MERIT-TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED LEARNING AT ADVANCED LEVEL FOR ENGINEERS

The overall goal of this project is to design and implement technology mediated course modules on advanced level to support work-integrated learning for employees in the manufacturing industry. The industry is continuously facing global competition and customer needs. They face challenges like high quality deliveries and technological performances with less cost, which calls for advanced knowledge and learning to manage changes and long-term business goals. 

To be able to perform in everyday work and deal with problem solving at the workplace, engineers can benefit from work-integrated learning supported by new digital courses online. Courses that will be offered within the project will mainly be developed from industrial needs of competences within Production Technology. They will be offered in the form of short modules and mainly distributed on-line to allow employees' to train in more flexible forms than before.

Researchers from both the Production Technology group at University West and the work integrated learning group will collaborate by combining learning at the workplace, Information Technology and Production Technology. In collaboration with the industry the aim is to co-produce knowledge in the courses in the field of industrial automation, virtual manufacturing and robotics as well as applied simulation of manufacturing processes. These courses contain elements of programming, modeling, standards, troubleshooting, and more.

The course modules provide opportunities for employees to use digital platforms and social media where they can discuss industrial problems and solutions with other participants, the university tutors and other companies. The project will give access to a variety of digital resources for solving demanding calculations and simulations. The pedagogical aim is to depart from real industrial problems and learn more from a variety of knowledge sources, for example theoretical content in the course, problem solving through use of productions tools as well as communication with others.

Specific web-based technology for training and communication will be developed and tested. Among other things, the researchers will use the system Cloudboard, a digital platform for communication and information sharing. Web-conference systems for discussion and sharing of applications will also be used.

The research focus in the project is to better understand learning in the industry supported by technology mediated learning initiatives and methods.