IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2021 - 87

asked to assign a rating, from strongly agree to strongly disagree.
As shown by the top six questions in Figure 8, students
felt very strongly that Hapkit was helpful for learning handson
skills, haptics, and physics concepts. They also thought
that it was good for motivation and that hands-on activities
helped them learn more.
As shown by the bottom six questions in Figure 8, students
did not think that Hapkit was a distraction or that a computer
Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral
Agree Strongly Agree
I had the opportunity to assemble the kit myself.
The class involved hands-on work.
The topic was engaging.
The material was interesting.
The class was well organized.
The production quality of the videos was high.
The hands-on tasks had an appropriate level of difficulty.
The online course material had an appropriate level of difficulty.
The class did not take too much time.
The personal attention/relatively small number of students was helpful.
The online discussion boards helped me complete the laboratories.
I received help from local peers/teacher.
-100 -75 -50-25 0255075 100
Respondents (%)
Figure 7. When students from the guided course were asked to rate (on a five-point Likert scale) potential factors contributing to their
success in the course, the top reasons were 1) I had the opportunity to assemble the kit myself and 2) the class involved hands-on
work. The line at zero represents the neutral point, where the percentages of respondents who agreed with the statement are shown
to the right, and the percentages of those of those who disagreed are shown to the left.
Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral
Agree Strongly Agree
It was helpful for learning hands-on skills.
It was effective for learning the haptics and physics content of the course.
It was good for motivation.
I learn more when I do hands-on activities.
I think most online courses in science or engineering
should have a kit like this.
Without the kit, I would have learned significantly less.
It was a cool novelty, but I lost interest after a couple of weeks.
Hands-on stuff works best for younger students,
not my own age range.
It did not make much of a difference in how much
I learned in the course.
A computer simulation would have been enough.
It was a distraction from spending time learning the material.
-100 -75 -50-25 0255075 100
Respondents (%)
Figure 8. The questions to assess the effectiveness of the hands-on component of the guided course. Students were asked to rate
each of the statements as either strongly agree, agree, neither agree nor disagree, disagree, or strongly disagree. The line at zero
represents the neutral point, where the percentages of respondents who agreed with the statement are shown to the right, and the
percentages of those who disagreed are shown to the left.
SEPTEMBER 2021 * IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE *
87
IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2021
