Using Problem-Based Learning and Gamification as a Catalyst for Student Engagement in Data-Driven Engineering Education: A Report

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript describes a typical project-based learning in an engineering class. Although it is under the STEM title, the STEM context is unclear. 

More importantly, the manuscript omits the academic standpoints that are critical of the STEM movement, which weakens the quality of its literature review.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer 1,

Thanks for your helpful review and, as such, for giving us the possibility to improve our article. I would like to comment on or answer the comments made by you:

1) We added information on page 5 to offer a deeper understanding of the underlying concepts of geogovernment (most prominently GIS analysis and data transformation) and to offer a clearer link to a STEM context.
2) To strengthen the quality of our literature review, we added more information critical to STEM education, especially STEM pedagogies, on Page 3.

Again, thank you for your time and the review. We hope that, through the changes provided, we could improve the article to your liking.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Please see attached file

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Reviewer 2,

Thanks for your extensive and highly helpful review, and as such, for giving us the possibility to improve our article. I would like to comment on or answer a couple of points made by you:

1) We gave more in-depth detail about the framework (i.e., the 7 Steps of Problem-Based Learning) that we relied upon. We took the original text and gave a brief overview of each step by providing the leading question and the goals that should be achieved in each phase.
2) Thank you for pointing out the missing data in the insets. We added the units to provide more detailed insights. Regarding your question, no, the green shading should be in 2c: 2b depicts the accessibility isochrones of motorway entrances and exits, while 2c depicts the accessibility isochrones of ATMS and their spatial relation toward police stations.
3) We added a more detailed description of the subject matter, especially focusing on the fundamental concepts needed to be grasped by students in GeoGovernment (GIS-analysis and strongly related to this, data literacy).

About the minor points:

We read through the article once more, and we tried to reduce the redundancies. All changes were tracked by the "Track Changes“ option of Microsoft Word, so we hope they are comprehensible to you.

4) We put GeoGovernment in high quotes at this and at a later point (Page 5, 215).
5) We deleted the word „converge“.
6) We inserted the space after the literature reference.
7) We inserted the space after the literature references.
8) We inserted the period after the literature references.
9) We checked reference 13: acatech is the name of an academy, followed by the name of a foundation, then the name of their publication, which has the year 2023 in its official name, as it relates to a yearly report. Lastly, the publication year

Again, thank you for your time, the extensive review and your valuable feedback. We hope that, through the changes provided, we could improve the article to your liking.

Kind regards