Mini workshop - Designing project-based courses for learning and cost-effective teaching

This workshop draws on experience in the international collaboration for engineering education reform, called the CDIO Initiative, where project-based learning is a key part of the concept. The purpose of project-based courses in engineering education is to provide environments where students can develop a deeper working knowledge of technical fundamentals together with the complex skills necessary for engineering practice, or in short: where students can become engineers. In this workshop, the learning perspective is emphasized, by identifying trade-offs where there are inherent tensions between learning outcomes and other factors in project-based courses (such as project goal, product performance, technical sophistication, teacher popularity, student satisfaction). A set of principles are derived for enhancing learning and teaching in project-based courses, using concrete examples to illustrate thought-provoking implications. Each principle aims to improve both student learning outcomes and cost-effectiveness of teaching. Together the principles constitute a framework for learning-driven course design. The aim is to challenge assumptions and common practices in project-based courses, and provoke fruitful discussion among participants. Index Terms – Cost-effective teaching, Course design, Project-based learning, Learning trade-offs PROJECT-BASED COURSES PROVIDE NECESSARY LEARNING EXPERIENCES FOR ENGINEERING SKILLS In the international CDIO Initiative for engineering education reform [1], one best practice identified is to weave a sequence of project-based courses into the curriculum. The aim is to provide appropriate learning experiences by allowing students to tackle realistic problems in working modes that are aligned with professional engineering practice. The intended learning outcomes for such courses emphasize integration and application of technical knowledge acquired in previous and parallel courses, and development of engineering skills, such as communication and teamwork and skills in developing products, processes and systems. For these types of learning outcomes we consider an experiential learning approach necessary; they need to be developed through practice and reflection in hands-on activities. Further, project-based courses support students in developing their attitude to knowledge [2] by exposure to open-ended problems. Discipline-based courses tend to emphasize text-book problems, made up to illustrate theory in the particular discipline. Students are therefore accustomed to getting neat right-and-wrong answers in the back of the book or from teachers. To prepare for engineering practice, students must also encounter the world of „real‟ problems, which usually cross discipline boundaries, are complex, ill-defined and contain tensions and contextual factors. Creating solutions to real problems thus requires making interpretations, estimations and approximations. By carrying projects all the way through to actually implementing and testing solutions, students are made more comfortable in translating between models and physical reality, in understanding the implications of assumptions and estimations, and becoming accustomed to standing with one foot in the analysis and the other foot in the workshop. As this relationship is what engineering is fundamentally based on, this practice is a necessary component of engineering education. PUTTING THE LEARNING BACK INTO PROJECT-BASED LEARNING Teachers and students in project-based courses testify that students learn much from the experience. These courses are no doubt motivational and stimulate a lot of student activities. Despite the popularity, we believe there is often room for improvement in course design. As a learning experience the project-based course is often treated like a black box students are simply solving an assignment and learning outcomes will be whatever they are. Learning objectives are often vaguely formulated, and it is particularly common that assessment is decoupled from any intended learning outcomes. Instead, assessment is strongly focused on the success of the project only natural when there is no plan for achieving specific learning outcomes. It is reasonable to expect that courses in higher education should declare their intended learning outcomes. Then, learning activities should be designed to support students in reaching those learning outcomes, and assessment should be designed to verify them [3]. As we will show, this framework for learning-driven course design has far-reaching implications, and ten years of experience have led us to challenge some implicit assumptions and common practices in project-based courses.