European Journal of Engineering Education

Vol. 31, No. 2, May 2006, 227–236

Experiences in education innovation: developing tools in

support of active learning
CARLOS VERA
, JESÚS FÉLEZ, JOSÉ ANTONIO COBOS, MARÍA JESÚS
SÁNCHEZ-NARANJO and GABRIEL PINTO*
Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid,
José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain

(Received 16 March 2005; in final form 7 June 2005)

The paper focuses on educational projects developed in the ETSII (Escuela Técnica Superior de
Ingenieros Industriales) of the Polytechnic University of Madrid during the past few years. These
projects were developed as new tools for enhancing the active role of students, for improving practical
teaching, especially by means of virtual laboratories and different sets of problems and exercises,
and for promoting self-learning. The paper analyses the use of ICT in teaching, with the case of a
developed e-learning platform as a tracking system for subjects. The paper concludes by discussing the
new educational trends in the Centre, devoted to develop an active role of students by activities such as
peer mentoring and laboratory monitors programs, and competitions for achieving multidisciplinary
engineering challenges.

Keywords: Education innovation; Active learning; E-learning platform; Internet

1. Introduction

Traditionally, Spanish Universities have been immersed in an educational system mainly based
on master classes, where the teacher transmitted a lot of information to the students (Gómez-
Senent et al. 2004). In that system, students are helped by seminars and laboratory practice,
but they spend most of their time listening to lectures and taking notes. At the end of the
semester, they have to pass the final examination.
According to pedagogical theories, as constructivism (Hansen 2004), problem-based
learning (Serpil Acar 2004), and use of new technologies (Ciglaric and Vidmar 1998, Maclaren
2004), to the requirements of new educative trends (Wankat and Oreovicz 1993, Mauniliv
et al. 1998, Sparkes 1999, Polke et al. 2002, Maffioli and Augusti 2003) such as the ECTS
(a student-centred credit system), and to the requirements for Quality approach, Spanish
Universities have been acquiring new tools and new methods for improving the educational
system. At this time, in engineering education in Spain it is vital and necessary to further and
significantly reform the structure and teaching style of the courses.

*Corresponding author. Email: gabriel.pinto@upm.es

Passed away suddenly, November 2005

European Journal of Engineering Education

ISSN 0304-3797 print/ISSN 1469-5898 online © 2006 SEFI
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
DOI: 10.1080/03043790600567969
228 C. Vera et al.

In this context, the most important aspect of education innovation at our Centre, the Escuela
Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales (ETSII) of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
(UPM), is increasing students’ interest and making them more active learners.
The ETSII-UPM carries a century-and-a-half-long tradition of dedication to teaching and
research. It gives special attention to two fundamental objectives:

• the education of engineers that contribute to the development of industry, and to public
administration and services;
• the promotion of an extensive research program which includes the development of tech-
nology and improvement of existing technologies which are applicable to the scientific and
technical development of Spain within the European framework.

With 3200 students and 310 professors, ETSII-UPM focuses in a modern and dynamic
manner on a passionate professional activity such as engineering for industry, with nine
intensifications: automatic controls and electronic, electrical engineering, materials, indus-
trial organization, industrial chemistry and environment, energy techniques, manufacturing,
construction engineering, and mechanical engineering. In the last three years, other degrees
and masters degrees such as chemical engineering, industrial organization engineering, and
automatics and electronic engineering have also been offered.

2. Educational projects developed in the ETSII-UPM

Our Centre has supported several projects, in recent years, in order to apply information and
communication technologies (ICT) to engineering education, as a help to make the learning
process more effective and better-adapted to student needs. The general objectives of these
projects were:

• to develop new methods of teaching/learning for enhancing the active role of students,
• to improve practical teaching, especially by means of the increasing of the importance of
problem-solving and laboratories,
• to promote self-learning, and
• to use ICT in teaching, for example by using multimedia applications and enhancing the
use of the Internet.

In this sense, we have developed (from 1996 until 2002) 45 different projects in which
around 70 teachers and 250 students have been involved, and with a total budget of around
¤800,000. There was a variety of types of specific projects, including multimedia modules,
problems and exercise compilations, practical teaching based on self-learning, practices based
on the Internet (for example, systems for remote control of tools in a laboratory), and so on.
There were also different projects for horizontal service with the aim of serving to develop
future new projects, such as the organization of different subjects.
The variety of matters and topics covered by these projects is in accordance with the gen-
eralist and integrated studies that characterize the industrial engineering grade in the Centre.
With the aim of facilitating knowledge of the contents, most of these projects are briefly
summarized in table 1.

Table 1.
Title of the project
A system for problem solving in
Physics
Mechanics and Waves in the Internet
Self-learning of problem solving in
chemistry for engineering students
International Link about Problems of
Chemistry for Engineering
System for self-learning of descriptive
geometry
Self-learning computer aided station
for laboratory practice in Elasticity
and Strength of Materials
Photoelasticity tests
Financial statements’ analysis and
simulation model
Steels Metallography and Cast Irons
Metallography
Forum Metallorum
Non-linear Loads Network Analyzer
(Arc furnace)
Interactive Graphic Simulator of
Electric Systems
Flow measure and design and
hydraulic control
Remote training by means of image
transmission via the Internet
Visualisation and analysis of the
evolution in time of a physical
system by means of transmitting
video sequences via the Internet
Interactive Graphic Simulator for a
Nuclear Power Plant for training
and education purposes
Nuclear technology virtual laboratory
Experimental interactive workbench
designed for self-training in control
of AC induction motor drives in
electrical engineering laboratories
Robotics and Automation
Autolearning System
Reciprocating compressors test bench
Experimentation, Simulation
and Measurements in Power
Electronics
Tools to support active learning 229
List of the projects realized at the Centre.
Relevant information
An interactive system for problem solving, with a module for the
teacher to generate problem sets and a module for the students.
A set of animations (see figure 1) in two and three dimensions for
the understanding and analysis of questions and problems about
kinematics.
A set of problems with resolution, a collection of theoretical aids,
and a collection with multiple choice questions.
Web pages created with the aim of helping the process of
teaching/learning of Chemistry problems at university level.
An interactive computer application to help to find solutions
to classical problems of descriptive geometry and geometric
constructions.
Computer-aided laboratory practice station, for two or three students
without teachers’ presence being required.
From a remote site, through the Internet, students can practice
techniques for measuring and visualizing stresses and strains in
structures (see figure 2).
A help in the teaching of financial accounting and corporate finance,
with a practical orientation.
An interactive application that allows the user to simulate the work
of a metallographic microscope.
An educational website oriented for students of the Metallurgy
course.
Several experiments are given to teach students about arc
furnace aspects including harmonics, unbalances, resonances,
measurements, continuous and discontinuous evolution of the AC
current, maximal power transfer, etc.
An Internet tool that shows harmonic power flow results of electric
systems that were selected and simulated previously by the
teacher.
It allows the student to freely analyse hydraulic systems, regulation
methods and flow measure alternatives.
A brand new system for remote education via the Internet based on
image acquisition and processing.
The program focuses on the development of tools for image
sequence analysis.
The simulator reproduces the physical processes both in the primary
and the secondary circuits.
Three numerical models have been developed, in order to illustrate
three important topics of Nuclear Technology. Models are able to
calculate the time evolution of key parameters.
A system designed to assist students with their learning endeavours
and with their own training in the practical use and knowledge of
induction motor speed and torque control drives.
An interactive multimedia system (see figure 3) developed for
Robotics and Automation self-learning, with a theoretic and
practical point of view in mind.
A single cylinder air cooled compressor which is driven by an AC
motor mounted onto two ball bearings, with full instrumentation
this unit enables a comprehensive study to be made of the
important process of air compression.
It is possible to check the performance of some typical Power
Electronics circuits from the point of view of the simulation and
the real world.
(continued)
230 C. Vera et al.

Table 1. Continued.

Title of the project Relevant information

Heat transfer
Thermodynamic Cycles Simulator
Thermodynamic Cycles Simulator in
the Web
The virtual lab: interaction and
visualization of virtual models
Soil mechanics course
Tool for self-tuition in the subject of
Statistics
Teaching Statistics in the Internet
Definition of geometrical and
dimensional tolerances in specific
functional mechanical assemblies
A Virtual Toluene Hydrodealkylation
Plant
Learning VHDL through the Internet
Fluids mechanics
The program developed allows the user to solve multitude of
problems related to heat transfer, by using analytic and numeric
methods.
Informatics interactive tool (see figure 4) for the study and
comprehension of thermodynamic cycles
An interactive computer tool for the study and comprehension of
thermodynamic cycles, addressed to engineering students.
A program based on VR techniques with the aim of interacting and
visualising mechanical models.
Different subjects of a Soil Mechanics Course are included, thereby
solving typical problems such as: Soil classification (Grain
size distributions, Atterberg limits, consistency indices and
Unified Soil Classification System), Phase relation problems, and
Hydrostatic problems.
A tool for the tuition of probability in the subject of Statistics in
the third year of Engineering in the Polytechnic University of
Madrid. It contains eight examples of Monte Carlo simulations
of probability problems.
A program, developed mainly in JAVA, that shows the application
to engineering of statistical process control techniques and
stochastic models to study relationships among variables such as
analysis of variance, experimental design and regression.
An auto-guided practice program has been developed in which the
student has to carry out the specification for the tolerances.
It provides the student with a global vision of the actual design
and operation of a chemical plant, from individual pieces of
equipment to the complete process.
This software application was developed to learn VHDL (VHSIC
Hardware Description Language) through the Internet.
Several exercises and animations are developed in order to improve
the learning process in this subject.

3. An e-learning platform as a tracking system for subjects

Following the new trends in web-based learning (Maclaren 2004), one of the projects supported
by the Centre, like others cited before, was a course management system for e-learning, known
as AulaWeb.At present it is a WWW-based interactive system which helps students and teachers
to learn and to teach the academic courses.
AulaWeb is, on the one hand, an information system of any course subject (contents, exer-
cises, exams, chat, forum, . . .) open to all users of the net and, on the other hand, an interactive
training, self-evaluation and tracking system of student progress in this subject, use-restricted
for students and teachers. The whole interactivity is carried out by means of a browser and a
connection to the Internet.
AulaWeb (see figure 5) was intended, initially, as a technological gap challenge. One con-
straint in the development of educational online systems is the teachers’ lack of technology
knowledge and experience. Many teachers, even in Polytechnic Universities, are not famil-
iar with the required technologies. So the challenge was to select an easy to use technology
accessible to all kinds of users. In this way, some specifications were performed.

• Simple system required for all kinds of users (system administrator, teachers and students):
a computer connected to the Internet and a web browser.
• Providing an easy to use and intuitive graphical interface based on a combination of a menu
bar and icons with different colours and facilities depending on the user type.
 Tools to support active learning 231

Figure 1. Example of the web pages about Waves.

Figure 2. Example of the tool for the photoelasticity tests.

Figure 3. Example of the tool for robotics.

232 C. Vera et al.

Figure 4. Example of the tool for thermodynamics.

• Implementation of a secure and personalised user access with password authentication.

• Supplying an online help system.
• Incorporating educational contents is very flexible and does not require any high level
knowledge of software applications. All kinds of online resources (documents, hyperlinks,
questions, . . .) can be integrated by means of a step-by-step assistant.
• Development of complete support documentation: tutorials as visual guides for the three
kinds of users (system administrator, teacher and student).

The AulaWeb development staff was driven by teachers from the Computer Science
Department that, simultaneously, used the system with one subject and 700 students at
the centre. The results were good enough to propagate the web application to other users.
There were several obstacles for the task implementation among teachers: no technology
knowledge, no economical or curricular motivation, some courses already had their own web-
sites, and preparing online resources is normally an expensive and time-consuming process.
Furthermore, online publishing might affect teachers’ control over intellectual property.

Figure 5. Example of AulaWeb (our e-learning platform).

 Tools to support active learning 233

The AulaWeb dissemination was driven not only inside the Centre but in other U.P.M.
faculties.
Several advantages of AulaWeb after five years’ of use and improvements are:
• anyone can use it without being an ICT expert and there is no need to learn HTML to publish
online resources. This question has been of special interest, given the fact that staff were
very reluctant initially;
• using it is not compulsory, in accordance with the fact that the U.P.M. is a public university.
Nevertheless, all students usually make use of this tool;
• there is a secure access only for registered users and different levels of access to the resources
that can be configured by the teachers;
• there is no need for the teacher to install and manage a web server for their course;
• implementation of an information web server that includes tutorials, reports, hyperlinks and
papers on this educational tool.
Using an ad hoc form, the student can send an electronic file with the answers to the
exercises in HTML, Word or another format. The file is stored in a document database, and
the corresponding teacher can access it. Once the content of the exercise is corrected, teachers
can mark it, and send their comments to the student. Also, teachers can publish the exercise
answer and monitor the students that have sent it.
There is also a self-evaluation module on the subject, based on a question database, with
a friendly and easy-to-use interface for introducing and updating questions. The students can
configure an exercise depending on the number and difficulty of questions and the didactic
units of the subject. The teachers can also configure exercises for certain groups of students.
When concluding the exercise, the system offers students the possibility to check their exercise
and to compare their answers with the right solutions. Finishing the test provides the user’s
level at that moment and updates the values of the database. The evaluation of the exercise is,
therefore, automatic and students and their teacher can access the results of the evaluation.
The system has been tested since 1999. User feedback indicates that students and teachers
found it an easy to use and very useful learning tool, as didactic support for the academic
courses.

4. Analysis of the educational projects developed in the ETSII-UPM

The combined efforts of teachers, students, and the Institution, represented by the projects
mentioned above and developed in the past few years, have facilitated important changes in
teaching/learning methods.
Through evaluation by students and teachers, and practical applications of the described
educational projects, we have found these advantages:
• the role of information and communication technologies in a new learning environment is,
at present, well established in the Centre;
• the participation of students in the learning process has increased, as developer and user
of the new tools; and
• the main objectives of the projects, as summarized at the beginning of this text, have been
reached to a great extent.
According to different questionnaires answered by students each year, it seems well-
established that the students’ learning outcome has improved by using ICT and AulaWeb.
In this sense, it has been easy to motivate students, in spite of one of the results from their
234 C. Vera et al.

evaluation being that they are using more time when ICT is involved. Nevertheless, we have
observed that the application of the Internet and other new technologies, as was expected, is
not the panacea and does not automatically lead to better education. For example, we have
observed that students frequently need more time with these new methods, because these meth-
ods have been implemented ‘as well as’the traditional tools (books, hands-outs, lecture classes,
seminaries, laboratories, etc.), but they could be, in any way, ‘instead of’. In other words: if
students have to attend 25 classroom hours per week and several hours of laboratory, solve
problems, write reports, attend in-situ tutorials with teachers, study books, prepare traditional
exams, etc., and, in addition, use new teaching programs, they will not have enough time.
Besides, the cited e-learning tool (AulaWeb), is used as a permanent source of texts and
presentations: as it is a ‘virtual’ tool, teachers are not conscious sometimes of the magnitude
of information given to students.
And perhaps the most important question for us: we have observed that academic failure,
especially in the first year, is maintained with the new methods. This question is attributed, at
least in part, to an ever-worse preparation in secondary education, and to the fact that we have
maintained traditional evaluation of learning.
The change from teacher-driven to learner-centred education requires, first and foremost, a
change in attitudes and behaviours as well as institutional frameworks and infrastructures, and
this is a slow process. Finally, both teachers and students sometimes have a passive response
to innovative teaching tools. Nevertheless, the necessity to implement the ECTS methodology
will play an important role to improve these questions.

5. New educational trends in the ETSII-UPM

Apart from ICT educative tools, recently we have also developed new methods for the guidance
of students (such as peer mentoring and laboratory monitors programs) and for learning through
team work; for example, competitions for achieving different multidisciplinary engineering
challenges in the fields of robot and vehicle design and manufacture (see figure 6).
For facilitating the change, and in order to face the present educative challenges, a new vice
dean specifically devoted to Education Innovation has been appointed in our Centre during
the last year, who is well aware of the importance given to this field.
A problem is the motivation of teachers to motivate students. The institution would provide
financial resources as well as materials for promoting these changes and to establish incentives
for facilitating the achievement of these objectives.

Figure 6. Images of students’ manufactured vehicle (left) and robot (right) for the S.A.E. and Cybertech
Competitions, respectively.
 Tools to support active learning 235

The effectiveness of support strategies for our educational Centre was well appreciated by
teachers and students, as pointed out in different meetings where the projects were presented.
In brief, in coherence with the methodological model presented, we are seeking to do a
blended learning (b-learning) system. In this sense, we have made a new call for proposals,
with a total budget of ¤83,000, for facilitating the improvement in the teaching and learn-
ing methods not limited to ICT: interdisciplinary activities, new ways for student evaluation
where students need not to be limited to traditional exams (evaluation through the different
stages of the process and taking into account all activities carried out by the student such
as work, examinations, training, problems, and so on), and the use of formal methods and
contemporary educative approaches (creation of concepts maps, problem based learning, case
study, cooperative learning, among others. All of these questions intended in the context of
the implementation of the ECTS.
All the summarized activities and experiences concerning education innovation are being
integrated in the Centre under a global view of the matter under the named ‘4A Project’ (Apoyo
al Aprendizaje Activo de los Alumnos, Support for Students’ Active Learning).
More information about these questions can be found (in Spanish) at the Web address:
http://www.etsii.upm.es/ieducativa/.

Acknowledgements

The projects presented in this paper have been supported in part by the Sociedad de Amigos de
la ETSII-UPM, the Fundación para el Fomento de la Innovación Industrial and the Escuela
Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. The
authors are also grateful to the referees for valuable suggestions.

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Notes on contributors

Carlos Vera received his Industrial Engineer (1972) and Doctoral (1981) Degrees from
Universidad del País Vasco. He worked for eight years as project engineer at Construcción
Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles and as technical director at VanHool-Spain. Then followed 11 years
of teaching and research, as Associate Professor and Full Professor (1984) at Universidad de
Zaragoza. Since 1990 he has been Full Professor in the E.T.S. de Ingenieros Industriales
of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, were he was Dean since 2000. He is Director of
the Railway Technology Research Centre of this University (CITEF). He has published over
236 C. Vera et al.

100 technical papers and four textbooks about simulation of mechanical systems, dynamics
of vehicles, and related topics. He has been actively involved in over 40 R&D projects about
European rail traffic management systems, safety and rail management, computer aided traf-
fic accident reconstruction, and others. He was the Chairman of the Board of Directors of
Spanish IndustrialEngineers Schools. Professor Carlos Vera died suddenly from a heart attack
in November 2005.

Jesús Félez received his Mechanical Engineer and Doctoral degrees from the Universidad de
Zaragoza in 1985 and 1989. He started as Associate Professor at the Universidad Politécnica
de Madrid (UPM) in 1990 and became Full Professor in 1997. His main activities and research
interests are mainly focused in the field of simulation, computer graphics and virtual reality.
He has published over 50 technical papers and has been actively involved in over 25 research
and development projects. He has served as thesis advisor for 30 master’s theses and four
doctoral dissertations. Professor Félez is a member of ACM, SCS and IEEE, having a very
active participation. He is also a member of the International Program Committee of the Bond
Graph Modeling Conference of SCS. He has been Vice Dean of the ETSII-UPM since 2000.

José Antonio Cobos received the Master and Doctoral degrees in Electrical Engineering from
the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), in 1989 and 1994, respectively. He has been a
Full Professor at this university since 2001. His contributions are focused in the field of power
supply systems for telecoms, aerospace, automotive and medical applications. His research
interests include low output voltage, magnetic components, piezoelectric transformers, tran-
scutaneous energy transfer and dynamic power management. He has published over 150
technical papers and holds 3 patents. He has been actively involved in over 40 R&D projects
for companies in Europe, USA and Australia. He is AdCom member of the IEEE Power Elec-
tronics Society (PELS), and Chair of the Technical Committee on DC Power Systems. He is
serving as Associate Editor of the IEEE-PELS Letters and Transactions on Power Electronics.
He has received several awards, including the UPM Research and Development Award for
faculty less than 35 years of age, and the Richard Bass Outstanding Young Power Electronics
Award of the IEEE (year 2000). He is Vice Dean for Research and Doctoral studies of the
ETSII-UPM.

María Jesús Sánchez Naranjo received the degree in electrical engineering in 1989 and the
PhD degree in applied statistics in 1995, both from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. She
is Professor of Statistics at this University. Her current research fields of interest are outliers
in time series, kriging models, and reliability of electric power generating systems. She is
Assistant Director for Quality Assurance the E.T.S.I.I.-UPM.

Gabriel Pinto received an MSc degree in chemistry in 1985 and a PhD in physical chemistry in
1990, both from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He has, since 1986, been Professor
in the E.T.S. de Ingenieros Industriales of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, where he
teaches general and inorganic chemistry. His research has concentrated on optical and electrical
characterization of polymers and polymer composites, and on the problems of teaching and
learning of chemistry at university level. He has published over 70 technical and educational
papers. He is European Engineering Educator ING-PAED-IGIP and holds membership of
IGIP, SEFI, IUPAC, ICUC and RSEQ. He received the UPM Research and Development
Award for faculty younger than 35 years (1997) and the UPM Innovation in Education Award
(2004). He is Vice Dean for Education Innovation of the E.T.S.I.I.-UPM.

In Memoriam: This paper is dedicated to the memory of Carlos Vera, a professor who
committed his life to the improvement of Industrial Engineering Education.