TY - CHAP A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas T1 - Motivation Centered Learning T2 - 2018 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 3-6 Oct. 2018, San Jose, CA, USA N2 - This Research Work in Progress Paper evaluates students’ motivation sources and shows the high impact that work of professors has on students’ motivation. Common goal of most professors is to help students acquiring knowledge and competencies that are relevant for their further life. From the beginning of Universities’ history, lectures are usually chosen to reach this goal but it is seen in recent years that they are in many cases not the optimal choice. In the last years, many efforts were made to increase students knowledge gain. From learning and motivation psychology research, many details are known how humans remember and transfer knowledge. These research results are used to create new lecture formats to activate students. Research based learning, project based lab courses, problem based learning, feedback systems, flipped classroom, blended learning and gamification in lectures are only some examples for new formats. Common goal of all these new types of learning formats is to increasing students’ motivation and to enhance learning success. In this paper, evaluations using a questionnaire with open questions were done among first year students, bachelor students before graduation and alumni, about their sources of motivation and demotivation. Interesting curricula and lectures with application related topics and possibilities for own work are the main sources of motivation. Enthusiastic professors with high competences and good lecture didactics also contribute to students’ motivation. On the other side, demotivated professors with boring lectures play a much higher role for demotivating students. Therefore, it is necessary to integrate aspects of student motivation into curriculum and lecture design and professors should become aware that they are important role-models for motivating or demotivating students. KW - Computational modeling KW - Electrical engineering KW - Information technology KW - Psychology KW - Social networking (online) KW - Task analysis KW - Urban areas Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2018.8658436 SP - 1 EP - 5 PB - IEEE ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas T1 - Semi-Structured Lab Projects in Communication Engineering Education T2 - 2023 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), 01-04 May 2023, Kuwait N2 - It is generally known that project-based learning is a very important part of engineering education to connect theoretical knowledge with practical work. Students learn to apply their knowledge to real-world challenges as it is the case in their later professional life. If students are not used to project work or the scientific topic is new and relatively complex, they may be overwhelmed. The consequence is that students achieve poor results, are frustrated, and therefore learning success is low. Semi-structured projects are introduced that combine the advantages of structured experiments with projects. The project work is structured into several parts with detailed descriptions of the tasks. In the end, students get similar results to doing a free project, but the success rate is higher due to higher guidance. Therefore, these semi-structured projects are seen to be an appropriate method to guide students to learn how to do project work. The feedback from most students is very positive. Some students with no previous lab experience complained about the project work and wished for more guidance to become familiar with lab work. In sum, the student feedback is encouraging to develop semi-structured projects further. KW - Knowledge engineering KW - Task analysis KW - Communication engineering education Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON54358.2023.10125244 SP - 1 EP - 5 PB - IEEE ER -