Use of the anki software in coastal engineering coursesmethodology and results

Abstract

Many people believe that engineering subjects require only mathematical and physical abilities as well as space perception. However, some aspects of the syllabus must be memorized to achieve optimal academic results. The pandemic situation has meant a reduction in face-to-face classes, which has made it difficult to highlight (through repetition by teachers) those concepts that must be learnt by heart due to their importance.As is well known, the Notecard Question and Answer Technique (NQAT) helps students to learn those important ideas that must be kept in the long term memory to remember when needed. Therefore, an educational project is presented here that contemplates the creation of a database of question-answer cards to facilitate the memorization of concepts, formulas and key values of different parameters essential for understanding coastal engineering problems. The methodology was experimented in different courses, related to Coastal and Port Engineering. These coursed are included in the third year of the Marine Sciences and Civil Engineering Bachelor degrees as well as in the MSc degree in the University of Cadiz. The program chosen was the ANKI, of broad application, easy to use and free to access. As a collateral advantage, students became familiar with this software and were able to use it in other subjects. Through a selective distribution of the different topics, all the students participated in the task of preparing the cards. Their use was encouraged by a series of online tests included in the virtual classroom and as a part of the continuous assessment and as a “supplementary bonus” to the final examination system. The results will be detailed in the extended final version of the article, showing the goodness and usefulness of this method.