Towards Innovative Learning through the use of Open Data in Engineering Education

Abstract

Among the main challenges faced by current university lecturers, it is remarkable to move towards student-centred teaching models. This encourages the students to be able to develop and manage their learning autonomously (tutored) both in classroom activities and in non-face activities. In this sense, the possibility to operate with large georeferenced databases of free access represents a great potential for the research and lecture of engineering education. Therefore, one of the greatest challenges for lecturers in the subjects of engineering education is to act as guides in the process of understanding and using the data on a large scale. This article aims to explain the experience developed at the University of Alicante (UA) initiating students to a smart consumption of information, as well as carrying out its own analysis and obtaining its own interpretations. The present work shows the methods and tools used for this purpose allowing to approach new dynamic forms of relation with the knowledge. Likewise it also aims to move towards new active educational practices with new social awareness, more conscious according to the world we inhabit.