A Low Risk Hybrid Teaching Methodology for Improving the Motivation Levels of Students: A Casestudy on Digital Image Processing Course

Abstract

The motivation levels of the contemporary engineering students to sit and learn in a traditional classroom is relatively low, due to the exposure of new technologies since their childhood. They don't believe in totally classroom study and have little patience to sit long hours in the classroom, as they see alternative ways of learning outside the classroom. Hence, there is need for devising new pedagogy techniques which can motivate them to attend the class, and at the same time, to study outside the classroom and out of institution hours. However, the age-old pedagogy method of deductive learning and class room teaching can't be thrown away all of a sudden. So a low risk method of teaching is required for the universal acceptance by the students and by the authorities. In this paper, a hybrid low risk teaching methodology is considered for the undergraduate course of Digital Image Processing for the students of Electronics and Communications Engineering (ECE) specialization. Three topic wise active learning activities: quiz, group discussion and simulations were devised and implemented along with the traditional classroom teaching. A course end survey was conducted at the end of the course. The responses to the survey clearly showed that the motivation level of the students significantly increased after the implementation of active level methodologies. The significant increase in the marks obtained in the II internal examination also confirm the effectiveness of the hybrid technique used. The results are very much encouraging to the teacher, to implement the proposed technique in the next semester also as indicated by the students.