Blog post by Alexander Mikroyannidis

The 48th IEEE Frontiers in Education (FIE) conference took place on October 3-6 in San Jose, California, USA. FIE is a major international conference sponsored by the IEEE Education Society and the IEEE Computer Society. It is an ideal forum for sharing ideas, learning about the latest developments and interacting with colleagues in the fields of engineering and computing education. FIE 2018 has continued a long tradition of disseminating results and educational innovations in engineering and computing education. The theme for 2018 has been Fostering Innovation Through Diversity. In addition to the traditional FIE topics, submissions targeted the thematic tracks of: diversity/equity/inclusion in engineering/computing, encouraging and teaching innovation, innovation in software engineering education, upward mobility, and more.

Alexander Mikroyannidis presented the work conducted so far in the context of the Open Networking Lab for supporting hands-on vocational learning in computer networking, through the provision of the PT Anywhere network simulator integrated into learning resources and activities. These learning resources are currently being evaluated by students and lecturers from a cluster of Further Education colleges in the UK and will subsequently be made available to learners worldwide via free and open courseware. The paper is available here and Alexander’s slides are here.

Alexander also presented another paper investigating how Smart Blockchain Badges can support learners that want to advance their careers in data science, by offering them personalised recommendations based on their learning achievements. This work aims at enhancing data science accreditation by introducing a robust system based on the Blockchain technology. The paper is available here.