Blended On-the-Job Training with Collaborative Learning to Enhance the Robotic Skills of Industrial Electronic Students in Workplace-based Learning Program

Robots are now widely used in production processes and play a significant role in improving industrial quality and productivity. Thus, industrial technicians are required to have robotic skills. Students who work in the industry under workplace-based learning, on the other hand, were suffering from a lack of robotic skills. Therefore, blending on-the-job training with collaborative learning to enhance the robotic skills of electronic students who enrolled in the workplace-based program is proposed in this paper. There were 62 industrial electronic students who worked in the industry while learning through a workplace-based learning approach. Based on daily work, students usually work with robots in the manufacturing process, the facilitator easily pointed to the importance of robotic skills and encouraged them to learn the fundamentals of robotics. After that, students were divided into 7-8 people/groups and assigned tasks similar to robot tasks in the manufacturing process. The facilitator observed student tasks and stepped into the group to support them whenever students required. During task operation, each student was assigned a specific role and they were required to rotate their role to acquire different experiences related to robotic skills. As a result, students were required to cooperate in order to complete the task. The results showed that 80% of participating students understand how to manipulate the robot in the manufacturing process and are enthusiastic to explore more about robotics. Based on the assessment criteria, all students were satisfied with both skill and knowledge. Finally, all students agreed that team working ability was also improved.