The learning processes in information technology, software engineering and in particular of a programming language are a typical practical matter that cannot be learned in a short amount of time, but should be taught and learned continuously during the whole semester. To manage this conflict of objectives, an efficient deployment of the learning matter over the whole semester with the aid of web-based e-learning in combination with an interactive lecture concept and a practical course should be an optimized didactical setup. An e-learning system has been introduced and developed continuously over the past three years, which offers a platform-independent access through PCs, tablets and smartphones. Thus, a location-independent learning space has been created. In the lecture room, the e-learning system incorporates the support of an interactive lecture with a survey module that can be reached via smartphone easily through QR code scanning. Furthermore, the lecturer can use the tool for creating several types of exercises. The e-learning system includes a highly sophisticated modeling editor for creating SysML models, automata or IEC 61131 3 programming elements and a web-based development environment for the programming language C. The exercises are evaluated fully automatically and no efforts for correction have to be made by lecturers; hence, effort is reduced and personnel resources may be used for additional face-to-face exercises allowing deeper focus on the didactical concept. Furthermore, it can be taken into consideration to use the system for massive open online courses (MOOC) or a remote class. In contrast to classical e-learning platforms such as KHANacademy, edX and me Salva!, we propose a holistic and interactive platform satisfying both needs of lecturers and students in the mechanical engineering domain. Following the introduction of the e-learning system within the course, the results of the final exam improved significantly. We evaluated the development of average grade and percentage of non-passing students separately, since the students write the exam in the summer regularly and may retry to pass the following semesters. The result of the students’ evaluation has improved significantly after the new teaching concept was introduced. The textual evaluation shows an enormous rise in students’ satisfaction, especially by offering participation through the survey mechanism increasing interactivity in the class room. For the summer semester 2013, the e-learning system was redesigned further to act as control module for simulated or real lab-size plants. The paper introduces the e-learning platform in more detail and its design to support teaching of large classes of freshmen in C programming and fundamentals in computer science. Derived from multiple experiments and surveys conducted during the last years, its scientific founding as well as architecture and features are presented. The benefit of introducing the platform is shown using a real set-up of approx. 700 B.Sc. mechanical engineering students. The results show that success in e-learning exercises led to a significant higher result in the final exam. Furthermore we evaluated the impact of gender aspects on results in both e-learning exercises and final exam, which will be presented in detail in the paper.
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The learning processes in information technology, software engineering and in particular of a programming language are a typical practical matter that cannot be learned in a short amount of time, but should be taught and learned continuously during the whole semester. To manage this conflict of objectives, an efficient deployment of the learning matter over the whole semester with the aid of web-based e-learning in combination with an interactive lecture concept and a practical course should be...
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