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This paper reports on a project in which students designed, constructed and tested a model of an existing early warning system with simulation of debris flow in a context of a landslide. Students also assessed rural community members’ knowledge of this system and subsequently taught them to estimate the time needed for evacuation of the community in the event of a landslide. Participants were four undergraduate students in a civil engineering programme at a university in Thailand, as well as nine community members and three external evaluators. Results illustrate project and problem-based, experiential learning and highlight the real-world applications and development of knowledge and of hard and soft skills. The discussion raises issues of scalability and feasibility for implementation of these types of projects in large undergraduate engineering classes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The analysis of the current state of the Ukrainian system of engineering education indicates the prevalence of traditional teaching-learning approaches in contrast to the modern needs of the labour market. Many universities across the world use the problem/project-based learning (PBL) which is an effective approach for the development of design and management skills of engineering students. The paper describes a detailed structure of a PBL course in project management and practical experience related to its implementation in an engineering degree programme at Bohdan Khmelnytsky National University of Cherkasy. Also, the results of surveys carried out in order to study the students’ generic competences’ development and perception of the PBL process are presented. The results show that students understand the diversity of PBL aspects and the influence of the PBL approach on their professional characteristics such as teamwork, ability of self-directed learning, communication and problem-solving skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current engineering education challenges require approaches that promote scientific, technical, design and complementary skills while fostering autonomy, innovation and responsibility. The European Project Semester (EPS) at Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP) (EPS@ISEP) is a one semester project-based learning programme (30 European Credit Transfer Units (ECTU)) for engineering students from diverse scientific backgrounds and nationalities that intends to address these goals. The students, organised in multidisciplinary and multicultural teams, are challenged to solve real multidisciplinary problems during one semester. The EPS package, although on project development (20 ECTU), includes a series of complementary seminars aimed at fostering soft, project-related and engineering transversal skills (10 ECTU). Hence, the students enrolled in this programme improve their transversal skills and learn, together and with the team of supervisors, subjects distinct from their core training. This paper presents the structure, implementation and results of the EPS@ISEP that was created in 2011 to apply the best engineering practices and promote internationalisation and engineering education innovation at ISEP. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a virtual lab for the contents of an Engineering project, for designing an agro-industrial building, which is also useful for a range of different transversal courses in Engineering sciences. The aims of this tool are to analyse the most important contents of a project-document (calculation, regulations, drawings and budgets), as well as their relationship with the activities which make up the work and the schedule. The design criteria we considered were: its online applications and their compatibility with Moodle; the inclusion of different learning approaches, such as exploratory learning and inquiry-based learning; its interactivity, and the use of multimedia elements for visualisation and direct analysis on material common to Engineering subjects. The students’ perceptions of the improvements brought by the virtual lab were analysed statistically through a series of questions over two academic years. The results of the questionnaires suggested that most of those who had used the e-learning tool valued positively its overall suitability for reaching the objectives in their subject as well as the way it improved the working methodology. The practical knowledge acquired by the students was also highly valued. In addition, the lack of constraints commonly related to field trips (expenses, time and complexity) illustrates the utility of self-access learning tools in key transversal disciplines such as Engineering projects. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper summarizes the results of applying cooperative and project-based learning strategies in two different engineering courses in order to explore their benefits in the students' self-perceptions of project management skills. Nine technical skills and four behavioural ones were evaluated during the academic years 2012 13 and 2013-14 in Civil Engineering, and 2014 15 and 2015-16 in Forest Engineering courses (117 students). The first strategy consisted of the preparation of a project plan to solve a customer's request and the second one was the drafting of a Facebook page to promote one specific commercial project. Results from this study show the strong improvement observed in all the skills studied, these self-rating increases were statistically significant in most of them by the end of the courses. Different tests were applied in order to appropriately assess statistical significance depending on self-rating data distribution. This work confirms the benefit of the application of cooperative and project-based learning strategies on self-perceived improvement in the students' project management skills in engineering courses. These findings are of considerable interest to engineering institutions that want to advance in favour of the students' perceptions of competence and they serve to deepen the combined effects of cooperative and project-based learning in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Specialty courses bridge a student's university education and future occupation. This paper discusses an integrated pedagogy to cultivate a broader, global engineering perspective among Chinese students to enhance their critical thinking and research skills. Two kinds of pedagogies based on the curriculum order are integrated with traditional lectures: English language literature review and Project-Based Learning (PBL). This integrated pedagogical approach was applied in three different kind of engineering courses at three different schools in three different Chinese universities. Student feedback and self-evaluation shows that the literature review method helps them improve their specialty area English level, as well as gain a better grasp of textbook theories and concepts. Meanwhile, PBL helps students develop process-oriented approaches to real-world problem solving and collaboration. Findings show that Chinese students experiencing the integrated pedagogy accept the method, and report a better understanding of textbook content than through passive lectures alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Project-based learning (PBL) facilitates significant learning, but it poses a major assessment challenge for assessing individual content knowledge. We developed and implemented an assessment approach and tool for a mandatory undergraduate systems engineering PBL-based course. We call this type of assessmentstudent-orientedmeta-assessment. Research participants included 131 undergraduate engineering students who carried out team projects requiring conceptual modelling of complex systems. Next, individual students assessed their peer team projects. Finally, the course staff assessed students individually, based on the content knowledge that was reflected in students’ comments to their peers, by using the new meta-assessment tool. The research findings validated the meta-assessment tool which can serve for assessing various PBL courses. Our contribution is twofold: a new approach for assessing project-based undergraduate engineering courses, and classification of meta-assessment methods into three types, where a student-oriented meta-assessment as one of the three meta-assessment methods is our newly introduced and validated method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study presents the skills, experiences, and values identified in project self-reflections of 161 undergraduate engineering students. Self-reflections from two different engineering design courses, which provide experiences in project-based learning (PBL), are analysed through the content analysis methodology. Results show that ‘application’, ‘true life’, ‘satisfaction’, and ‘communication’ are the common keywords shared in the reflections. Multiple hypothesis tests to identify differences between courses, project types, years, and gender suggest that there are no significant differences between experiences, skills, and values self-reported by students who completed either a case study or an industry project. Based on research findings, recommendations will be provided to enhance the engineering curriculum based on PBL experiences to support the development of relevant professional skills and experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study aims to compare and evaluate the learning ability and performance differences between two groups of students undergoing project-based learning (PjBL), with one group having prior PjBL experience, while the other group is being freshly exposed to PjBL. More specifically, it examines if there are significant differences in knowledge score, problem-solving ability, and eventual project-deliverable outcomes between the two sets of students. Performances were compared via qualitative and quantitative analyses. Key findings have indicated a significant increase in fundamental formative knowledge; enhanced problem-solving abilities; and production of better performing artefacts with regard to the set of design skills between experienced and first-time PjBL groups. This study also highlighted that experienced PjBL students have less conflicts within their groups, and are more receptive to PjBL compared to first-time PjBL students. Results from this study provide a starting point for educators to seek new learning/facilitating strategies that are relevant based on the experience and learning styles of students. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]