Development of an online platform for understanding students’ weaknesses

Abstract

It is reported that many Hong Kong students do not have sufficient background to handle engineering problems in tertiary education. This came to light because a number of such students were admitted to engineering programmes. Although a number of teaching platforms have been developed to support the teaching of subject lecturers and the study of students, however the weaknesses of the students in solving engineering problems are not identified. This not only affects the efficiency of student study, but the teachers also are not able to deliver suitable teaching materials that focus on the weaknesses of individual students. For example, when students study engineering subjects such as computer-aided design, they are usually required to formulate the physical problem and then solve a set of linear equations by calculating matrix inverse. This involves a series of steps but the students are not able to identify their weak areas in solving these engineering problems. Therefore in this article, we propose to develop an online platform to understand the core factors leading to the weaknesses of students in solving engineering problems that require calculations. By understanding students’ weaknesses, teachers can recommend suitable learning materials to individual students, efficiently and effectively. By strengthening the students’ weaknesses, it is expected that the learning outcomes of engineering subjects can be improved. It is believed that the method is useful to enhance the teaching and learning efficiency and effectiveness.