Effect of integrating IoT courses at the freshman level on learning attitude and behaviour in the classroom

Abstract

As a technology the effect of the Internet of Things (IoT) is so strong that it has changed the way of living. The transition is also apparent in the field of education, as statutory technical training bodies have made IoT a mandatory course in engineering education. But in terms of design and instruction, implementing this course at the freshman-level is difficult. The target, of course, must be planned in such a way as to link newly enrolled learners to engineering disciplines and promote professional learning. This paper focuses on the freshman level designing and implementing of the course. A reliability test was performed to assess the internal consistency between student learning attitude, student engagement actions in the classroom and acceptance of technology. In addition, it analyzed the effect of gender differentiation. One hundred and twenty-three First Year Engineering Students participated in a survey questionnaire based on the five - point Likert scale provided at the end of the course. The findings show Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.93 for 12 test items, suggesting that the questionnaire was suitable for use as an assessment method for assessing how successful the course is in terms of learning attitude, behavioral engagement, and acceptance of technology. The reliability test results show a high correlation between acceptance of the technology and the behavioral engagement of the student. The internal consistency between the learning attitude with the conducted acceptance of the technology, and the result showed α = 0.715, making slight connection between two. Further the effect of gender on these parameters analyzed and found to be insignificant.