Enhancing the Students’ Motivation and Learning in Network Engineering Courses Through Artificial Intelligence Tools and Applications

In the current educational context, students’ learning needs to be promoted through experiential activities. But, for some disciplines (Network Engineering courses) it is very complicated to design practical experiments. A pilot experience was designed and implemented in Universidad Politécnica de Madrid during the 2022/23 year. A collaborative learning methodology between students of Network Engineering and Artificial Intelligence was implemented, so they had to work in heterogenous groups to build an innovative Network Engineering tool using Artificial Intelligence technologies. The tool consisted of a next-generation traffic filter. Thanks to this approach, Artificial Intelligence students can work with real data and application scenarios. Furthermore, students of Network Engineering courses can produce and experiment with tangible tools and results in order to enhance and consolidate their learning and knowledge. The impact of the proposed methodology in the students’ learning was measured through surveys and the official academic results. Using the Mann-Withey U statistical test a significantly moderate improvement is confirmed.