Software support for materials-related active learning

Abstract

The world of education is ever expanding, and with it, our understanding of how people learn. By helping the students connect to their prior knowledge during the formal education in a structured course, the educators can help the students build a more complete comprehension of the topic. Active learning, as a broad term, serves to engage students in the course material in a variety of ways, thereby increasing the probability of connecting with prior knowledge and improving their overall subject understanding. Due to its nature, active learning is necessarily a broad field. There is no one size fits all; different approaches work for different students with different learning styles, subjects, teachers, classrooms, countries and cultural orientations. How can we incorporate active learning methods in teaching materials science and engineering to undergraduates across the globe? At Ansys Granta, we are interested in understanding how active learning methods are used across the world in materials science courses. For over 25 years, we have been supporting materials education globally through our software GRANTA EduPack. During that time, we have seen how teaching has evolved and the impact active learning techniques have had for materials education. In this paper, we will be sharing how materials teaching with active learning varies around the world and how GRANTA EduPack and its associated resources can support these efforts. We hope this insight gained over many years can aid those looking to adjust their materials courses to include more active learning techniques.