Distance Education in Information Technology, a case study

Project organized problem based learning is a successful concept for on-campus education at Aalborg University. The “Aalborg concept” has been used in networked distance education as well. This paper describes a project from the first year of our Master of Information Technology education organized with Internet-mediated project work. A group of 4 students carried out a project dependent on knowledge from two firms where two of the group members are working, making this a kind of Worked Based Learning (WBL). The project was formulated as a traditional on-campus type of project with the same complexity, and the designed solution should be implemented on a test rig. In spite of this, the group fulfilled the goals satisfactorily, and made an impressive project. The main conclusions are, that the project work is a strong learning motivator, enhancing peer collaboration, for off-campus students as well. However, it is much more risky if the oncampus model is transferred directly to off-campus learning. The main reasons are that the students must communicate electronically, and that they are under a fierce time strain, studying part time and typically with a full time job and a family. Experiences with this type of project in grouporganized distance education, are described and commented by three of the group members, and some possible solutions for more appropriate types of projects are listed1.