Interactive Teaching Concept for a Data Analytics Workshop in Learning Factories

Abstract

Learning factories allow for hands-on teaching of theoretical concepts in a simulated business environment. There, the opportunities provided by digital assistance with work-flows and the high value of acquired process data are already an integral part of the offered courses, mostly as theoretical input. To improve the learning experience of participants taught at learning factories, an interactive teaching concept for digital topics is developed. Based on existing methodologies for developing teaching concepts in learning factories, a workshop on data analytics is presented. To provide an immersive learning experience, a workshop setting is selected that builds upon previously experienced workshops of the participants at the LEAD Factory. Simulated data is created, which complements the chosen setting and gives valuable insights when applying the taught data analytics techniques in practice. Finally, the participants are tasked to answer domain specific questions using the provided data by applying the taught techniques. The workshop has already been tested with international mechanical engineering students having little to no previous experience with data analytics, but some education in statistics, probability theory and linear algebra. Based on an evaluation after the workshop, the participants expressed the feeling that they were able to understand the basic principles of data analytics and the underlying process and know of common challenges in the field because of the practical application of the techniques directly after the theoretical input, thus leveraging the unique learning environment which learning factories provide.

Keywords: Data Analytics, Learning Factory, Interactive Teaching concept, Orange