@misc{MalchowRenzBaueretal.2017, author = {Malchow, Martin and Renz, Jan and Bauer, Matthias and Meinel, Christoph}, title = {Embedded smart home}, series = {11th Annual IEEE International Systems Conference (SysCon)}, journal = {11th Annual IEEE International Systems Conference (SysCon)}, publisher = {IEEE}, address = {New York}, isbn = {978-1-5090-4623-2}, issn = {1944-7620}, doi = {10.1109/SYSCON.2017.7934728}, pages = {195 -- 200}, year = {2017}, abstract = {The popularity of MOOCs has increased considerably in the last years. A typical MOOC course consists of video content, self tests after a video and homework, which is normally in multiple choice format. After solving this homeworks for every week of a MOOC, the final exam certificate can be issued when the student has reached a sufficient score. There are also some attempts to include practical tasks, such as programming, in MOOCs for grading. Nevertheless, until now there is no known possibility to teach embedded system programming in a MOOC course where the programming can be done in a remote lab and where grading of the tasks is additionally possible. This embedded programming includes communication over GPIO pins to control LEDs and measure sensor values. We started a MOOC course called "Embedded Smart Home" as a pilot to prove the concept to teach real hardware programming in a MOOC environment under real life MOOC conditions with over 6000 students. Furthermore, also students with real hardware have the possibility to program on their own real hardware and grade their results in the MOOC course. Finally, we evaluate our approach and analyze the student acceptance of this approach to offer a course on embedded programming. We also analyze the hardware usage and working time of students solving tasks to find out if real hardware programming is an advantage and motivating achievement to support students learning success.}, language = {en} } @misc{RenzShamsMeinel2017, author = {Renz, Jan and Shams, Ahmed and Meinel, Christoph}, title = {Offline-Enabled Web-based E-Learning for Improved User Experience in Africa}, series = {2017 IEEE Africon}, journal = {2017 IEEE Africon}, publisher = {IEEE}, address = {New York}, isbn = {978-1-5386-2775-4}, issn = {2153-0025}, doi = {10.1109/AFRCON.2017.8095574}, pages = {736 -- 742}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Web-based E-Learning uses Internet technologies and digital media to deliver education content to learners. Many universities in recent years apply their capacity in producing Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). They have been offering MOOCs with an expectation of rendering a comprehensive online apprenticeship. Typically, an online content delivery process requires an Internet connection. However, access to the broadband has never been a readily available resource in many regions. In Africa, poor and no networks are yet predominantly experienced by Internet users, frequently causing offline each moment a digital device disconnect from a network. As a result, a learning process is always disrupted, delayed and terminated in such regions. This paper raises the concern of E-Learning in poor and low bandwidths, in fact, it highlights the needs for an Offline-Enabled mode. The paper also explores technical approaches beamed to enhance the user experience inWeb-based E-Learning, particular in Africa.}, language = {en} } @misc{RenzMeinel2019, author = {Renz, Jan and Meinel, Christoph}, title = {The "Bachelor Project"}, series = {2019 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)}, journal = {2019 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)}, publisher = {IEEE}, address = {New York}, isbn = {978-1-5386-9506-7}, issn = {2165-9567}, doi = {10.1109/EDUCON.2019.8725140}, pages = {580 -- 587}, year = {2019}, abstract = {One of the challenges of educating the next generation of computer scientists is to teach them to become team players, that are able to communicate and interact not only with different IT systems, but also with coworkers and customers with a non-it background. The "bachelor project" is a project based on team work and a close collaboration with selected industry partners. The authors hosted some of the teams since spring term 2014/15. In the paper at hand we explain and discuss this concept and evaluate its success based on students' evaluation and reports. Furthermore, the technology-stack that has been used by the teams is evaluated to understand how self-organized students in IT-related projects work. We will show that and why the bachelor is the most successful educational format in the perception of the students and how this positive results can be improved by the mentors.}, language = {en} } @misc{BruechnerRenzKlingbeil2019, author = {Bruechner, Dominik and Renz, Jan and Klingbeil, Mandy}, title = {Creating a Framework for User-Centered Development and Improvement of Digital Education}, series = {Scale}, journal = {Scale}, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, address = {New York}, isbn = {978-1-4503-6804-9}, doi = {10.1145/3330430.3333644}, pages = {4}, year = {2019}, abstract = {We investigate how the technology acceptance and learning experience of the digital education platform HPI Schul-Cloud (HPI School Cloud) for German secondary school teachers can be improved by proposing a user-centered research and development framework. We highlight the importance of developing digital learning technologies in a user-centered way to take differences in the requirements of educators and students into account. We suggest applying qualitative and quantitative methods to build a solid understanding of a learning platform's users, their needs, requirements, and their context of use. After concept development and idea generation of features and areas of opportunity based on the user research, we emphasize on the application of a multi-attribute utility analysis decision-making framework to prioritize ideas rationally, taking results of user research into account. Afterward, we recommend applying the principle build-learn-iterate to build prototypes in different resolutions while learning from user tests and improving the selected opportunities. Last but not least, we propose an approach for continuous short- and long-term user experience controlling and monitoring, extending existing web- and learning analytics metrics.}, language = {en} }