

Tutorial Lessons Details

Mandatory

With PhD student

15'-30' exams + correction

Field Trips to collect Samples Company Visits

Organisation

Grading System

Lectures

80 Students

Final Exam

40%

Laboratories

10 Students

Weekly Exams

20%

Group Projects

4-5 Students

Group Project

30%

Split the Semester

1 week of break

Labs

10%

Along with the Course details, they also implemented a online feedback system which is an online forum with all students, professors and PhD students. They also used student clubs to strengthen the learning

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process. Incentives are given to students who join student clubs related to topic and also special funds has been given to these student clubs.

Group 3 Different from other groups, the third group did not only came with a organisation plan, but they also came with an implementation plan divided in 3 semesters.

First Semester

Second Semester

Third Semester

2x2h

2x2h

Skip second and last week for project

Lectures

2x2h

Skip second and last week for project

Labs

Optional Labs (no number) 4h of Lab /1 video (choose a group)

6 labs in total (can be optional) 8 labs in total (can be optional) 4h of Lab / 1 video 4h of Lab / 1 video (choose a group) (choose a group)

12 weeks homework

12 weeks homework

no homework on 1st week and 14th week

Skip one lecture every second week for exercise session

Online forum

Online Forum

No project

1 big project (8 people)

Homeworks

Visit Company Final Exam Project

12 weeks homework Online Forum

1 Final specific project to help a company visit with some challenge

Final Presentation in front of everyone in the class and a visit of a person from the company Final Presentation in front of everyone in the class and a visit of a person from the company

3rd group said their main focus points are flexibility and using different teaching methods.

Communication is very important for them. Online forum will be used for uploading videos and material.

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Group 4 4th group also followed a different approach from other groups. Rather than coming with a new system, they wanted to improve the current situation with step-by-step implementations.

First Step :

Optimizing Lectures -Start Using Apps -Video Lectures -Quiz in the end 2 hours of lab every two weeks

Second Step : Online Lectures Small Group Seminars -Time for exercises, questions -Peer to peer training Third Step : Projects -each lecture contributes Adjust Grading

Conclusion It can be noticed that all groups mention the need for lectures. Nevertheless, the time they would like to see assigned to lectures is much lower than usual. All groups would like to have group projects in class as well, stressing out their importance. In the same way, labs were also chosen by al groups. It can be noticed that all participants went for a high level of diversity in activities (at least 4 kinds of activities per group). Interestingly, three out of four groups mentioned virtual or online tools/lectures, bringing forward the importance of keeping up with technology in class. Finally, two groups out of four mentioned homework: this tool can still be useful but it is not perceived as ideal by participants.

Regarding evaluation, participants globally went for a diverse approach, including a Final Exam, Project evaluation, weekly tests, lab tasks, etc. Mostly it can be seen that students want to receive recognition and feedback of their work via grading.

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8. Conclusion The Event on Education “Fantastic Learning Methods and where to find them” has been a fantastic opportunity for students to discuss important topics on Higher Education and contribute with opinions and ideas to shape the university of tomorrow.

The main topics, Skills and Challenges of the next Generation and Future Changes to Teaching Methods, were discussed in depth through different subtopics and focus areas. A wide variety of methods were used in order to gather the participants’ input on those matters, which is now presented here in form of a report. This document will serve as a base for analysis and scientific work, with the goal of improving Higher Education and developing the way universities teach STEM students and prepare them for their future. The facilitators team hopes that this work will bring interesting insights and that it will be built upon the results here presented, to further develop the topics approached.

The facilitators would also like to thank the hosting Local BEST Group, Rome Tor Vergata, for all their care and effort, and the Università degli Studi di Roma “Tor Vergata” for the support received, as well as Professor Maria Penttilä for contributing to this project and the Educational Involvement Department of our organisation, the Board of European Students of Technology, for coming along this path with us and providing advice. Projects such as this, where many different actors join forces to make an impact together, are inspiring. Even more so, when it is all about students are shaping the future of Education!

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9. Contacts Balcázar Castell, Adrià Coordinator of the Event on Education in Rome Tor Vergata (2017) adria.balcazar@BEST.eu.org Bujas, Hanija Coordinator of the Educational Involvement Department of BEST (Mandate 2017-2018) hanija.bujas@BEST.eu.org

10. References J. Bjelica, M. Duarte, D. Manasova, S. Mihajlov, Y. U. Yildiz, Continuing Professional Development and Internships as Influential Factors in Developing Students, 2016 B. Colman, P. Willmot, How Soft Are “Soft Skills” in the Engineering Profession, 2016 Coombs, Philip H. The World Educational crisis: A Systems Analysis, 1968

Gabriel Carron, Roy A. Carr-Hill, Non-formal education: Informal and Planning Issues, 1991 Michael Prince. Does Active Learning Work? A Review of the Research, 2014 Pasanta, Kumar Padhi. Soft Skills: Education beyond Academics, 2014 Sheri A. Knippelmeyer and Richard J., Mentoring as a Developmental Tool for Higher Education, 2007

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