[SEFI AC] A student's viewpoint of Project Based Learning

A students’ viewpoint of Project Based Learning: Outcomes and experiences from the Symposia organised by the Board of European Students of Technology

G. Bosic1, P. Kaklamanis1, S. Núñez1, M. Tzedaki1 1

Educational Committee, Board of European Students of Technology, {gorana.bosic, petros.kaklamanis, sara.nunez, maria.tzedaki}@best.eu.org

Abstract Project Based Learning (PBL) is being developed under the guidance of the new European Educational initiatives that focus the learning process of the learners. The fundamental idea for PBL is a systematic teaching method that engages students in learning knowledge and skills through an extended inquiry process structured around complex, authentic questions and carefully designed products and tasks.

The project length could vary from several weeks to a year, and the topic could be based on one subject or being interdisciplinary. During the whole process, the students, divided in groups of 4 in average, not only respond by offering feedback to information, but they also actively use what they know in order to explore, negotiate, interpret, and create. The teachers learn how to effectively select content and activities to amplify and extend the skills and capabilities of students.

With this article, we, members of the Educational Committee of BEST [2], try to present students’ perspectives on Project Based Learning, by sharing the experience, outcomes and conclusions as results of the work developed in BEST Academics and Companies Forum that took place in Bucharest, Romania, March 2008. The main subjects discussed in the Forum were PBL and its implementation.

Keywords: Project Based Learning, student input, student attractiveness, industry, Board of European Students of Technology

1. INTRODUCTION Project-based learning, or PBL, is a constructivist pedagogy that intends to bring about deep learning by allowing learners to use an inquiry based approach to engage with issues and questions that are rich, real and relevant to their lives. Project based learning is designed to be used for complex issues that require students to investigate in order to understand [3].

BEST through Events on Education had the opportunity to receive students’ views on PBL and to identify the implementation of such programmes all over Europe.

During our Event on Education in Bucharest students felt that PBL can be seen as an achievement during their curricula and even though PBL is not implemented in all Universities they felt more confident to work with a real problem and appointed abilities and skills useful for their career path.

Students would prefer to experience the feeling of organising their work and time, collaborate with projects that can be given from companies. PBL is seen as a preparation for their work since it was expressed that projects should be given from different companies which are in perfect collaboration with the University as a pre-step of their employment.

The cooperation between company and University on the formation of PBL should be designed thoroughly, so that students will have the ability and time to focus also on their educational and learning part of their studies. Projects and problems should be set according to the students’ educational level and background.

The feeling to learn through practice and put into practice the knowledge gained from theory is one of the most pleasant emotions a student and especially an engineer should feel.

2. BEST AND BEST EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEE

2.1 BEST

Board of European Students of Technology (BEST) [2], is a constantly growing non-profit, nonrepresentative and non-political student association. Since 1989, BEST provides communication and cooperation possibilities for students all over Europe. Seventy six Local BEST Groups (LBGs) in almost thirty countries form a well organized and powerful student network.

BEST strives to assist European students of technology in becoming more internationally minded, by providing opportunities to work in international teams. Additionally, BEST makes it possible for students to meet and learn from each other through the academic and non-academic courses and educational symposia [2].

2.2 BEST Educational Committee

BEST Educational Committee (EduCo) is an international team, responsible for the Educational Involvement of BEST, which takes an active role in promoting and raising awareness on educational matters, related to the educational world of the modern engineer.

Students’ feedback, experiences and opinions gathered in BEST Events on Education are considered quite relevant and valuable by different engineering education associations (such as SEFI [4], CESAER [5], FEANI [6]) and European Thematic Networks that seek to develop the European dimension of engineering education and improve its quality (TREE [7], ReVE [8], EIE-Surveyor [9], SPUTNIC [10], VM-BASE [11]).

3. BEST EVENTS ON EDUCATION

BEST Events on Education (EoEs) are BEST events where engineering students discuss, share and exchange knowledge on specific themes of concern in the field of education. Two types of such events exist: •

BEST Symposium on Education (Symposium);

•

BEST Academics and Companies Forum (BACo).

Symposia aim to increase the awareness of technology students in educational issues. In the case of BACo Fora the topics to be debated are related to the corporate world and presented from three perspectives, students, academia and industry.

A BEST Event on Education consists of three to five working days attended by twenty to thirty students from different European countries. The structure of the working days includes topic presentations performed by professors or other experts in the field, discussion groups which treat the topics from various aspects in order to bring to light all the full potential of the participants, and sometimes more interactive sessions like open space technology or learning cafĂŠ. The students participating are selected so as to ensure variety of backgrounds and knowledge about educational matters. Cultural and academic diversity provides the proper environment to analyse the topics from different points of view.

The conclusions and outcomes of these working sessions are gathered by BEST Educational Committee members and compiled into reports which are presented to European Higher Engineering Education stakeholders as student input on the topics presented during the event. The goal of the report is to integrate students’ ideas and feedback in the process of developing and improving Higher Engineering Education at a European level.

4. OUTCOMES

4.1 Positive outcomes of PBL Students mainly prefer working in projects or having real problems to deal with. At the same time, they point the fact that PBL is not implemented in many Universities. It is a useful teaching method, which offers experiences and abilities required in nowadays market.

In order to implement the theoretical knowledge into practice, projects are seen as the most appropriate way to it. In projects there are possibilities to learn and improve your skills in a more pragmatic way.

The basic knowledge must be taught theoretically, as the first step is always to examine closely the problem, while afterwards the practical work and solution to the problem would incorporate and conclude the necessary knowledge. They believe that it is an innovative method that trains students to work in a creative way. Most of them agreed that it is almost impossible to recall all theoretical knowledge that they receive at schools and they try to deal with it by learning where to find the information they need to carry out a task or a project.

Experience with PBL varies in different countries. In general, PBL is implemented at universities in a small scale, or is not well defined. Students are obliged to attend classes and evaluate the project in some particular cases. As an extreme opposite example, in the Aalborg University of Denmark, full time studies include PBL programme, students work in teams and have deadlines to finish their projects.

4.2 Student attractiveness For students PBL is seen as the most beneficial way to learn and improve their skills. Universities would have the opportunity to involve students in various research programs without the need of the appropriate laboratory since companies can provide the necessary and demanding equipment. In addition to this, the financial support from companies for specific needs and requirements, that are necessary for the integration of the project, will create a more dynamic working environment inside the University.

By having students involved in real projects inside companies, students are able to see the real problems and difficulties an engineer is facing daily, and they can start thinking in a more professional way. Creativity and effectiveness will be developed in students as they gain experience in a real business environment.

Interesting and innovative topics, that require teamwork and usage of new technologies, are seen as opportunities to gain some practical knowledge and to develop some soft skills. In order to apply for PBL project, students need to know preconditions under which they will work: are they signing any contract with company and what are the opportunities for continuing working career in company.

Students are more motivated to choose PBL if they have the opportunity to choose topic of a project and if they have financial support such as a scholarship.

4.3 Students’ impressions Even though students see PBL as an alternative teaching method, they stated that it is a good opportunity for students since it provides certain amount of information on some topic. During their studies, students should learn how and where they should find the appropriate materials for their problems. PBL can be a tool for practicing these kinds of skills The technological and literature background has to be related with the amount of work and the difficulty of the project. Essential equipment should be available in order to let the students focus in the development of the project without such concerns about logistics and materials. The way to use all the knowledge that students have gained from theoretical level should be free and depend on the group of people that work on the project, in order to increase the probability of having new ideas and solutions.

This could be a way to improve the existing knowledge and add a small foundation stone into educational world.

The technological support, the lack of time and the possibility on focusing mainly on projects can affect negatively the time to learn theoretically in many fields of the education. Companies should support PBL programs but also adjust the difficulty according to the needs of the University and the knowledge that students must gain after it.

The length of period which students are supposed to follow PBL influences their studies. Involvement in PBL should be long enough in order to adjust to teamwork, but not too long, since students are absent from university. As a possible solution, students proposed having PBL as part of studies.

Small number of available projects for students at university is seen as a possible problem. By dividing big projects into smaller and simpler parts, the number of projects can be increased, and more students can be involved in PBL. One of the great advantages of PBL is that it can set up a basis for students to try new ideas and methods, and eventually experiment in engineering, even if they make mistakes in the end. Truth is that such failures, although highly didactic, they have some cost, and unfortunately this cost is not always affordable.

When companies support PBL, they are simultaneously promoting themselves, since a big number of students and professors will be aware of the project and the cooperation between the university and the company. Students may bring innovative way of thinking into companies since fresh and young minds can usually come up with new and innovative solutions. PBL can be seen as an opportunity that Universities should give to students after having them well prepared to get involved in projects, designed from Companies in accordance to the abilities of the educational level that Universities can provide.

Application of PBL often leads to several students working together in groups of three to five students.

Group work is enhancing some soft skills of students, like communication and cooperation with others, working in multicultural environments, often using other languages than their mother tongue. Other soft skills that are considerably improved via PBL are the ones of time management, self discipline, project management, and the very important ability to think like in a way oriented to research and innovation.

4.4 Conclusions and recommendations In order to create active learning environment for students at university, further collaboration between companies and universities is seen as a necessity. Universities should adjust curricula more to students’ needs. Students find more motivating to work on projects for companies, since it is more practical for work after university.

Furthermore, industry should be active in the field by making a lot of different projects available to the students. The students expressed the desire of being able to choose a project, and to avoid being in the

difficult situation where they should work on a project, even if they do not desire to, just because there are no other projects available.

In order to be sure that PBL is useful and fruitful for students the most effective way that will motivate students for practical work must be defined. Professors must try to find the way in order to inspire students to learn and work in practice, to show them their practical experience and the useful impact of their knowledge level and to give students different pathways to follow.

Universities could implement PBL through obligate internships during studies, but they should start after a minimum of two years of school. In addition, present PBL activities should be recognised by the academic society. As obstacle, students see universities that are not opened to companies and changes of curricula.

In order to change opinion of academics about PBL, professors need to be motivated to participate in projects. Evaluation and frequent input from professors about project can have positive influence on opinion about PBL at universities.

Student associations can help in motivating companies to support PBL, through activities such as job fairs, workshops or recruitment events. In these events, companies can receive the visibility they would like to have, and at the same time they can reach an audience that will build the engineers of tomorrow.

The motivation to support a PBL programme comes from the fact that companies can affect positively the education a student is receiving through his curricula, and eventually have better trained and qualified workers in near future. In case the companies are not interested, the state can invest on students’ participation on public project.

5. References

[1]

BEST Educational Committee, Report from the BEST Academic and Companies Forum with the topic “Shaping the 21st century professional engineer in Europe” (*) (In progress), Bucharest, Romania, February 2008.

[2]

Board of European Students of Technology. Website: www.best.eu.org

[3]

Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, “Project Based Learning”, Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project-based_learning

[4]

European Society for Engineering Education. Website: www.sefi.be

[5]

Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research. Website: www.cesaer.org

[6]

European Federation of National Engineering Associations. Website: www.feani.org

[7]

Teaching and Research in Engineering in Europe. Website: www.unifi.it/tree

[8]

Real Virtual Erasmus. Website: http://reve.europace.org

[9]

Electrical and Information Engineering in Europe – Surveyor. Website: www.eie-surveyor.org

[10]

Seminars Promoting the Use of Technology for Networking and International Collaboration.

Website: www.europace.org/rdsputnic.php

[11]

Virtual Mobility Before www.europace.org/rdvmbase.php

and

After

Student

Exchanges.

Website:

(*) The report will be available in the public website of BEST, more specifically at: http://www.best.eu.org/student/education/documents.jsp Further information may be asked in the email address: education@BEST.eu.org