Active Learning based on Electronic Focus Groups and Participatory Design during the COVID-19 period

Abstract

Universities have had to apply distance education models to prevent COVID-19 spread. This paper studies the feasibility of a learning model based on electronic focus (e-focus) groups and participatory design to carry out Project-based Learning (PBL) in these contexts of distance education. E-focus groups are debates supported by telematics tools to interchange ideas about solutions that must satisfy requirements of a real-world problem. Each debate is moderated by the members of a work group who must elicit requirements and build solutions. Stakeholders are classmates who participate in these debates to propose requirements and verify solutions. This model has been applied to teach a Human-Computer Interaction subject of the Computer Science degree of the University of Cantabria. To study the feasibility of this learning model, this paper analyzes the following three aspects: (i) the impact of the e-focus groups' proposals to improve the problem-solving process, (ii) problems to meet the deadlines of the project schedule and (iii) the students' satisfaction. The results of this analysis support the feasibility of applying this model to carry out PBL in a distance learning context. © 2021 ACM.

Keywords

Author Keywords

Project-Based Learning COVID-19 Electronic focus groups Participatory design

Index Keywords

E-learning Learning systems Engineering education Education computing Project based learning COVID-19 Learning models Human computer interaction Active learning Focus Groups Model-based OPC Group Design Participatory design Telematics Electronic focus group

Author Affiliations

Statistics and Computation, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, Cantabria, Spain

Funding & Acknowledgements

Universidad de Cantabria, UC

Grant: DI27

Funding text 1: The project schedule was made up of five milestones. Each group must deliver a user interface prototype at each milestone after applying the e-focus group technique. E-focus groups celebrated a debate every fourteen days. These debates were supported by Microsoft Teams. The milestones of the project were the following:; Funding text 2: The work has been financed by the University of Cantabria through the teaching innovation project "Implantación de la técnica focus group para diseñar interfaces de usuario en la asignatura Interac-ción Persona-Computador". The authors also want to thank the students of the Human-Computer Interaction course for their participation in the project and their evaluations, opinions and evaluations about the project. The authors also want to thank the students of the Human-Computer Interaction course for their participation in the project and their evaluations, opinions and evaluations about the project. Santos Bringas was supported by the University of Cantabria and Banco de Santander through the industrial doctorate grant DI27.

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Active Learning based on Electronic Focus Groups and Participatory Design during the COVID-19 period

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