Industry 4.0 Paradigm on Teaching and Learning Engineering

Abstract

This paper evaluates the impact of the early adoption of Industry 4.0 tools and methods (industrial systems that enablemany innovative functionalities through their networking and their access to the cyber world) on engineering education. The proposed analysis considers two points of view: professors (teaching) and students (learning). In this context, two experiences were conducted: an advanced correction and validation system with real-time feedback and a virtual learning environment supported by a remote laboratory. In this paper two objectives are addressed: first the paper describes the proposed Industry 4.0 education tools, based on e-learning and cyber-physical technologies; second the performance of these tools is evaluated in a real context, where more than one hundred students were involved. The experience was deployed in subjects related to microcontroller programming in Telecommunication Engineering and Bioengineering degree programs. Results were evaluated using statistical methods. First evidences of the improvement in the students’ motivation, their academic results and their acquisition of Industry 4.0 competencies were obtained.