Advancing engineering education: Using the three‐phase methodology to teach IoT

Abstract

AbstractThe multidisciplinary aspect of Internet of Things (IoT) requires teaching approaches that can support this characteristic. Research has shown that inductive teaching methods can contribute to deeper learning. The development of the three‐phase methodology (TpM), an approach that guides the many disciplines involved in the creation of IoT solutions, precipitated the development of strategies for its implementation. To test these strategies, we propose a new learning environment that uses the TpM in a postgraduate course in IoT where students are introduced to the concepts required to design, build, and test IoT solutions. The adoption of the TpM combined with extensive experimentation can produce a learning environment that encourages students’ active participation in the activities and facilitate the retention of the concepts learned. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, we compared the results of an earlier edition of the course (2019), when the approach was not used, to two more recent ones (2020 and 2021) when it was. The same syllabus and rubrics were used in all three editions of the course. The final group projects’ grades and satisfaction surveys were used to evaluate the students’ performance and motivation. Findings indicate that the 2020 and 2021 classes performed better than the 2019's, as their final group project grades were considerably higher, indicating that the approach has an impact on the development of students’ transversal skills. The proposed learning environment encourages active participation in the activities and facilitates the retention of the concepts learned.