PBL from real projects and students initiative: a case study

• Autores: Mario Solís Muñiz, Antonio Romero
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 33, no. 6 (Parte A), 2017, págs. 1726-1736
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The benefits of Project Based Learning (PBL) to acquire technological knowledge as well as transversal skills by studentsare well known. However, the implementation of PBL requires additional efforts from teachers and students, as well asadditional teaching resources when compared to traditional teaching. This paper presents a case study of a singular PBLexperience developed within a subject entitled Experimental Structural Analysis. This subject had PBL alreadyimplemented. However, the paper describes a new PBL experience that was suggested by some students that were partof the Formula Student (FS) team from the University of Seville. 24 students and 2 teachers took part in this newexperience. The proposed PBL introduced some new challenges in the subject. The paper describes how the subject wasorganized in terms of theoretical and practical lessons, tutorials and assessment (including the introduction of a novel SelfAssessment Factor). The paper analyzes the results from an academic point of view and describes the benefits, difficulties,advantages and opportunities arising from a PBL approach in which students play a new role as real promoters of a realproject. Results from academic scores, surveys from students and teachers’ perceptions are analyzed. The percentage ofstudents who ask the teachers of the subject to supervise their final degree project is used as a new satisfaction indicatorfrom students. The paper shows that this PBL methodolodogy is enriching and suitable for the learning process of most thestudents. However, new challenges arise such as encouraging all the students to be actually involved in the cooperativework and ensuring that the main theoretical concepts are learned. The FS competition is proven to be a good opportunityfor implementing PBL based on a real project.