SOCRATIC SEMINARS IN AN INTERDISCIPLINARY GRADUATE COURSE

Abstract

The goal of the distributed systems course in apostgraduate telecommunications specialization is toprovide an attractive environment in which students learnabout and apply some fundamental concepts of distributedsystems. In the last three semesters, students had to analyzeand discuss the goals of a distributed system using an opengrid computing application. This paper presents theapproach the authors used to provide the best possiblesupport and guidance for graduate students, most of themnon computer-science engineers. The learning environmentis based on questioning using Socratic dialogues andstudents’ seminars. The authors report their experiences ofusing this learning approach. Furthermore, the results ofstudents' feedback and data collected during the course werepresented and the overall student course satisfaction isdiscussed.

 

 

Index Terms - Distributed systems, Inductive teaching,Interdisciplinary, Socratic dialogue, Students’ Seminar.