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EREMI: An Innovative Interdisciplinary Approach for Higher Education in Resource Efficient Manufacturing Environments

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13 June 2023

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14 June 2023

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Abstract
This paper presents an overview of EREMI, a two-year project funded under ERASMUS+ KA203, and its results. The project team's main objective was to develop and validate an advanced interdisciplinary higher education curriculum, which includes lifelong learning components. The curriculum focuses on enhancing resource efficiency in manufacturing industries and optimizing poorly or non-digitized industrial physical infrastructure systems. The paper also discusses the results of the project, highlighting the successful achievement of its goals. EREMI effectively supports the transition to Industry 5.0 by preparing a common European pool of future experts. Through comprehensive research and collaboration, the project team has designed curriculum that equips students with the necessary skills and knowledge to thrive in the evolving manufacturing landscape. Furthermore, the paper explores the significance of EREMI's contributions to the field, emphasizing the importance of resource efficiency and system optimization in industrial settings. By addressing the challenges posed by under-digitized infrastructure, the project aims to drive sustainable and innovative practices in manufacturing. All five project partner organisations have been actively engaged in offering relevant educational content and framework for decentralised sustainable economic development in regional and national contexts through capacity building at local level. A crucial element of the added value is the new channel for feedback from students. The survey results, which are outlined in the paper, offer valuable insights gathered from students, contributing to the continuous improvement of the project.
Keywords: 
Subject: Environmental and Earth Sciences  -   Sustainable Science and Technology

1. Introduction

The following study is a collective effort of the entire EREMI project team, and presents its interdisciplinary approach on elaborating a cutting-edge educational concept and curriculum, preparing a common European pool of experts of the future, able to manage all occurring challenges towards achieving the goals of Industry 5.0 in terms of resource efficiency and integrity, and integrating the last to a full scale. Also, its novel knowledge transfer concept, incl. an innovative quality management approach, based on a proactive learners’ quality feedback channel, are described.
A core element of the continuous project success and sustainability is the quality feedback survey focused on the involved learners at the partner educational organisations, enabling the project team to constantly improve the learning materials.
Empirical study on the statistical results of this quality feedback survey among over 100 students in total from all involved partner organisations, with regards to the EREMI learning content and the different aspects and parameters of its quality, was performed and its results are presented here in detail. This step is crucial for understanding the effects and impact of the EREMI project in the long-term perspective.

1.1. EREMI in a nutshell

First, an extended description of the EREMI project context should be made to better understand the goals and objectives that the project team is pursuing. From the last few years, it has become clear that the digitization of industry, the benefits of the Internet of Things (IoT), the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data into it are a natural evolution towards a more efficient and sustainable way of manufacturing and building systems, as well as a faster and more seamless transition to Industry 5.0 [1]. This creates a need for new skills in almost every area of the industry due to the numerous emerging sectors. This new era of rapid development requires the implementation of lifelong learning strategies for engineering professionals to have a sufficiently skilled workforce to meet the challenges of the future.
Nowadays, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Romania, the three project partner countries, are precisely countries whose industries are experiencing extensive development and the relevant required expertise profile for engineers needs to be designed and built in a sustainable way - by offering a relevant interdisciplinary higher education programme. However, these countries are facing serious challenges in higher and adult education and retraining, which are crucial for success in the current re-industrialisation situations.
The industries in Bulgaria, and particularly the industrial region of Plovdiv and its surroundings, as well as the large metropolitan areas in Romania, face this challenge very intensively and therefore wish to receive qualified support from a suitable and experienced partner from the highly developed region in South West Germany - HSO. The main objective has been to develop a higher education program aimed at optimising resource utilisation, and in particular energy efficiency in industrial production environments, by integrating Big Data handling with AI as a tool for virtualization, and respectively optimisation of physical production facilities, and with certainty of the processes that take place within them. This issue is also of great importance for the environment and the energy transition.
Moreover, in recent years, North Macedonia has experienced an intense wave of establishment of production facilities by many OEMs and has the chance, in the sense of this trend and during becoming an EU member state, to prepare its education system to meet the challenges of intensive processes of re-industrialisation.
Moreover, Bulgaria is facing a noticeable shortage of specialists from the computer and engineering sciences - both strongly needed for the necessary industrial transition towards higher resource efficiency in producing industries. Reasons for the former include the rapid development of the sector, as well as the slower pace of the education system development in providing candidates with the necessary skills due to outdated curricula, but also the need for new teaching methodologies. Reasons for the second include increased demand for highly skilled professionals due to emerging sectors, a decrease in supply due to students' lack of motivation for technical careers, and a lack of orientation of teachers and universities towards job-specific skills.
In all three Eastern European countries, consumption of resources, and in particular energy for industrial production, remains at the highest level compared to all other socio-economic sectors. In order to counter and reverse this trend, the EREMI team has collaboratively developed and validated an advanced higher education program, along with a lifelong learning component. This program focuses on the interdisciplinary subject of resource efficiency in manufacturing industries, as well as the comprehensive optimization of under-digitized physical infrastructure through the utilization of IoT technologies. The aim is to equip professionals in the field with the necessary knowledge and skills to effectively address these challenges. The initiative is supported by the experienced German partner HSO, operating in a country and region that has already experienced this stage of industrial development in its younger past. Higher education content and in particular curricula for Bachelors, Masters and PhD students in this field will be vetted and/or supported by all 5 participating project partners. The programme will be based on an interdisciplinary approach of academic and professional (also from relevant companies in the regions of the participating universities) trainers, as well as on an internal education system involving students from the three academic educational stages mentioned above.
Having developed and validated the online-based learning content and platform, all participating project partners considered a curriculum for a joint higher education programme on the EREMI theme, based on these, aimed at the target group of postgraduate students. Its accreditation in each of the participating universities will take place after the end of the project, due to the specificities of the time planning involved - different in the involved countries.
Throughout the project, a free online interactive teaching/learning platform was developed. The Moodle platform is designed to address the specific educational requirements of university students and postgraduate professionals. It serves as a valuable resource for universities, students, and companies seeking efficient and rapid professional training in this crucial field. The platform's importance is particularly notable for industries experiencing transformation, such as those in the Plovdiv region of Bulgaria. Rapid industrialization trends in this region, coupled with a shortage of adequately educated engineers, make the platform an essential tool for addressing these challenges effectively. The creation, refinement, validation, and revision of this product were ongoing processes carried out throughout the project's duration. By continuously improving and adapting the platform, it ensures the delivery of high-quality educational content that meets the evolving needs of its target audience.
The content of the EREMI education programme is based on open source rules and is publicly available online to all stakeholders and citizens of Europe via the EREMI website. It is regularly promoted through relevant events, social and public media posts and especially through the participating voluntary partners from the policy development, research and development fields and definitely through all relevant platforms of ERASMUS+, the EC and such as LinkedIn.
The main added value of the project is the developed quality feedback survey system, which aims and succeeds to A. establish a permanent channel for learner-teacher feedback as well as B. the participating teachers to optimise the learning content. The project team has developed a questionnaire that has been successfully disseminated to participating learners in all project countries, and the results show how positively the idea and the results of the project are perceived by the learners. With more than 100 responses in the short time after the completion of the training materials, most of them giving positive and/or strongly positive feedback, EREMI has clearly achieved its objectives.

1.2. Literature review: Relevant landscape - Resource efficiency, manufacturing, higher education and beyond

In the recent period, the efficient use of resources and knowledge has become increasingly important, and many educational institutions, companies and researchers have made significant efforts to identify more efficient and innovative techniques to develop advanced and more attractive methods and technologies for teaching and education purposes for different types of industries. There are learning environments oriented towards the requirements of Industry 4.0 with a focus on standards and protocols developed for this type of industry, cloud computing and data storage, process automation and distributed computing, virtual reality and digital twin simulation, and interconnection with IoT neighbouring systems [2]. The described model has been tested on a set of 20 students of a Master's program "Automation and control of production processes in the pharmaceutical industry" and some statistical results are presented in the paper. The different factors influencing the implementation of the training and the problems faced by higher education actors to implement training programs on this topic are discussed in [3]. In addition to this comes the development of a SWOT analysis, which is based on the views of staff and students, and combined with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) can offer a number of recommendations for the further development of such training programmes. Industrial development requires new skills and achievements, therefore it is imperative to develop new higher education programs that address the latest technological trends and develop new knowledge and skills to cope with the rapid changes that industry and the corporate sector are facing [4]. extensive and comprehensive state of the art in terms of needs when it comes to skills and training of future professionals in Industry 4.0, which includes a wide range of fields from autonomous robots to machines, manage
In [7], the authors analyse the impact of the development of Industry I4.0 on the education sector, recognising that students from different regions have different backgrounds and technical skills and more effective and friendly teaching strategies need to be developed to facilitate the learning process. The authors of [8] explore the effect of the Covid pandemic in the industrial and education sectors and highlight the benefits that can be derived following this experience. In [9], the authors show the effectiveness of combining new, revolutionary educational tools with modern teaching methods to develop effective Education 4.0 strategies, from competencies to ICT-based teaching methods and infrastructure. Several recent studies have already focused on climate change and the importance of education in reducing its impact on the environment. In [10], the authors attempt to develop a common framework to help introduce the concept of climate change at different levels of the educational chain, to develop a comprehensive model for the management of climate education, and to offer scientists, educators and policy makers the perspective to change our concept and adapt it to local conditions. Within the same agenda, the authors of [11] propose several techniques, practices and models to improve sustainability education in university curricula, both in their research and administrative entrepreneurship. In [12], the authors analyse and present the capabilities and competencies needed for sustainability and, based on a comprehensive study, conclude that there is a requirement for sustainability capabilities among managers in different positions in companies, but there is also a need to have professionals with sustainability skills in the research departments of companies. In 2021-2023, a special issue on "Education for Sustainability in Higher Education" [13] was organised, which gathered up to 25 papers on topics related to these keywords, from different perspectives and from different parts of the world.
Some relevant papers on the implementation of active learning platforms are also presented in the literature [14-16] and present three case studies implemented in higher education on transport issues, a smart making lab and a test centre for biodesign. In [17], a comprehensive state of affairs is presented related to the educational issues that have arisen as a result of the industrial evolution towards I4.0, emphasising the required capabilities related to both management and specific skills, and also the technical areas related to this evolution (such as ICT, software skills, algorithms, data analysis and processing, security, etc.). [18] is a comprehensive book that discusses the importance of higher education programs to promote new and challenging fields and economic issues, k In [19], the authors present some preliminary results that are available with respect to this project.
Online learning in higher education appears to be effective and is perceived positively by the majority of students, as evidenced by [20].
The following compilation presents a series of projects that serve as valuable sources of information for the EREMI project:

ICARUS

The aim of the ICARUS project was to provide an open digital toolkit for HEI (higher education institution) educators to use in introducing Industry 4.0 technologies to both current and former HEI students. This open and digital learning toolkit would have resulted in a more capable digital transformation workforce, which would have increased the competitiveness of the sector in which they work [21].
One of the outcomes of the project is the ICARUS pedagogical framework, which aims to identify and guide innovative pedagogical approaches to explore and address the needs of HE teachers and students, and provide guidance through the potential design space for upcoming development and adaptation to effectively address the skills gap in Industry 4.0. The project has also produced a compendium on Industry 4.0 and Digital Manufacturing, which provides a wealth of information on advanced manufacturing technologies, additive manufacturing, virtual and augmented reality, industrial IoT, cybersecurity, big data and other topics [22].

EUGPUT

The aim of the project was to develop a one-week educational program to increase learners' understanding and familiarity with upcoming green public transportation systems in future smart cities. The target groups were: students, stakeholders, universities and entrepreneurs. The programme consisted of 7 learning modules and one supporting module: Smart Mobility, Energy Smart Grids, Green Vehicles and Designing a Green Public Transport Network, as well as others related to intermodal public transport planning, economics and entrepreneurship opportunities. Some of the outputs of the project were the syllabi for all modules, a Lecture Notes Handbook that serves as a supplementary reading document before joining the programme, and a Teaching Guide that lecturers can use if they are going to teach the same programme in their universities. Posters, e-bulletins and Q&A videos were prepared for all modules and made available through the project website. A research book was also published [23].

DIGITAL INNOVATION

The context of this project was that digital technologies offer unprecedented opportunities for innovation, but there is a significant technology gap between SMEs and large firms in the EU, highlighting the need for universities to train and support SMEs in the uptake of digital innovation tools. To improve the way service innovation is taught, the Digital Innovation project aimed to better understand how small service firms currently approach new product development. In order to produce skilled graduates that would benefit the service sector and support the competitiveness of EU businesses in the global market, the aim was to equip educators with the ability to incorporate digital tools into their curricula [24, 25]. The outputs of the project consist of practical and reusable resources for practitioners, research materials that move forward thinking in the sector, and community building tools [24]. In addition, the project website features a benchmarking tool, which is an innovative and interactive online platform designed for SMEs to determine where their innovation development process stands in terms of using available digital tools [26].

1.3. Structure of the paper

Apart from the introduction above, the current paper is constructed in the following manner. Section 2 provides extensive information on the materials and methods applied in the project. It elaborates on the challenges faced by the EREMI team, how the tasks and responsibilities are distributed among the relevant partners, what the contents of the educational package are, and what is the aimed impact from the project.
Crucial element of the project, described here, is the quality feedback survey, designed and performed by the project team in an online environment, which has strongly supported the constant improvement of the EREMI contents. Its results are evidently positive, which itself shows the highly positive effect of the EREMI approach, obviously highly expected and warmly perceived by the learners among all project partner countries. Section 3 provides information on the results achieved so far by the efforts of the EREMI team, and what value has been added to the project by now, focusing on the quality feedback survey results as a final evidence for the success of the project approach..
Section 4 consists of a discussion on how Covid-19 has affected the project, policy recommendations, as well as information on the project’s dissemination, including the focus on the quality feedback survey.
Lastly, section 5 is composed of the conclusion to the learnings provided in this study, followed up by sections 5 and 6 dedicated to the acknowledgements and references.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Challenges faced by EREMI

Since mid-2010, the world has been experiencing the Fourth Industrial Revolution, also known as Industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 is a new level of organisation and control over the entire product lifecycle value chain, and the concept involves a range of technologies that are constantly evolving and improving. It is defined by the combination of artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, additive manufacturing (3D printing) and IoT to make manufacturing more efficient. Digitalization and the application of intelligent methods in manufacturing is a necessity of today's industry. Industry 5.0, which we are all moving towards, represents a major step forward in the customisation of manufacturing. The new trends in society and technology that we are encountering in the course of Industry 4.0 come with challenges, but also provide opportunities [27]. Along with the advancement of the new industrial revolution, a transformation is taking place in modern education. There is a need to improve the competencies of the personnel who face the challenges of the new era in industrialization. Staff must be adequately technically trained and possess appropriate technical and social competences related to the field of Industry 4.0. For this reason, it is necessary to transform modern education into the Education 4.0 system and changes in traditional educational methods and approaches. Education 4.0 is a new educational system that is oriented towards the application of digital technologies through personalized education [28]. The EREMI project addresses the obvious and intense need for adequately interdisciplinary educated engineering professionals in the field of resource efficiency in manufacturing industries as an economically, politically and technically key and highly relevant topic.
Led by UHT, the EREMI consortium is dedicated to developing innovative interdisciplinary programs for postgraduate students, while also catering to undergraduate engineering students. The project team has achieved this by adopting a holistic perspective on resource-efficient manufacturing, viewing it as a complex system comprising various interconnected subsystems. These subsystems encompass aspects such as energy efficiency in pneumatic and hydraulic systems, digitization of physical infrastructure, IoT integration, Big Data analytics, predictive maintenance, and entrepreneurship, among others. The team's primary focus has been the creation of highly innovative and comprehensive interdisciplinary teaching materials. Building upon this foundation, they have developed new subjects, courses, and programs for higher engineering education in partner institutions across Bulgaria (UHT), Romania (UPB, BEIA), North Macedonia (UKLO), and Germany (HSO). By offering an advanced interdisciplinary higher education program, the EREMI team aims to support higher education organizations, industries, and regional economies in addressing the challenges posed by ever-evolving technologies and the increasing demand for engineers with interdisciplinary knowledge. Modern, resource-efficient and sustainable industry and the transition to a circular economy as elements related to the future of industry will need new generations of students trained in this innovative field by updating existing and developing new curricula adopted in line with the requirements of the new technological era.
To address the urgent threat of climate change and tackle the complex challenges in the energy sector, countries globally are investing in low-carbon energy solutions. This includes initiatives in renewable energy, energy storage, smart grids, and energy efficiency, which are pivotal for achieving significant reductions in carbon emissions at a large scale. However, it is essential to acknowledge that overcoming these challenges requires more than technological advancements alone; knowledge-based innovation stemming from energy education and research is paramount. To successfully address these challenges, new mechanisms need to be put in place to link higher education institutions with industry and society and lead to new innovative solutions [18]. EREMI is implemented and conducted as a living laboratory activity. Its aim is to co-develop innovative learning content and digital platform for higher education, which requires the active participation of several stakeholder groups - students, faculty, industry partners, policy makers.
On a global scale, the industrial sector is responsible for around one third of the total electricity consumption. In Bulgaria specifically, the industrial sector accounts for approximately 43% of the country's overall electricity consumption, as reported by the National Statistical Institute in their BG - Total Energy Balance of 2016. Notably, the industrial sector in Bulgaria is primarily characterized by a concentration of a few energy-intensive primary industry sectors. In certain sectors like glass production and highly automated manufacturing facilities, this percentage can even reach 45-50%. UHT has already carried out a study based on direct measurements in 8 manufacturing facilities operating in Bulgaria from different industries. As no other verified data is available for Bulgaria, the results obtained from this UFT study confirm the global trends and the average of approximately 15% can be considered realistic. The predictive maintenance made possible by the application of IoT and the virtualization of physical systems (an area where HSO is a leading research and education partner in the EU, and is supported by UFT, UPB and UCLO in the framework of the EREMI project towards the integration of this topic in training) represents an even greater challenge that promises a high potential for improvement. The responsibility for addressing resource efficiency in manufacturing primarily is mainly covered by UFT and UKLO, with support from UPB, BEIA, and HSO.
The EREMI project takes place in the specific context of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has dramatically affected all areas of life, including the way higher education works and conducts its activities. Universities and teaching must undergo a significant digital transformation to meet the demands of today's generation and the fully digitised world in which it will live. The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly and unexpectedly forced higher education institutions and the education system to engage in such change [29]. For many students and faculty, the COVID-19 pandemic was the trigger that brought them into contact with teaching and learning connections that take place entirely online in a virtual classroom. The EREMI consortium is developing innovative interdisciplinary highly online-based content for subjects, courses and programs that can be taught in any online situation. One of the main advantages of distance learning tools is the ability to easily access classes from the desired location while realizing lower costs. In addition, it is possible to share learning content, i.e. learning materials, at any time. The content of the EREMI learning programme will be based on open source rules and will be publicly available online to all European stakeholders and citizens via the EREMI website.
Distance learning is primarily reflected in the drive to implement and use online learning platforms. Over the last few years, more and more universities have introduced online learning platforms, resulting in a large number of different platforms that are used on a daily basis all over the world. Most platforms support basic teaching processes, such as publishing materials, sending notifications to students and organising tests. However, they are mostly developed as general-purpose platforms and therefore do not include processes that are specific to the domain of a particular educational area. A problem that often arises in the development of such systems is the difficulty of integrating different platforms, reduced adaptability and overall reduced performance. EREMI's final product will be a free online-based interactive teaching/learning platform, embedded in Moodle, targeting university students and postgraduate professionals and serving relevant universities and companies for fast and effective professional learning on this key topic for industry across the EU. This product is being created, refined and validated throughout the project.
Clearly, in an increasingly digitised society and with access to new knowledge, engineers cannot be expected to use the knowledge they acquire throughout their lives. The abilities and competences for continuous professional development, advancement and investment in one's own potential become extremely important, especially in the context of engineering professionals. Lifelong learning and education is one of the strategic goals of higher education, defined at the beginning of the Bologna reform and particularly relevant in the last decade in the European Higher Education Area [30, 31]. With the development and improvement of e-learning and distance learning, new opportunities are opening up for the idea of lifelong learning. The set of online courses created within the EREMI project can be seen as a form of lifelong learning and professional development for engineers in the field of resource efficiency in manufacturing industries. However, the implementation of lifelong learning policies requires strong partnerships between authorities, higher education institutions, students, employees and employers.
Internationalisation in higher education is considered to be one of the main pillars of modern higher education, which is mainly realised through student mobility, the implementation of joint curricula and the mobility of teaching and administrative staff. Twenty years after the implementation of the Bologna Declaration in the territory of the European Higher Education Area, mobility, as one of the forms of internationalisation of higher education and a key element of the Bologna Process, is applied in almost all countries of the area [32]. Also, faculty mobility includes a number of under-researched and under-used positive outcomes for both the institutions from which faculty are sent for exchange and the institutions to which faculty go. Quality education also implies a significant effort by the academic community in exploring new directions in engineering and other professions, its internationalisation and broad cooperation in the European educational area - topics that should not be neglected. The EREMI project, as an international project funded under the ERASMUS+ KA203 programme, involves not only research activities but also faculty mobility as well as other collaborative activities between higher education institutions from several countries, which has a positive impact on international cooperation and promotes the internationalisation of the project partner institutions.
Overall, the last few years have clearly presented a new set of challenges and opportunities for industry and education. With the rapid integration of modern systems, digitalization, the Internet of Things in various fields, the rise of artificial intelligence and big data as valuable and useful tools, and the need for more efficient and sustainable systems in the face of a changing climate and social issues, the need for a new approach when it comes to preparing engineering students and future/current professionals for tomorrow has clearly emerged. With the world evolving faster with each passing decade, there is a need to create a platform that enables lifelong learning and upskilling of people tasked with solving complex engineering problems, and to do so in an efficient and sustainable way for the future. Covid-19 has also pushed this narrative to the forefront, and over the past few years various digital platforms have shown their value when it comes to international communications, education and problem solving. Thus, as a reaction to all this, the EREMI platform is emerging, which will provide an international, digital and interdisciplinary training, upskilling and lifelong learning environment aimed at engineering students and professionals. The following section below shows the different partners involved in the EREMI project and the way in which the tasks have been distributed between them.

2.2. The Consortium of the EREMI Project and Task Allocation

EREMI is implemented and conducted as a living laboratory activity. It focuses on the collaborative development of innovative learning content and a digital platform for higher education, which requires the active participation of several stakeholder groups - students, faculty, industry partners, policy makers, etc.
The engagement and roles of the partners and participants can be outlined as follows:
UFT coordinates the project. In terms of content, it actively develops and implements the EREMI learning content in the following educational and practical areas:
  • Mechanical engineering;
  • Electrical engineering;
  • Systems engineering;
  • Pneumatics;
  • Energy efficiency;
  • Industrial economics.
Participating students are selected by their professors, who carefully choose the most motivated and high-performing individuals. In the subsequent stage, students have the opportunity to indicate their preferred subject areas and availability as test students, allowing them to actively participate in the selection process.
The HSO is responsible for the overall organisation and launch of the ITP as well as for the development of the content of the educational areas related to the (Industrial) Internet of Things ((I)IoT):
  • Communication systems.
  • Sensor systems;
  • Edge computing.
The HSO has the opportunity to include participants in its adult learning programmes who aim to test EREMI content during their training at its Centre for Lifelong Learning in Offenburg (CeLLO).
UPB takes charge of developing the EREMI learning content package in the domain of big data analytics. With the assistance of local BEIA support, UPB will conduct a test deployment and an ITP (Initial Test Period) that encompasses both order and duration.
BEIA is assigned the responsibility of carrying out the test implementation of the professional courses focused on the digitization of physical systems. As previously mentioned, BEIA will collaborate with UPB to conduct the ITP, primarily during adult education workshops that cater to IT professionals.
The responsibility of developing EREMI content in the field of Resource Efficiency in Manufacturing Systems and Facilities lies with UKLO. Furthermore, UKLO has effectively integrated the EREMI content into modules within a lifelong learning program designed for adults and retirees. This program has undergone a substantial phase of development and validation throughout the project's implementation.
The involvement and responsibilities of the partners, as well as the collaboration between the participants, are shown in Figure 1 and described as follows:

2.3. The EREMI learning contents package

UFT has led the collective development and delivery of a highly innovative ITP training programme focused on resource efficiency skills in manufacturing systems for undergraduate and postgraduate students (e.g. in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, pneumatics, etc.), which is currently identified as a serious gap by industry across the EU and particularly in Bulgaria - there is a lack of adequately educated engineers. The program emphasizes the utilization of IoT-based technologies to enhance efficiency, ensuring that components, machines, systems, and factories are future-proof. In addition to addressing general learning objectives related to IoT and data analysis, the program delves deep into the topic of energy savings in high dynamic pneumatics. This serves as a practical use case, allowing students to explore the subject extensively. Moreover, the EREMI program also covers predictive maintenance, which is a cross-cutting thematic area known for its potential in achieving substantial resource savings.
UPB and BEIA have jointly developed the ITP, leveraging their expertise in software, processing and communication for the use and integration of large energy efficiency datasets in manufacturing facilities and buildings, from education, R&D and practice. They have been working together on industrial and scientific projects for a long time and have established their expertise and experience.
The HSO actively supports the development of the virtual ILT (ILT) platform with a lead role, and then embodies the ITP in an interactive ILT training toolkit and upgrades/adapts the training content. In addition, HSO leverages its expertise in retrofitting IoT-based devices for condition and energy monitoring in manufacturing facilities.
UKLO played a significant role in the co-development of EREMI content, leveraging its expertise in the efficient utilization of industrial resources. As the sole partner of the consortium from North Macedonia, UKLO has contributed to the creation of a distinctive lifelong learning module. This module holds great potential for enabling adult learning and facilitating occupational reorientation for valuable workforce in North Macedonia. With the country experiencing intensified industrialization in the upcoming years, the module will address the growing need for skilled labor, aligning with the intensive industrialisation in the country.
UKLO, UPB, and BEIA are actively involved in the implementation of the new platform as a demonstration case, focusing on the collaboration between UFT and the education unit within the industrial zone surrounding the TPP Plovdiv. By leveraging their expertise and experience, the consortium members are dedicated to refining the ITP and virtual toolkit based on valuable insights gained during the test implementation phase.
The final outcome of the project is a dynamic teaching/learning platform that specifically caters to the needs of university students and postgraduate professionals. This platform serves as a valuable resource for relevant universities, students, and companies seeking rapid and effective professional training in a critically important field for industries across the EU. It holds particular significance for industries undergoing transformation, such as those in the Plovdiv region of Bulgaria, which are experiencing rapid industrialization trends and facing a shortage of adequately educated engineers in this strategic area of industrial engineering
The ITP serves as a basis for an international joint Master's programme on the EREMI theme, which will be implemented by the participating partner higher education organisations, which will be accredited after the EREMI project is completed, due to country-specific accreditation criteria and deadlines.
The ITP and ILT serve as the basis for the establishment of a network of EU universities and a student mobility programme in a follow-up ERASMUS Mundus project.
In the framework of the project, the HSO has developed and implemented a new format allowing for more efficient knowledge transfer. It is based on augmented reality and offers pre-recorded lectures in a suitable industrial environment, combined with static lecture materials that provide a solid foundation for students' learning.

2.4. The aimed EREMI impact

EREMI is aimed at one of the most important target groups in education: the much-needed multifunctional manufacturing systems engineers, who are expected to cope with the ever-increasing demands for energy efficiency and diminishing resource volumes in every aspect.
EREMI's main unique commercial advantage is the interdisciplinary approach to impart knowledge originating from several classical engineering fields, combined with the necessary areas for digitalization and virtualization of production environments and perfect management of complex systems in terms of optimal resource efficiency in terms of production capacity and raw materials.
By developing and implementing an interdisciplinary core of knowledge and a new learning system through international online teaching and learning combined with virtual and augmented reality, the project team aims to dramatically increase the interest and motivation of active engineers across Europe and beyond towards understanding and being able to develop and manage complex system approaches in the context of manufacturing industries.
EREMI aims to lay the foundations for the creation of a new generation of systems engineering capability amongst Europe, enabling Europe to have a strong interdisciplinary pool of experts capable of working in different environments in terms of culture, different specific manufacturing industries and legal requirements.
By offering both a broad overview of the core subject areas and an in-depth understanding of each of the professional fields, including the classical engineering disciplines and the IoT & Big Data fields, EREMI offers a unique platform for training and knowledge transfer to all stakeholders: industries, universities, learners from a wide range of demographics and academia, allowing a new generation of interdisciplinary experts capable of working in a highly international context to emerge and continuously develop.
UKLO has developed a new learner feedback model which has been implemented within the project to produce the intended lessons learned summary.

2.5. The quality feedback survey of EREMI: strategic approach and high added value project element

The quality feedback survey was developed by the project team during the second half of the project implementation period with the aim of making it a fixed element of the EREMI online learning platform and a mandatory requirement for course completion. The students are expected to understand the need for the EREMI team to receive quality feedback on the provided online learning materials in order to be able to optimise the educational product and thus optimally meet the demand of the European industry and economy as well as of course the learners themselves.
The anonymous questionnaire, which also provides important information on the organisation of the students' learning, is structured in five sections - I. General information, II. Course content, III. Learning outcomes, IV. General evaluation and V. Qualitative, open-ended response, and consists of 20 single-choice questions [28].
The aim of the querent survey was to optimally gather learners' objective and subjective perception of EREMI's learning content, taking into account its real-world relevance to the market, learners' expectations, as well as learners' career goals and understanding of industries as complex interdisciplinary and international professional environments.

3. Results

EREMI has resulted into following three main pillars of knowledge and respectively – added value generated:

3.1. The EREMI close-to-practice interactive learning contents package will be an answer to the challenges faced today by the industry in the context of upskilling, life-long learning, and rapid digitalization in the following directions:

In terms of interdisciplinarity: the aim of the project is to provide value and skills to a wide audience of engineering professionals and students, consisting of a broad set of topics aimed at addressing challenges arising from the need for digitisation, efficiency and sustainability: the suite of learning content provides essential and sought-after knowledge, targeted at individual learners and the industry as a whole, in a way that will provide lifetime value and a modern update of the skills coming from classical engineering disciplines.
Observing the degree of response to identified trends in labour market and industry developments in the partner countries and at European level, it became clear that the learning platform comes in response to the increased demand and shortage of skilled professionals in the partner countries and in the EU as a whole in the areas of industry and engineering related to the digitisation of production, the use of artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and big data, as well as the need for greater efficiency, especially when it comes to the use of Courses in the platform consist of a wide variety of disciplines, including advanced and new ones, with the idea of giving learners a more complete view of this highly interdisciplinary area of the manufacturing industries environment - complex systems of systems needing a broad view in terms of overall reduction of resource consumption, going into detail in terms of different types of resources and energy forms - raw materials, secondary raw materials, compressed air, process heat, high level integration and optimisation of Among the subjects introduced are the following:- Classical subjects : The platform offers subjects in relevant classical engineering areas, as a solid foundation with a good understanding of the basics is required for learners to easily transfer to new subjects related to the digital world and be able to connect and integrate the classical with the new in an effective manner. The field of classical subjects ranges from mechanical and electrical engineering to industrial economics and is offered to students in a manner close to practice.
New Subjects: One of the main reasons for creating such a platform is to have a place to learn new skills required for modern industry. Having new subjects in the curriculum will help students connect their existing knowledge with the digital skills needed for a new efficient and sustainable environment. The area of new subjects revolves around IoT, communication systems, sensor systems, Edge computing etc.
Industry Needs: The needs of higher education systems and relevant industrial areas in partner countries were discussed, including the need to create innovative resources to support academics, the need for innovative teaching methods to motivate students and deepen their knowledge so that they are fully prepared for the job market in the manufacturing industries of the near future.
Learner Capabilities: The target group is young people, young and older professionals, and all people who wish to learn and become involved in the activities and development of industry and in particular the manufacturing industries of the future.
Different expertise: The project targets learners from different demographic groups and academic backgrounds, which will provide the labour market with a wide range of interdisciplinary professionals and experts able to meet the challenges of tomorrow and work in an international environment, as well as to develop continuously.
Continuous learning method: In a rapidly evolving industry and digitalization of the work environment, it is necessary to provide engineers with the knowledge to keep their skills up-to-date. The courses created for the EREMI platform address the precise need for lifelong learning for engineers in the field of resource efficiency in manufacturing industries.

3.2. The EREMI learning platform’s goal is to be an easy-to-use place and a way for interdisciplinary modern industrial knowledge to be disseminated among willing learners:

Moodle: The aim of the project has been to create a place where knowledge can be shared freely and education can be carried out seamlessly. This is why EREMI chose to use a modern open source platform called Moodle. The values of this platform are perfectly aligned with the project idea discussed in this document. Its founding principle is to democratise quality online education by making it accessible to all. Moodle has received many awards, is certified as a B Corporation, and is a member of Open Education Global and the UNESCO Global Education Coalition.
Access is gained after registration - first contact through the project website: for each new learner, the platform will be unlocked after registration on the platform, and the first contact will be made through an introduction through the project website.
Easy to use: one of the project's goals has been to make the acquisition of knowledge and skills, as well as navigating the educational platform, as easy a task as possible. This helps immensely in learning more effectively and getting to where you want to be.
All learning content is available in English. In this way, the project ensures that the knowledge will have the best chance of reaching the widest audience and being universally understood.
Innovative combination of lectures and tasks/exercises: the platform offers a new collection combining lectures and practical tasks/exercises to give the highest possible value to learners when it comes to acquiring new skills in today's digital world.

3.3. The EREMI platform and its quality feedback survey distribution and assessment system as a standard and its impact is expected to allow for a better evolution of the project for each involved stakeholder: Survey results

The first part of this feedback system consists of a learner questionnaire which consists of various questions ranging from general information to learning outcomes and course content. The questions are in multiple choice response format. The idea is to integrate the questionnaire directly into Moodle and make it a prerequisite for course completion.
The second part of this system is to create a summary of lessons learned that will help improve and enrich the platform. Each such summary will be created based on feedback provided by a number of completed questionnaires, those from the previous section.
The decisive result of the EREMI quality feedback survey with over 100 responding learners among the partner organisations and countries, given the extremely short response time after the completion of the courses and the design of the survey, is the highly positive feedback from most learners, which meets and even exceeds their expected level of quality.
Over 50% of them responded with very positive feedback to most questions.
The distribution of responses according to the trainees' alma mater and specific area of core expertise, as well as previous academic or educational experience, is interesting, where the highest number of responses were received from scholars in Romania, followed by those from North Macedonia, as well as Bulgaria and Germany. Which speaks, on the one hand, to the degree of integration of EREMI materials into the daily teaching and learning process, and on the other hand, to the openness of scholars to digital learning and online research.
Statistical data can be presented dynamically in a variety of ways thanks to the flexible questionnaire tool used, offered by one of the world's largest data management and processing partners.
Detailed statistical evaluation of the survey results as well as trend analysis of the identified student/student movements are as follows:
Improving courses requires significant input from students, and a critical aspect of improving the quality of higher education is the self-assessment of higher education institutions. In the process of self-evaluation, students play a significant role by contributing to the perception and evaluation of the quality of curricula, teaching methods and other learning-related issues.
Post-course evaluation is an important step in e-learning design as it allows course designers to obtain feedback and input from learners, which can then be used to improve future learning materials and courses. Course evaluations not only provide valuable information for course improvement, but also offer learners the opportunity to reflect on their learning and provide feedback. One of the most common indirect methods of course evaluation is through course evaluation surveys, which provide an opportunity to capture learners' perceptions of their learning experiences, expectations, and attitudes toward the learning process. A survey-type questionnaire has been prepared as a course evaluation tool to help improve the content of EREMI courses and to further develop online learning materials based on participant feedback.
The designed questionnaire consists of five parts, each with a different focus. The first part asks for general information about the respondents [33]. The second part of the questionnaire contains nine questions that are related to the course content and the third part of the questionnaire contains four questions that are related to the learning outcomes. The fourth part contains four questions that relate to the overall perception of the course. The last part of the questionnaire has open-ended questions that allow respondents to provide more detailed information and explanations. The questions in Parts II, III and IV are of the Likert five-point scale type, ranging from 'strongly disagree' to 'strongly agree'. Questions of this type are intuitive and universal, providing clean data that are easy to analyse and understand.
An online survey was conducted in April 2023 using Google Forms as the platform. All students who had taken relevant courses were invited to participate in the survey, which included open-ended questions that allowed respondents to provide more comprehensive information and explanations. A total of 101 people participated in the survey, and all information revealed by respondents was treated confidentially and analysed anonymously.
By analysing the data collected through the survey questionnaire, it is possible to gain insight into both the strengths and weaknesses of the material published online. The feedback received from the learners during this process can be used to improve various aspects of the online courses and to better understand the needs of the learners, facilitating the continuous development and improvement of the EREMI concept.
Figure 2 presents the participants' institutions and the main reason for choosing the course. As the main reason for choosing a particular course, 57% of participants indicated that the course was a good match for their interests.
Figure 3 illustrates respondents' agreement on course content. Improving course content is a focus of the survey as learners can provide valuable input on course structure, logical flow, materials, and quality of content. Feedback from learners indicates that they agree or strongly agree that the courses are well organised, appropriately presented, professionally developed, relevant, and address existing issues.
Figure 4 shows the results of respondents' answers on learning outcomes. Evaluating learning outcomes is critical to measuring the success of a course. Although online quizzes or other types of assessments can be used for evaluation, it is valuable to gather learners' opinions on the final outcome. The primary goal of an online course is to move learners from one level of knowledge to another, so it is important to determine whether this goal has been met, to what extent, and to identify opportunities to improve the course for future learners. According to the survey results, participants agreed or strongly agreed that the courses helped them achieve additional competencies and skills.
Figure 5 illustrates the general impression of the courses. The responses to these questions confirm the success of the courses, their usefulness, effectiveness and benefit to the students' educational process. Although more general, this type of information refines the marketing message and attracts new learners.
At the end of the survey questionnaire, open-ended questions are provided to collect additional feedback and general responses from students, making the survey complete. The purpose of these questions is to gather qualitative feedback that is open-ended, allowing more detailed information and explanations to be gathered.
The analysis of the survey data provides valuable insights that can be used to improve the virtual toolkit and innovative teaching program.

4. Discussion

Covid presented humanity with a huge challenge, but arguably also provided a much-needed catalyst for the industry, forcing it into a trend towards digitalisation that was undoubtedly going to come sooner or later. Thus, the EREMI project comes at the right time when the need for new digital and sustainability skills in the engineering field, as well as the need for adaptable digital learning platforms, is greatest.
Based on lessons learned (from the whole project): Policy recommendations: The project also provides feedback to policy makers based on its lessons learned in order to have an even wider impact on the education system. Some of the relevant necessary guidelines for policy makers that will be the focus of attention are the following:
-
Create a better link between theory and practice throughout the education process, as this is likely to lead to the best outcomes for both individual learners and industry.
-
Creating a more flexible education system that allows easy knowledge transfer and the formation of new courses aimed at future professionals.
-
Allowing teaching staff to upgrade their qualifications more easily in order to bring classical university courses closer to the needs of modern industry.
-
Enabling industry professionals from outside academia to teach and transfer much needed knowledge and skills to higher education institutions.
Connecting different disciplines in an interdisciplinary curriculum is the right formula for generating the much needed human capital of our future European highly digitised yet physical industrial landscape.
How can we reach interested but uninformed learners and future practitioners more effectively? Information campaigns among graduates and working professionals? Naturally, one of the biggest hurdles for any project is how to reach an interested audience. One of the most sensible ways, especially in a highly digital world, is to use the internet and its various platforms. An example of this is the use of social media, especially LinkedIn, for outreach campaigns, such as sharing lessons learned and achieving key project objectives. In addition, dissemination is also done through the publication of scientific articles that are announced on the relevant social media channels.
It is crucial in the future not only to optimise the learning content of EREMI and its follow-up projects based on the improved feedback system in place, but also to do so on the basis of continuously improved quality feedback questionnaires. This means that the quality feedback questionnaire systems themselves need to be continuously improved as they serve as a guarantor for the optimisation of the learning content.

5. Conclusion

The implementation of EREMI's learning content has resulted in the creation and expansion of higher education courses and programs that have become integral and sustainable components of the educational process in partner universities and organizations. This ensures their long-term availability and accessibility to all individuals seeking to utilize and benefit from them. The project also aims to develop an international joint Master's program on resource efficiency in manufacturing industries, known as EREMI, which will be accredited at the national level in the four partner countries. To support this large-scale endeavor, collaborations with ERASMUS Mundus, as well as local and regional industrial stakeholders, are being pursued to secure additional funding. The envisioned outcome is the cultivation of internationally trained and experienced interdisciplinary engineering professionals who will play a pivotal role in shaping sustainable and resource-efficient manufacturing industries of the future.
Upon completion of the project, all stakeholders will have access to interactive educational resources. These resources are designed to be utilized not only within the technical specialties of higher education but also by training centers, business organizations, and enterprises. The digital format of these resources, combined with augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) based learning content and live interdisciplinary discussions, allows for adaptability to different contexts and facilitates knowledge transfer to new areas. Furthermore, this approach will influence future higher education policies and practices. The sustainability of the project is further ensured through the support of stakeholders, including active participation from relevant sector partners like the Trakia Economic Zone, the largest agglomeration of industrial parks in Bulgaria and the Balkans.
The quality feedback survey system will be further developed as it clearly provides crucial insights to the project team and to teachers in general, on the basis of which further optimisation of the teaching content is carried out on a daily basis.

6. Acknowledgements

The EREMI project has been co-funded by the European Union within the ERASMUS+ framework programme for education facilitation, with project number 2020-1-BG01-KA203-079076.
Disclaimer: The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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Figure 1. A graphical representation of the main focus domains within the curriculum development, and how the particular partners collaborate on them.
Figure 1. A graphical representation of the main focus domains within the curriculum development, and how the particular partners collaborate on them.
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Figure 2. General Information: a) Participants’ institutions b) Primary reason of choosing the course.
Figure 2. General Information: a) Participants’ institutions b) Primary reason of choosing the course.
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Figure 3. Course content.
Figure 3. Course content.
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Figure 4. Learning outcomes.
Figure 4. Learning outcomes.
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Figure 5. Overall.
Figure 5. Overall.
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Table 1. Importance of different questions in the syrvey.
Table 1. Importance of different questions in the syrvey.
Questions Average Stand. Dev.
II Course Content [2. The course was well organized.] 4.67 0.58
II Course Content [3. The teaching materials present the learning content in a suitable way.] 4.65 0.59
II Course Content [4. The learning materials were clear and well-written.] 4.59 0.62
II Course Content [5. The course seems to be professionally designed.] 4.53 0.66
II Course Content [6. The course actively involves me in the learning process.] 4.45 0.73
II Course Content [7. The readings were appropriate to the goals of course.] 4.56 0.71
II Course Content [8. The provided content gives an overall picture.] 4.62 0.65
II Course Content [9. The length of the course was appropriate to cover content.] 4.52 0.67
II Course Content [10. The content addresses existing problems.] 4.4 0.99
III Learning Outcomes [11. This course helped me develop intellectual skills (e.g., critical or creative thinking, quantitative reasoning, problem solving, etc.).] 4.44 0.67
III Learning Outcomes [12. This course helped me develop professional skills (e.g., written or oral communication, computer literacy, teamwork, etc.).] 4.47 0.63
III Learning Outcomes [13. The course improves my understanding of the topic.] 4.67 0.51
III Learning Outcomes [14. The course gave me the confidence to do more advanced work in the subject.] 4.56 0.57
IV Overall [15. I would recommend this course to others.] 4.64 0.52
IV Overall [16. The course was helpful in progress toward my degree.] 4.62 0.55
IV Overall [17. Overall, this course stimulated my interest in this subject.] 4.69 0.46
IV Overall [18. Overall, this course met my expectations for the quality of the course.] 4.75 0.46
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