Design and Evaluation of an E-learning Platform to support Active Learning

Abstract: Engineering students at Linköping University are given the opportunity to improve their soft skills through the course Professionalism for Engineers. Soft skills are becoming more and more important in succeeding professionally as well as personally, especially among engineering students, who are more used to improving their hard skills. The course presents the students with a mixture of in-class and out-of-class activities, in which the latter makes use of three different platforms to provide the students with necessary information regarding the course.  This study has focused on combining the three platforms by creating a new E-learning platform, where further improvements and additions have been added to create a more supporting environment, in which the out-of-class activities are at the centre. The platform was evaluated through qualitative user tests and the quantitative User Experience Questionnaire, in which four students, enrolled in the course Professionalism for Engineers, participated. Every category in the User Experience Questionnaire received a positive value, implying that the users were overall pleased with the platform and experienced it as being intuitive, efficient and motivating.  The proposed platform, with the added functions and design elements, has the potential to support the students in doing their out-of-class activities, and the circumstances whilst doing these activities has been changed to enhance the students' active learning experience.