Welcome to half-way seminar - Yihua Zheng, CLS

Discussant: Ass. Prof. Stefan Stenbom (KTH)
Examiner: Prof. Hans Malmström (CTH)

Abstract

Driven by advancements in technologies and pedagogy, online learning has emerged as a pivotal theme in higher education. However, in engineering education, traditional on-campus formats have historically dominated the mode of instruction, resulting in relatively limited incorporation of and research about online teaching and learning. Against this background, this Ph.D. project aims to deepen our understanding of how digitalization influences the learning experiences of engineering students.

To do this, the project focuses on examining students’ perceptions of their learning experiences, which has been established as a valid and reliable method for evaluating education quality. The midterm seminar presents two papers within this research project. The first paper presents a literature review on the application of a widely recognized online learning theoretical framework - the Community of Inquiry (CoI) - in engineering education. Building on its findings and the imperative for additional research on the application of the CoI framework within specific engineering contexts, the second paper focuses on labs as a central learning activity in engineering education.

Through the analysis of students’ responses to open-ended questions, it examines their attitudes and learning experiences after taking a logic control course offering campus and remote labs as well as simulations. The paper addresses each of CoI’s three presences, resulting in theoretical and practical conclusions for enhancing the quality of online and hybrid lab learning environments and advancing the CoI framework. The seminar finishes by outlining future research plans expanding to a wider spectrum of theoretical concepts and empirical settings within engineering education.