Effectiveness of Active Learning Strategies for Engaging Learners and Improving Performance in Data Structures Engineering Course

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 University Learning Centre, SRM University, India

2 Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India.

10.18576/ijlms/050203

Abstract

Engaging learners into learning tasks is one of the challenging aspects in andragogy. Various methods have been proposed and developed for efficiently engaging learners. Active and Collaborative Learning (ACL) is one such technique that incorporates interactive classrooms activities to reinforce concepts. Higher educational teachers seldom consider the psychological aspects of the present generation students. Traditional lecture-based approaches are found insufficient. The widely available scientific educational practices need to be considered and incorporated into their learning environments. These practices need to be adopted in teaching and in learning such complex courses. This work describes the use of ACL strategies that were implemented for data structures engineering course that incorporated psychological, sociological and philosophical aspects of learning. Through this approach and from the feedback obtained from learners, the program outcomes of 3a, 3c and 3i of ABET essential graduate attributes are successfully mapped.

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