Promotion of active learning methods in engineering education

The goal of this research was to increase the knowledge and understanding of the influence of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) approach (and use of the mobile devices in classrooms in general) on: lecturers’ practice and students’ classroom activities, students’ attitude about bringing the mobile phones in the class and mobile phone application in education process. This research focuses on undergraduate and postgraduate mechanical engineering students.
Researchers used personal reflection of their pedagogy practice and anonymous voluntary online survey for students.

Students were asked to use their mobile phones for conduction of different activities in the classroom. In line with the given task, students were asked to install and apply free applications on their devices. Student survey questions are developed as part of this proposal; collective data details with five-point Likert Scales are used to measure attitudes/habits.

The purpose of survey was to find the answer to research questions:
- What are attitudes and habits regarding the use of mobile phones in classroom in mentioned Universities among mechanical engineering students?
- Is there any significant difference in students’ attitude and habits regarding the BOYD approach and use of mobile phones in classroom regarding the Universities?
University students enrolled in mechanical engineering units were called to do voluntary anonymous online survey: CDU, postgraduate study: Dynamics of engineering systems; J.J Strossmayer University of Osijek undergraduate study: Production processes postgraduate study: Casting undergraduate study: Computer Aided Preparation and Production; University of Sarajevo, postgraduate study: Wind energy.
These students are in the mature age category that (according to literature) uses smart phones in large percentage so their attitude towards BYOD in mechanical education is a scope of this survey.

Invitation to answer the survey was put on Learnline site/Unit web site to all enrolled students in last two weeks of the semester with the description of the project, goals and explanation. Anonymous survey was developed in LimeSurvey tool. Questions were extremely low risk and there were no ethical issues.

Questions:
1 How often do you bring your mobile phone to classes?
2. How often do you use your phone during instructional time (lectures, practicals, workshops) for non-educational purposes (i.e. texting, browsing Internet, social networking)?
3. To what extent you agree with this statement: “There is a correlation between low student performance and mobile phone use in classrooms for non-educational purposes”?
4. You were asked to use your mobile phone to complete some tasks in your unit. Dou you think students should use mobile phones during instructional time to carry out tasks in the unit?
5. To what extent you agree with this statement: “Use of mobile phone applications for educational purposes would encourage my class participation”?
6. Please give your thoughts and suggestions about use of mobile phones for learning activities.

Participants:
Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek (UNIOS) 85/undergraduate + postgraduate
University of Sarajevo (UNSA) 11/postgraduate
Charles Darwin University (CDU) 10/undergraduate + postgraduate.
Results are submitted for publication in journal in September 2018.