Mobile Robots as a Tool to Teach First Year Engineering Electronics

Engineering degrees require a strong background in Physical Sciences and Mathematics, demanding a high level of conceptualization and abstract reasoning that many students do not possess at the entry level of their high education studies. This can cause students demotivation and dropout, a situation that Higher Education institutions have felt the need to cope with. One methodology to address this problem is to introduce the use of robots in the classes. This tool has unique characteristics that may potentially contribute to increase students’ motivation and engagement, which are key factors on their academic success. This paper presents the rationale, challenges and methodology used to introduce robots as a tool to teach introductory electronics to first year students in a Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering Masters degree. The paper also reports evaluation indicators that result from two different surveys, one generic, carried out in the scope of the Quality Assurance System of the University, and another one developed specifically to evaluate the course. The results confirm that there is a clear and overall positive impact. Particularly significant are the gains on the students motivation and subject comprehension, without a noticeable impact on the course difficulty and required effort. It is also specially relevant that students are strongly in favour of keeping robot’s usage due to its impact on both knowledge and motivation.