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21 February 2019

Research on the Learning Effect of the Positive Emotions of "Ship Fuel-Saving Project" APP for Engineering Students

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1
Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Fortune Institute of Technology, Kaohsiung 83160, Taiwan
2
Department of Computer Science & Information Engineering, SHU-TE University, Kaohsiung 82445, Taiwan
3
Department of Modern Languages, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung 91201, Taiwan
4
Graduate Institute of Technological and Vocational Education, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung 91201, Taiwan
Sustainability2019, 11(4), 1136;https://doi.org/10.3390/su11041136
This article belongs to the Section Sustainable Education and Approaches
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Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the impacts of “positive emotions” through the App Inventor 2 Ship Fuel-Saving Project on the “positive emotions literacy” and “ship fuel-saving literacy” of university students of the Engineering Department. In this study, 115 students were selected as the research object, experimental teaching was conducted in a group cooperative learning mode, and the positive emotional elements were integrated into the AI 2 Ship Fuel-Saving Project. The research conclusions were as follows. (1) The Blended teaching method and the mixed learning program of the “Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project” provided students with diversified learning channels; (2) the Project presented significant positive affirmation for the improvement of students’ positive emotional literacy; (3) the Project resulted in significantly greater improvement of students’ fuel-saving literacy in the experimental group than in the control group; (4) students in the experimental group showed the best positive emotion with confidence in the learning process of the project; and (5) the “ship fuel-saving literacy” and “ship fuel-saving works achievement” of students in the experimental group showed a significantly high positive correlation. Finally, the “Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project Teaching Mode” was constructed, which can be a reference for promoting the practical teaching of positive emotions and ship fuel-saving literacy in the future.

1. Introduction

In the 21st century, international awareness of environmental protection has risen, and it has become a global consensus to save the energy consumed by vehicles and locomotives and to reduce air pollution. In response to such international efforts, Taiwan has developed energy-saving and carbon-reducing policies, as well as green energy industries to cope with the environmental, economic, and political impacts and demands arising from domestic energy problems. However, Taiwan’s green technology is still insufficient compared with that of other world science and technology powers [1], while the oil depletion crisis will be inevitable due to the fixed stock in the earth and the increasing demand for human use each year [2,3]. Therefore, how to make people more aware of environmental concerns through various advocacy and education methods, and then, be willing to implement environmentally friendly behavior, is an important issue of government agencies, schools, and non-governmental environmental groups [4].
Taiwan’s students are among the people who are least concerned about the issue of energy conservation and carbon reduction, which is attributed to the limited study of energy technology, energy conservation, and carbon reduction in the entrance system [5]. Schools are the epitome of society. The provision of schools of energy conservation and carbon reduction program courses according to the situation, is an important plan to enable participants to practice energy conservation and carbon reduction in their daily lives through problem solving and to improve their energy conservation and carbon reduction literacy [6].
A responsible environmental development process is noted to be influenced by personal knowledge of the environment, ecology, technology, and economy, as well as personal interest in environmental issues, personal commitment to solving environmental problems, and personal understanding of environmental issues [7]. As such awareness can introduce various benefits into an individual’s life and facilitate physical and mental development, the creation of a positive emotional environment to enable people to actively respond to stress has gradually achieved importance [8,9].
In the face of the continuous deterioration of the global environment, it is necessary for everyone living on earth to acquire knowledge of energy conservation and carbon reduction, and to implement it in their daily lives. Moreover, education should be used to enhance knowledge of fuel conservation and strengthen the cultivation of fuel conservation behavior to alleviate the environmental problems associated with earth’s energy depletion and global warming. Therefore, the design of this research focuses on positive emotions and fuel-saving literacy to plan a positive emotion App Inventor 2 ship fuel-saving course and Push-pull Mobile Learning course [10], to create a positive emotion-based teaching method and learning environment and to improve students’ positive emotion literacy through group cooperative learning, thus increasing their interest in learning. This study used App Inventor 2 as the software and architecture to design, develop, and modify the parameters of the APP program for hull power plant end control, and students could use the inquiry, sharing, and discussion functions of Push-pull Mobile Learning system to solve the problems in study and creative design practice so as to realize the goal of “learning while doing". The purpose of this study includes the following four points.
(1)
Develop the teaching mode of the “Positive AI2 Fuel-Saving Project” for students in the Department of Engineering of the university
(2)
Explore the impact of the “Positive AI2 Fuel-Saving Project” on students’ positive emotion literacy
(3)
Discuss the impact of the “Positive AI2 Fuel-Saving Project” on students’ fuel-saving literacy
(4)
Explore the correlation between students’ positive emotions, ship fuel saving, and work achievement

2. Literature Review

In this study, the literature on fuel-saving literacy and positive emotions is summarized as follows.

2.1. Fuel-Saving Literacy

Since the discovery of oil, there have been four energy crises, each of which has caused fluctuations in the price of oil and may even lead to a crisis of reserves. Moreover, in response to the increasing global warming, all countries have advocated and promoted various energy-saving measures. The relevant research on oil saving is summarized as follows.
After the Ford Motor Company achieved the goal of saving fuel through “eco-driving” driving training, vehicle factories in Germany, Britain, and Japan have successively achieved the dual environmental effects of reducing energy consumption and reducing carbon through eco-driving training or eco-training [11]. A study by Evans [12] showed that drivers can save 14% of their oil consumption by reducing the speed of acceleration, driving in a gentle manner, and minimizing the number of emergency stops. The experimental results of Waters and Laker [13] indicated that more moderate driving has the effect of reducing fuel consumption by 15%. Hooker [14] noted that shifting timing, driving speed, and rapid acceleration are significant factors, and suggested that if drivers reduce the time to shift gears from low gear to high gear, drive at an economic engine speed, and avoid stepping on the accelerator or the brake, he or she will make a significant contribution to reduce energy consumption [15]. The research results showed that braking at low speed, as well as acceleration and braking at high speed, will impact fuel economy [4]. Barth and Boriboonsomsin [16] noted that through eco-driving, pollution emissions and fuel consumption can be reduced by at least 10%–20%. In addition, based on an analysis of Taiwan’s passenger transport operator’s data, it was noted that drivers who have received eco-driving courses can save 10%–15% of their energy consumption by changing their driving habits [17].
To summarize, most research is focused on motor vehicles, and it is maturing. Greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping are an increasing concern, such as by applying a profit-maximizing equation to estimate route-specific, economically-efficient speeds; the fuel tax of about $150/ton fuel will lead to average speed-related CO2 reductions of about 20–30% [18,19]. Therefore, this research focuses on saving ship fuel as the theme of the special course, which aims to cultivate students’ data collection ability and experience in performing special projects, and further develop students’ application ability, analytic ability, comprehensive ability, and value judgment ability.

2.2. Positive Emotions

Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi formally proposed the concept of positive psychology in 2000; they believed that expanding personal positive emotional experience would contribute to personal psychological development and potential development [20]. Therefore, psychologists have begun to explore factors that enhance human happiness and well-being and to attempt to understand the role played by positive emotions in promoting human life richness and personal well-being [21]. Among them, the broaden-and-build theory, as proposed by Fredrickson [22], explains the importance of positive emotions in evolutionary adaptation, which can be described as the most important positive emotion theory of our time [23]. The experimental results show that subjects can identify things they want to do in two positive situations, namely joy and satisfaction [24].
The broaden-and-build theory assumes that people’s positive emotions have two important functions. One is the broadening function, which means that when people experience positive emotions, it may expand their scope of thinking and action patterns. The second is the building function, which indicates that a positive emotional experience repeated for a long time may have a continuous progressive effect on various individual resources [25,26,27]. In addition, positive emotions can provide various benefits in an individual’s life. Through the strategy of finding positive meaning, positive emotions can often be triggered, which helps to enhance physical, mental, and social resources, thus enabling people to successfully cope with stress [21,28]. In terms of learning, Aylor and Oppliger [29] have also suggested that when students feel happier and more cheerful, compared to those who feel anxious and threatened, they will experience greater learning motivation and more information retention.
In summary, positive emotions can broaden thinking and action, help to build personal resources, increase psychological resilience, enhance personal psychological and physiological well-being, and introduce multiple benefits into an individual’s life [24,27]. Thus, this study incorporated positive emotions into the curriculum design, created a learning environment with positive emotions, and applied it to cultivate students’ fuel-saving literacy. Based on the results of the literature review, as shown in Table 1, this study used joy, contentment, confidence, optimism, and other aspects as the basis for the design of the positive emotion literacy questionnaire [21,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38], which are defined as follows:
Table 1. Literature Review of Positive Emotions.
  • Joy: students feel happy and joyful when they are with their family or peers [21,30,32,35].
  • Contentment: students are satisfied with what they have and are grateful to others [21,30,31,32,33,35].
  • Confidence: the ability to recognize oneself, understand one’s strengths and weaknesses, and completely utilize one’s strengths [21,30,32,33,34,35].
  • Optimism: the expectation that good things will happen, confidence, perseverance to pursue goals, and ability to face setbacks bravely [30,33,34].

2.3. App Inventor 2

This study used App Inventor 2 as the software and architecture for App development. Google Inc. launched Google App Inventor for Android tool software in 2010 to enable more people to develop Android device applications without a program foundation [36,37]. The Google App Inventor is an Android program environment that was developed completely online, which does not require a complicated program code and allows users to employ the puzzle mode to combine the program syntax and further develop Android device applications [37,38]. Later, in 2012, Google transferred this software to the MIT Center for Mobile Learning for maintenance. The website of the Center is “http://mitmobilelearning.org/”. MIT launched the MIT App Inventor 2 website on December 3, 2013, providing a free cloud-based online development environment with no limit on the number of development projects. As long as they can access the Internet, developers can add and modify their own Android device applications online at any time at the website http://appinventor.mit.edu/ [36,38].

3. Research Design

According to the research purpose and literature review, the design and implementation process of this research are described as follows.

3.1. Research Design

This research adopted experimental teaching to explore the influence of “positive emotions” and “fuel-saving literacy” on the learning effects of the students of a university Engineering Department participating in the “Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project”. The research objects were two classes of freshmen students of the Engineering Department of a university in Taiwan who were normally divided into classes: one class was the experimental group with 56 students, and the other class was the control group with 59 students, as shown in Table 2. Before implementation of the course, a “fuel-saving literacy” pretest was given to the experimental group and control group to evaluate “ship knowledge” in the two groups. “Positive emotions” were considered the experimental treatment, where the experimental group implemented the “Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project” while the control group implemented the “AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project”. Finally, a “fuel-saving literacy” posttest was given to explore the effect of the project on students’ learning outcome in terms of fuel-saving literacy. In addition, a Positive Emotions Questionnaire survey was given to students in the experimental group to evaluate changes in positive emotions.
Table 2. Special Experimental Design of AI 2 Ship Fuel Saving.
Concerning the ethical dimension, the researcher ensured integrity, responsibility, expertise, objectivity, precision and justice in the research process (including the research ideals, execution and presentation of results) and respected the subjects to avoid a conflict of interest. This research protected the research participants’ rights, (1) autonomy, (2) beneficence, (3) nonmaleficence, (4) justice, and (5) fidelity; it informed research participants of the research purpose in advance and allowed solely them to make the decision to participate in or withdraw from the research and protect or disclose personal information.

3.2. Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Course Design

In this study, the concept of integrating positive emotions into practical courses was proposed as a teaching strategy for the App Inventor 2 Ship Fuel-Saving Project to develop the “Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project” and carry out experimental teaching in a group cooperative learning mode. This project plan was mainly based on (1) classroom learning courses and supported by (2) Push-pull Mobile Learning courses. Positive emotional elements were added to the teaching methods for the students in the experimental group. The course implementation process is shown in Figure 1, which is described as follows.
Figure 1. Process Flow of the Implementation of Positive Emotions Ship Fuel Saving Project.

3.2.1. Classroom Learning Course

The course learning content is mainly planned according to the “teaching objectives of the practical project course“, including (1) knowledge: students can recognize the process and application dimensions of practical project making, (2) skill: students possess knowledge and literacy of practical project-making and have enhanced document-processing computer abilities, (3) attitude: students should obtain industrial development and lifelong learning competence to assimilate new knowledge and growth at any time and to acquire integration ability for practical projects for applications in daily life or the workplace. In addition, other courses, such as “fuel-saving education” and “positive emotions” (experimental group only) were added for 4 hours each. The course objectives are to help students develop the ability to participate in the observation, collect data and information, systematize and summarize, identify problems, and propose feasible improvement plans. Finally, students should be able to write practical project reports according to the paper writing format.
During the course, teachers were required to incorporate positive emotional elements into their teaching methods and create a positive emotional learning environment to cultivate and internalize students’ positive emotions, such as joy, contentment, confidence, and optimism. Practical practices included (a) cultivating students’ interest in sports, (b) practicing with a smile, (c) making good use of positive words and exercises, and (d) cultivating good habits and other practices and integrating them into daily life and rest. The fuel-saving education included three kinds of knowledge regarding navigation knowledge, general knowledge of ship engines, seamanship, and ship operation to enable students to acquire basic knowledge of the ship fuel-saving design, complete tasks in the various stages of the project, create designs for ship fuel-saving works in sequence, and finally, submit written reports.
In addition, the Classroom Learning Course includes 6 hours of App Inventor 2-related knowledge via a face-to-face course to enhance students’ skill to develop App programs to operate ships, and it provides digital teaching materials on the Push-pull mobile learning platform for students’ practice. Students will be able to understand and consider the relationship between the hull weight and ship speed, as well as improve the relationship between fuel economy and speed during the process of independent creation and testing.

3.2.2. Push-Pull Mobile Learning Course

This project adopted the Push-pull Mobile Learning system, as proposed by Chung, Dzan, Cheng, and Lou [10], as an auxiliary learning platform for practical project courses, applying the real-time, convenience, and interactivity advantages of the Push-pull Mobile Learning to provide a platform for students with online group discussions and practical experience sharing. The functions include information publishing, mobile learning courses, teacher-student interactions, course assignment release, positive emotion learning environment creation, online testing, and questionnaire surveys. This study adds the instruction strategies of the push-pull mobile learning system to help students with their independent acquisition of the knowledge and skills of Positive Emotion, App Inventor 2 and Ship Fuel-Saving. With the digital materials like the knowledge, pictures and instruction videos of Positive Emotion, App Inventor 2 and Ship Fuel-Saving in the mobile learning system, students can study at any time and at any place and finish the assignments and discussions assigned by the instructor.
Finally, the students’ test scores, questionnaire results, and text data on the Push-pull Mobile Learning platform were collected for statistical analysis to understand the students’ learning results for “positive emotions” and “fuel-saving literacy” as a reference for developing the teaching mode of the “Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project”.

3.3. Research Tools

This study developed a “Positive Emotions Literacy Questionnaire” and a “Fuel-Saving Literacy Questionnaire” according to literature review and special curriculum attributes. Two experts from positive emotion-related fields and two experts from fuel-saving-related fields were invited to examine the validity of the first draft of the questionnaire, and then the questionnaires were revised and developed into formal questionnaires. The descriptions are as follows.

3.3.1. Positive Emotions Questionnaire

After a literature review, the four aspects of joy, contentment, confidence, and optimism, as shown in Table 3, were used as the basis for the design of the positive emotions questionnaire. The questionnaire was evaluated using a Likert five-point scale. This study randomly sampled 100 college students of the same configuration for pretest. After the pretest of 100 college students, project analysis, reliability and validity analysis were carried out. The pretest results are described as follows.
Table 3. Positive Emotional Literacy Content Analysis Table.
The highest and lowest 27% were selected from 100 valid questionnaires, respectively, as the high score group (42 points) and the low score group (26 points). According to factor analysis, the factor load between each item and its level in this positive emotions questionnaire was greater than 0.5, and thus all the items were retained. Among them, the factor load of the 7 items on the joy level was between 0.74 and 0.87, the factor load of the 7 items on the contentment level ranged from 0.78 to 0.88, the factor load of the 7 items on the confidence level ranged from 0.75 to 0.86, and the factor load of the 7 items on the optimism level ranged from 0.77 to 0.91, indicating that the scale demonstrated good validity. In addition, in terms of reliability analysis, the Cronbach’s α of the four levels of joy (0.85), contentment (0.82), confidence (0.90), and optimism (0.88) were all greater than 0.7, indicating a high degree of reliability of the items at all levels and the good reliability of the scale [39]. The Likert scale table was used to evaluate the subjects’ identification, and one of five options was selected as the answer: “Strongly Agree”, “Agree”, “Fair”, “Disagree”, and “Strongly Disagree”.

3.3.2. Positive Emotional Literacy Content Analysis Comparison Table

In addition to quantitative analysis, the positive emotions literacy of this study was supplemented by group discussions and content analysis of text materials, such as feedback materials and written reports during the students’ learning process to verify the results of quantitative analysis. The text data coding principles are defined as follows. For example, “S8 - 3”, S means students’ text materials, 8 means Group 8, and 3 means the third student in the group. The “Positive Emotional Literacy Content Analysis Table”, as developed in this study, is shown Table 2, which includes the four aspects of joy, contentment, confidence, and optimism. Content analysis or textual analysis was adopted to emphasize the value of content analysis, and systematic objective and quantitative methods were used for classification and statistics. According to the students’ discussions and performance times in the four aspects of positive emotions, a narrative explanation was provided. In addition, product-moment correlation analysis was employed to explore the correlation between “group performance of positive emotions” and students’ achievements in “ship knowledge performance” and “fuel-saving works” to understand the connotation and development of the positive emotions of the case students.

3.3.3. Fuel-Saving Literacy Questionnaire

The “Fuel-Saving Literacy Questionnaire” mainly focuses on topics related to reducing energy consumption in ship knowledge. Two experts on reducing energy consumption in ships were invited to refer to the questions in the examination database of self-used power boats, including general knowledge of navigation (10 items), general knowledge of ship mechanics (10 items), and general knowledge of seamanship and ship operation (10 items), with a total of 30 items, as shown in Table 4. In addition, experts and scholars were invited to evaluate the students’ completed projects, including the reduced energy consumption design concept, navigation speed and operation of ships as grades of “work of ship fuel saving” and as a reference for this research to assess students’ fuel-saving literacy. Furthermore, groups demonstrating excellence were rewarded.
Table 4. Fuel-Saving Literacy Questionnaire.

4. Results and Discussion

According to the design and implementation of this study, the students’ questionnaires and text data were collected for quantitative and qualitative analyses to explore changes in students’ learning in terms of “positive emotions” and “fuel-saving literacy” after participating in the “Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project”, as well as the correlation between each dependent variable, and to verify them with the support of the analysis of students’ learning process.

4.1. Analysis of Positive Emotions Literacy Learning Effectiveness

Teachers implemented the instructions according to the curriculum design of the “positive AI 2 fuel-saving project”. Peer interactions and a positive learning environment were created, and the questionnaire survey was administered to assess students’ positive emotions literacy and analyzed by single-sample t tests using a test value of 3. The higher the average score, the higher the students’ affirmation was of the development of positive emotional literacy in this project course, as shown in Table 5, which is described in detail according to various aspects as follows.
Table 5. Positive Emotional Literacy Single-Sample t Test Analysis Table.

4.1.1. Joy Aspect

The overall average of this aspect was 3.77 (from 3.55 to 3.90), the standard deviation was 0.83, and the t value was 5.87, reaching a significant level. As seen from the scores for each item, students provided positive feedback to the “joy” aspect of the positive emotions of this project curriculum design. The behaviors of most students regarding the “joy” aspect were as follows: students felt happy to participate in project learning activities; during the process, they felt competent and happy while performing project tasks; good performance made students feel happy and the learning experience was good. In addition, students enjoyed the learning atmosphere provided by the project, enjoyed the time spent with teachers, and expressed joy, satisfaction, and affirmation regarding their interactions with their peers.

4.1.2. Contentment Aspect

The overall average of this aspect was 3.74 (from 3.53 to 3.85), the standard deviation was 0.90, and the t value was 5.22, reaching a significant level. As can be seen from the scores for each item, students showed positive approval regarding the “contentment” aspect of this project course design. The behaviors of most students regarding the “contentment” aspect were as follows: they believed the course design, assignment/task arrangement of the project course, and learning environment and equipment could meet their learning needs during the process of participating, meaning the project activities could meet students’ learning needs. Students appreciated teachers’ assistance in learning and the cooperative learning among their peers and were satisfied with their learning growth.

4.1.3. Confidence Aspect

The overall average of this aspect was 3.61 (from 3.43 to 3.75), with a standard deviation of 0.90, and a t value of 4.27, reaching a significant level. As seen from the scores for each item, students provided positive feedback regarding the “confidence” aspect of the positive emotions of this course design. The behaviors of most students regarding the “contentment” aspect were as follows: they considered themselves to be popular students and also believed that they could become good students. They could also perform well in learning, service, and cooperative learning among peers during the process of participating in project activities. Good peer interactions could achieve the default learning goal of the project.

4.1.4. Optimism Aspect

The overall average of this aspect was 3.72 (from 3.63 to 3.80), the standard deviation was 0.91, and the t value was 5.04, reaching a significant level. As seen from the scores for each item, students were positive regarding the “optimism” aspect of positive emotions in this course design. The behaviors of most students on the “optimism” aspect were as follows: during the process of participating in this project activity, students thought that as long as they studied hard, they would demonstrate better and better performance. In the face of any learning setbacks and difficulties, they would not be discouraged and they would persist with a positive attitude. In addition, they felt that teachers were good role models for learning, learning through education could change their lives, and they would be very successful in the future.

4.2. Analysis of Ship Fuel-Saving Literacy Learning Effectiveness

In terms of the learning effectiveness of ship fuel-saving literacy, statistical analyses of the students’ “ship knowledge” and “ship fuel-saving works” were conducted, which are described as follows.

4.2.1. Statistical Analysis of Ship Knowledge

In this study, independent sample t testing was conducted on the learning effects of the “ship knowledge” of the experimental group and the control group, as shown in Table 6, with a “ship knowledge” t value of -1.96 (p = 0.04 < 0.05), reaching a significant level. This result showed that the students in the experimental group had significantly better results than those in the control group in the learning effect of “ship knowledge” after the “Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project”.
Table 6. Independent sample t-test analysis of the learning effectiveness of fuel-saving literacy.

4.2.2. Statistical Analysis of Achievements in Ship Fuel-Saving Works

In terms of the student’s achievements in reduced ship energy consumption, an independent sample t-test analysis of the results of the “ship fuel-saving works” was conducted in the experimental group and control group, as shown in Table 6. The t-value of “ship fuel-saving works” was −5.71 (p = 0.00 < 0.001), and the student’s achievements in the experimental group were significantly higher than those in the control group. This result showed that the students in the experimental group had significantly better results than those in the control group in the learning effect of reduced ship energy consumption after undergoing the “Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project.”

4.3. Analysis of Students’ Positive Emotional Literacy in the Learning Process

This study observed and collected feedback on the students’ learning process in the “Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project”, such as student group discussions on the Push-pull Mobile Learning platform, classroom performance, project reports, experience sharing, or other related text data. This study adopted content analysis (textual analysis), and based on previous literature, according to the content analysis of the positive emotions literacy in Table 3, collected, explored and generalized keywords of joy, contentment, confidence and optimism to study students’ performance in positive emotions literacy. The project steps are described as follows.

4.3.1. Students’ Learning Process

(1) Classroom Learning Course—Providing Students with Clear Course Objectives and Teaching Contents
This study guided students in implementing curriculum teaching, energy consumption reduction education, positive emotions, and other knowledge according to the “Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project”, and it integrated positive emotion elements into the curriculum and project design. The teachers were required to adopt positive emotion teaching guidance methods, such as joy, contentment, confidence, and optimism, among others, in the classroom to enable students to assimilate happy, confident, and optimistic learning attitudes and to be willing to spend time learning and participating in the activity. “S2-3: Greater learning about positive emotions is needed, and we should face various task challenges with a positive attitude.” Students used the Internet to collect knowledge, technology, and equipment related to reduce energy consumption as the basic knowledge of creative design. “S1-4: Through collecting data, we know that the speed of a boat is usually expressed in terms of “knots”, where one knot is equal to the speed of 1 nautical mile per hour, and 1 nautical mile is equal to 1852 meters, that is, the speed of “one knot” is approximately 0.5144 meters per second. Such information is also used in engine and internal combustion engines used in ships.
(2) Push-pull Mobile Learning Course—Providing Students with Diversified Experience Learning, Discussion and Exchange
This project developed the Push-pull Mobile Learning courses to enable teachers and teaching assistants to interact with students and provide advice and assistance. We also encouraged the student groups to make greater use of this platform to conduct group discussions, sharing, and cooperation in learning. “S5-2: We participate in team work to complete projects, interact via discussions, share opinions, and consult with teachers or teaching assistants when problems arise. Their help can provide lot of inspiration.” Students had a basic understanding of positive emotions after the Push-pull Mobile Learning platform’s positive emotions courses and tests: “S4-2: We can think about the questions with our classmates and discuss them with each other, and we feel happy and pleased.”, “S7-1: We should maintain our enthusiasm and interest, and continue to think about creation, even if we encounter difficulties during the process.”
(3) App Inventor 2 Ship Fuel-Saving Project Production—Providing Students with an Authentic Question—Oriented Learning Situation and Emphasizing the Practice of Learning by Doing
The production of this project was divided into five stages: preparation, design, production, finished products, and publication, which are described as follows.
● Preparation Phase
First, the students were taught how to use ship models, and they learned how to make ship hulls, as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3. Furthermore, students were provided with basic control unit materials, as shown in Figure 4, including ship hull power, a battery holder, a rechargeable battery, a battery charger, and an oil jug, among others, to assemble and install them. Concurrently, students were taught how to design, develop, and modify the parameters of the APP program for hull power plant end control, as shown in Figure 5, to test the launching of motors and ship models and to simulate the situation of ships traveling on water, as shown in Figure 6 and Figure 7. “S2-4: It is the first time I learned how to develop APP applications. I felt very excited and challenged.” Students began to discuss and think about the future design direction of the team. When the design theme was determined, they began to think about the relevant materials used. “S4-3: The materials prepared by our group, as shown in Figure 8, include model plates (reducing wind resistance), dry glue, Styrofoam blocks (increasing buoyancy), adhesive tape, double-sided tape (fixing battery holder), etc.”
Figure 2. Ship Model Application Process Implementation.
Figure 3. Hull Fabrication Completed.
Figure 4. Basic Control Unit Materials.
Figure 5. Control App interface for Hull Power plant End.
Figure 6. Hull Power Motor Test.
Figure 7. Launching Test for the Hull Power Motor Ship Model.
Figure 8. Manufacturing Materials.
● Design Phase
According to the direction of the group discussion, the oil-saving design of the ship was drawn, as shown in Figure 9, and its energy consumption reduction design principle was explained; for example, using a bulbous bow to improve water-breaking, the addition of deflectors to increase aerodynamics, the addition of side panels to the bottom of the ship for water breaking. “S5-1: We want to add a bulbous bow at the bottom of the ship to increase the water-breaking function and increase the necessary edge line of the ship to improve the drainage, as shown in Figure 10, as well as add a guide plate around the ship to reduce wind resistance as a breaking wind.”
Figure 9. Bottom Bulbous Bow.
Figure 10. Edge Line of Ship Bottom.
● Production Phase
Students generated solid objects according to the design drawings and materials, as shown in Figure 11 and Figure 12. When they encountered problems during the process, they immediately found ways to solve them. “S4-3: We think about adopting the method of filling soil to form the bulbous bow and the necessary edge of the boat.” “S3-4: We wanted to use carbon fiber products to make the ship’s deflector, inducer, and board above the driver’s seat, as shown in Figure 13, but we finally used acrylic due to the financial pressure”. After completing production, the ship’s functional underwater navigation test was started. “S1-3: When the ship was launched, it was found that installing a motor behind the ship would lead to a serious draught in the rear half of the ship, and the water resistance would be very high. Therefore, we installed Styrofoam in the bottom of the ship and reduced the volume to reduce the water resistance.” “S3-2: We added wooden boards on our ship to reduce the wind pressure, as shown in Figure 14, and we also installed a tail wing to balance the ship.”
Figure 11. Material Cut by Size.
Figure 12. Material Assembly.
Figure 13. Installation of Guide Plate at the Bottom of the Ship.
Figure 14. Addition of Planks on the Ship to Reduce Wind Pressure.
● Finished Product Release Phase
This project required students to release finished products, as shown in Figure 15 and Figure 16, to share their design concept and production experience. “S2-4: After we installed the motor on the hull, we found that the stern draft was too deep. Water might enter when it hits an obstacle. Our solution was to increase buoyancy and prevent water inflow by placing Styrofoam on the bottom of the ship.” “S7-3: This group added Styrofoam reinforcement to the hull, which increases the front draft area of the hull and markedly affects the sailing speed of the ship. The solution was to design Styrofoam as a streamline shape to allow the water to flow more smoothly around the hull.” Through publication of the results, student groups can train their presentation skills, as shown in Figure 17, understand the ideas and design concepts of other groups, and exchange with each other. “S9-1: We have benefited a lot from this group cooperation, and each person is growing up in terms of both discussion and technology due to the teacher’s guidance, as learning occurs not only in textbooks.” In addition, experts and scholars were invited to evaluate students’ briefing and creative work, as shown in Figure 18, and they scored the ship energy consumption reduction design concept, navigation speed and operation, as shown in Figure 19 and Figure 20. Thus, they assessed students’ learning outcomes in terms of fuel-saving literacy and awarded excellent groups.
Figure 15. Chart of Completed Student Works.
Figure 16. Chart of Completed Student Works.
Figure 17. Presentation of Student Achievements.
Figure 18. Expert Scoring of Student Works.
Figure 19. Description of the Sailing Competition.
Figure 20. Live Sailing Competition.

4.3.2. Positive Emotional Content Analysis Results and Discussion

This study used the Push-pull Mobile Learning platform as the context for students’ cooperative learning, as well as to collect learning interactive text data for the case students, including written reports, activity photos, records, and group works, among others, all of which were objects of analysis in this study. The results of the positive emotion content analysis are shown in Table 7, and they are statistically explained according to each aspect and each group as follows.
Table 7. Statistics for the Positive Emotion Contents.
(1) Performance of All Aspects of Positive Emotions
The performance results for the students in 11 experimental groups in the “Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project” according to the four aspects of positive emotions are shown in Figure 21, with the highest number being the confidence aspect (308 times), the second highest number being the joy aspect (204 times), the third highest number being the optimism aspect (195 times), and the lowest number being the contentment aspect (130 times). The results showed that most students could perform the projects with a confident attitude and happy mood, and they were optimistic about the results of the project.
Figure 21. Number of Student Discussions on All Aspects of Positive Emotions.
(2) Performance of Each Group in Positive Emotions
Regarding the performance in positive emotions of the 11 experimental groups of students during the learning process of the “Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project”, as shown in Figure 22, the top 5 groups were Group 6 (122 times), Group 9 (102 times), Group 1 (90 times), Group 3 (84 times), and Group 2 (83 times). The correlation between the “group performance of positive emotions” and students’ “ship knowledge achievements” and “ship fuel-saving works” was further analyzed by product-moment correlation statistics.
Figure 22. Number of All Group Discussions on Positive Emotions.
In terms of the product-moment correlation statistical analysis of the “group performance of positive emotions” and “ship knowledge achievements”, as shown in Table 8, the correlation coefficient was 0.599 (p = 0.026), reaching a significant level, showing that students’ “group performance of positive emotions” was positively and highly correlated with “ship knowledge achievements”. In contrast, in the product-moment correlation statistical analysis of “group performance of positive emotions” and “achievement of ship fuel-saving works”, the correlation coefficient was 0.836 (p = 0.001), reaching a significant level, indicating that students’ “group performance of positive emotions” was positively and highly correlated with “achievement of ship fuel-saving works”. Specifically, for most of the student groups, the higher the frequency of positive emotions and the greater the number of heated discussions, the better was their performance in “ship knowledge achievement” and “ship fuel-saving works achievement”, showing a high positive correlation. These results provide an important reference for follow-up course planning and the Push-pull Mobile Learning platform design.
Table 8. Product-moment Correlation Summary Table.

5. Conclusions and Suggestions

Based on the above research results and discussions, the following conclusions and suggestions are summarized as follows.

5.1. Conclusions

After 18 weeks of experimental teaching, students’ questionnaires and text data were analyzed and discussed, and the conclusions are as presented follows.
(1) Blended Learning Planning with the Positive AI 2 Fuel-saving Project Teaching Mode Can Provide Students with Diversified Learning Channels
This research adopted a blended learning plan to develop Push-pull Mobile Learning courses and to provide students with diversified learning channels through the Push-pull Mobile Learning system for traditional practical courses. Students can effectively learn and apply positive emotions and ship fuel economy knowledge through Push-pull Mobile Learning courses, online learning, group discussions, and experience sharing, among others. In addition, relevant text data in the students’ learning process can be collected through the Push-pull Mobile Learning system, thus providing an important reference for qualitative analysis.
(2) The Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project can significantly improve students’ accomplishments in positive emotions
After the course of “Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project”, the students in the experimental group demonstrated significantly improved accomplishments in positive emotions such as Joy, Contentment, Confidence, and Optimism. This result shows that this project can effectively help students show “positive emotions” under the guidance of the construction of positive emotional learning environments, as well as the encouragement and guidance of teachers.
(3) The fuel-saving literacy of the students in the experimental group in this project is significantly better than those in the control group
After the “Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project” and Push-pull Mobile Learning Course, the students in the experimental group performed significantly better than the students in the control group in “ship knowledge” and “ship fuel-saving works”. Overall, most of the university students from the Engineering Department participating in the Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project demonstrated significantly better results than those in the control group regarding the overall performance of “ship knowledge” and “ship fuel-saving works”.
(4) The students in the experimental group show the highest frequency of the aspect of confidence in positive emotion accomplishment in the learning process applied in this project
According to the analysis of the student learning process in the “Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project” in the experimental group, the frequency of the confidence aspect was highest, followed by the joy aspect and optimism aspect, while the contentment aspect was lowest. This result shows that the content design and teaching methods employed for this project can cultivate students’ confidence and joy, improve students’ learning motivation, enable most students to achieve confidence to complete the task of delivery, and complete the project in a joyful mood.
(5) The “group performance of positive emotions” of the students in the experimental group is significantly and highly positively related to “ship knowledge achievement” and “ship fuel-saving work achievement”
In this study, the students’ discussion frequency and discussion content were observed and collected, and the “group performance of positive emotions” of the students in the experimental group was found to have a positive correlation and a high degree of correlation with the students’ “ship knowledge achievement” and “ship fuel-saving work achievement”. This result shows that if students are willing to use this platform for discussion, study via the convenience of using the Push-pull Mobile Learning system of the “Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project”, and integrate positive emotion teaching methods, the effectiveness of cooperative learning among peers, the effectiveness of ship knowledge learning in the project course, and the performance of ship fuel-saving works can all be improved.

5.2. Suggestions

Based on the above research results, the following suggestions are provided.
(1) Schools should include “positive emotions” in the curriculum planning of practical projects
This study showed that the “Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project” can significantly improve the learning effect of the students’ practice project course in the university’s Engineering Department, and most students agree with this teaching mode. In addition, the “Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project” course is mainly based on classroom learning courses, which are supplemented by Push-pull Mobile Learning courses, to meet the needs of practice project course planning. Therefore, it is suggested that schools should include the “Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project” in their practice project course planning to provide students with diversified learning environments.
(2) Teachers should integrate “positive emotions” into the curriculum design
This study found that most students express positive recognition of the positive emotional learning of the “Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project”, indicating that the project has a systematic teaching design, which has acquired a positive evaluation from most students in students’ positive emotional learning, and effectively improves students’ positive emotional literacy. Therefore, it is suggested that teachers should integrate the “Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project” into the curriculum teaching design with a multi-functional Push-pull Mobile Learning system to provide students with a planned learning schedule and design learning contents that meet their individual needs.
(3) Suggestions for the implementation of the AI 2 fuel-saving course
Most students gave positive evaluations of the “Positive AI 2 Fuel-Saving Project” developed by this study, which shows that college students are interested in diversified mobile learning environments. Teachers are encouraged to use the “Push-pull Mobile Learning Course” as an aid for teaching practical projects to achieve the convenience of real-time discussion in the mobile learning system and to enable students to participate in real-time discussions without time or space constraints. Moreover, they can make good use of the picture and film uploading function of mobile learning, build a complete course database, send it to students according to the course schedule, provide students with focused learning, check students’ learning progress and effectiveness, and use it as an important reference for adjusting teaching content and progress.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, C.-C.C. and S.-J.L.; Methodology, C.-C.C.; Software, Y.-M.C., and R.-C.S.; Validation, C.-C.C., S.-J.L., and Y.-M.C., and R.-C.S.; Formal Analysis, C.-C.C.; Investigation, Y.-M.C., and R.-C.S.; Resources, C.-C.C.; Data Curation, Y.-M.C., and R.-C.S.; Writing-Original Draft Preparation, C.-C.C.; Writing-Review and Editing, S.-J.L.; Visualization, S.-J.L.; Supervision, C.-C.C.; Project Administration, C.-C.C.; Funding Acquisition, S.-J.L., Y.-M.C., and R.-C.S.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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