Dealing With Student Profile Diversity in an Industrial Engineering and Management Program: PBL vs “Non-PBL”

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anabela C. Alves ◽  
Francisco Moreira ◽  
Celina P. Leão
Keyword(s):  
Management Program ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Industrial Engineering ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Student Profile ◽  
The University ◽  
Transfer Mechanisms ◽  
Pbl Model ◽  
Distinct Approach

The Integrated Master in Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) program has been implementing Project-Based Learning (PBL) for more than 15 years in the first year, first semester. The IEM program is currently attracting students from different programs, using transfer mechanisms, who normally already have passed some of the courses on their original program. Additionally, this program also attracts a number of students already working in some companies. These students are a bit older and their profile is also distinct from that of their fellow colleagues, which enter the university using a regular national ingress process. Thus, distinct situations are identified that demand a different learning approach. The teachers have come-up with one such distinct approach and called it “non-PBL”, since the PBL model is structured in a way that students must have a specific profile, namely, to be first-year IEM student and enrolled a similar set of curricular units. With this in mind, this paper presents these situations, and describes the solution found to address this diversity. The solution must promote similar competences on both PBL and “non-PBL” students. A heavier workload is imposed on the teachers, given that the number of “non-PBL” teams formed can be as much as the number of PBL teams. Nevertheless, the results demonstrate that the “non-PBL” students successfully conclude the first year and that they value the solution proposed, in spite of the difficulties raised with this process.

Tutoring Experiences in PBL of Industrial Engineering and Management Program: Teachers vs Students

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anabela C. Alves ◽  
Francisco Moreira ◽  
Celina P. Leão ◽  
Senhorinha Teixeira
Keyword(s):  
Normal Development ◽  
Management Program ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Industrial Engineering ◽  
First Year ◽  
On Line ◽  
Project Objectives ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The University

Teamwork tutors are one of the characteristic elements of the Project-Based Learning (PBL) methodology. PBL is considered to be an active learning methodology that involves the students in their own learning, by promoting the development of a large interdisciplinary project. The project runs typically over one full semester, or longer, and it is supported by a number of Project Supporting Courses (PSC) that teach and also applies its own contents aligned with project objectives. A set of activities, tasks and milestones are planned for each team so that the project objectives are accrued, with the aid of a tutor that follows the normal development and reports on its progress. This paper discusses the role of the tutor from both sides: students’ and teachers’ tutors, and students in their first year of the Integrated Master in Industrial Engineering and Management program at the University of Minho. A total of thirteen tutors (four teachers and nine third year students) tutored six teams of students. Two on-line questionnaires were used to collect: 1) the perspectives of the tutored students with a total of 38 questions; 2) the perspectives of the tutors with a total of 22 questions. It was interesting to note that almost all students that answered to the questionnaire enjoyed having an older student tutoring them. The students’ tutors also enjoyed and they all had a good tutorship experience, being a special opportunity to help the first year colleagues.

The Use of Blogs in a Project-Based Learning Context for First-Year Engineering Students’ Teams

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anabela C. Alves ◽  
Ana C. Pereira ◽  
Celina P. Leão ◽  
Sandra Fernandes ◽  
Andre F. Uebe-Mansur
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Assessment Method ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Industrial Engineering ◽  
First Year ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Development Context ◽  
Project Phases

Abstract The Integrated Project of Industrial Engineering and Management 1 (IPIEM1) is a curricular unit of the first year developed in the first semester of the Integrated Masters degree of Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM11) – University of Minho, Portugal. In the 2019’s 1st semester and in the IPIEM1 previous versions, Project-Based Learning (PBL) was usually adopted as a learning methodology. In this pedagogical development context, freshman students develop a project integrating all five courses related to this current semester. To undertake this project, the students work in large teams that comprise nine to ten members. Throughout the semester, each team must accomplish the project phases and tasks. To communicate their progress and results developed during the semester, each team designed a blog. In the IPIEM1 previous editions of PBL of this year in this program, the weblog (blog) digital technology was also adopted, but it was never assessed. Thus, this paper has two main objectives: 1) to evaluate the importance of the blog for the teams; 2) to discuss teams’ engagement during its development, knowing that it would be a part of the assessment method. The survey results revealed that the teams considered the blog useful to keep an update record of the project progress and to stimulate the writing and reflection about project contents. Furthermore, some of teachers’ and students’ considerations showed the need for providing more training and experience in the development of blogs.

Action, Practice and Research in Project Based Learning in an Industrial Engineering and Management Program

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anabela C. Alves ◽  
Celina P. Leão
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Management Program ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Industrial Engineering ◽  
Teacher Engagement ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Engaged Teachers ◽  
Market Needs ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Coordination Team

Engineering is a profession that suffers from rapid obsolescence because of constantly new market needs. Therefore, the engineering education curriculum must be adapted to accommodate change and to prepare as well as possible new engineers. To achieve this, Project-Based Learning (PBL) as an active learning methodology, assumes greater importance. PBL has been implemented for a decade (since 2004/05) in the first semester of the first and fourth year of the Master Degree in Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) at University of Minho, Portugal, by a team of IEM teachers. This paper describes this last decade of teaching, learning and researching in a PBL environment in this degree. PBL engages students in their own learning. In IEM program, PBL also engaged teachers in improving their teaching methods by questioning continuously these. Throughout ten years, the coordination team of IEM program faced many challenges and brought significant contributions to discussion, researching on how PBL process in IEM could be improved and studying different PBL models for different students’ needs. By following this path, this paper disseminates the practices researched in PBL process of IEM program and the benefits founded by applying this learning methodology through an analysis of the results of this research published in international conferences, journals and books (more than 70 publications). In light of the results achieved, as well as feedback from researchers and students, the authors believe that PBL is one of the best practices for student learning and teacher engagement.

scholarly journals Managing PBL difficulties in an industrial engineering and management program

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 586 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anabela Alves ◽  
Rui Sousa ◽  
Francisco Moreira ◽  
M. Alice Carvalho ◽  
Elisabete Cardoso ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Active Learning ◽  
Student Assessment ◽  
Management Program ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Industrial Engineering ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Engineering Programs ◽  
First Semester ◽  
New Perspective

Purpose: Project-Based Learning (PBL) is considered to be an active learning methodology which can be used to develop both technical and transversal competences in engineering programs. This methodology demands a great deal of work effort from the students and also from the teachers and it requires a meticulous plan and a well-managed project as well. These activities go far beyond the normal activities in traditional lectures, enabling to outpace the difficulties that spur along the way that may be both complex and demotivating. This methodology has been implemented in the Integrated Master Degree on Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM), at one public university in Portugal, since the 2004/2005 academic year. The aim of this paper is to identify and discuss the main difficulties of the implementation of PBL, mainly from the teachers’ perspectives. Additionally, some effective strategies will be recommended to overcome such difficulties.Design/methodology/approach: The perceptions of the teachers were collected through a survey based on six main themes. The participants in the study include eight teachers from the five courses of the first semester of the first year of the IEM program involved in the 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 editions.Findings: Integration of courses in the project; student assessment; growing number of students in each team and the need of physical spaces for them; and compartmentalized knowledge has emerged as the main difficulties. To overcome these difficulties some key strategies were recommended.Originality/value: A new perspective based on course teachers' views and experiences will deepen the understanding of the problems and provide inputs for the development of strategies that may improve the effectiveness of PBL and introduce changes for its successful implementation. These strategies are intended to be transferable to other contexts, as most of the problems and constraints are common to other active learning approaches.

Project Based Learning in First Year, First Semester of Industrial Engineering and Management: Some Results

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anabela C. Alves ◽  
Francisco Moreira ◽  
Rui Lima ◽  
Rui Sousa ◽  
José Dinis-Carvalho ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bologna Process ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Industrial Engineering ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Innovative Learning ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Past Experiences ◽  
The Bologna Process ◽  
Coordination Team

The innovative learning methodology Project-based learning (PBL) has been functioning in the first semester of the first year of the Master Degree in Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) at University of Minho, Portugal, since 2004_2005. This methodology was implemented by a team of teachers from the Department of Production and Systems of the Engineering School just before the Bologna process was adopted in Portugal. The process required substantial changes in the teaching/learning methods and methodologies and had a significant impact on students’ learning and motivation. The team of IEM teachers designed a full semester project based on the contents of four project-supporting courses (PSC), and formed a coordination team involving PSC lecturers, tutors and educational researchers. The latter aimed to accompany students’ teams, assess the learning process and evaluate the PBL experience at IEM. After nine editions of PBL in the first year, the IEM curricular structure has been reformulated to include a semester-wide project course in the first semester, recognizing PBL as a distinct part of the curriculum. It is therefore time to reflect on the past experiences and the merits of the PBL experiences. After presenting the overview of PBL based on the IEM specific context, its merit will be discussed through the analysis of surveys results and workshops organized at the end of last three PBL editions. This learning approach has put many challenges to the coordination team, brought discussion and triggered research that supported PBL along the way.

scholarly journals Evasion of Industrial Engineering students of FT/UFAM

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. 551-564
Author(s):  
Jéssica Barbosa Da Silva ◽  
Jonas Gomes da Silva
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Industrial Engineering ◽  
Electronic Questionnaire ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Vocational Orientation ◽  
The University ◽  
E Mail

The undergraduate degree in Industrial Engineering at the Faculty of Technology (FT) of the Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM) completed 15 years in the first semester of 2019. During this period, enrolled 837 students, of which 238 (28%) have already graduated, 335 (40 %) continue to study and 263 (32%) have left the course. Given this percentage of dropout and the need to research more about the topic, this article aims to investigate the main causes of abandonment in this course in order to propose strategies to minimize the problem. The method used was the Survey, which applied a five-part electronic questionnaire sent to 203 dropout students who had e-mail. After analyzing the answers of 39 (19.21%), it was concluded that most students did not receive vocational orientation before joining the University and the main reasons that influenced the students to quit the course were the didactic-pedagogical deficiency of the teachers, the difficulty in conciliating study and work, and the course did not satisfy their expectations.

The Use of Applets in an Engineering Chemistry Course

2010 ◽  
pp. 108-118
Author(s):  
B.M. Trigo ◽  
G.S. Olguin ◽  
P.H.L.S. Matai
Keyword(s):  
Cooperative Learning ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Chemical Engineering ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Software Applications ◽  
Engineering Department ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
The University

This chapter deals with the use of Applets, which are examples of software applications, combined with a specific methodology of teaching, based on Paulo Freire’s education concepts. According to his methods, co-creation between its participants is fundamental for the effectiveness of learning process. In that way, to promote a cooperative learning, the Applet should have interactive features. The Chemistry course of Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo, in which students take in the first semester of the first year of the engineering course, was the case study. First, a research with the teachers of the Chemical Engineering Department was carried out, to identify the main problems and difficulties teachers and students face. Then, a topic was selected to be explored with the Applet, which was developed and applied to a small group of students. To identify the success of this experiment a questionnaire was created and the results are presented in this chapter. Some conclusions were drawn and the interactive features of the Applet received a positive feedback.

Use of Symbaloo Edu for Improving Information Management Processes in Work by Modules

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 22-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pilar Biel ◽  
Ester Pérez ◽  
Carmen Rodrigo ◽  
Ana Serrano
Keyword(s):  
Information Management ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Personal Learning ◽  
Personal Learning Environment ◽  
Management Processes ◽  
Digital Competencies ◽  
The University ◽  
Development Engineering

The case presented in this paper is framed within the context of Work by Modules taken during the first year-first semester of the Industrial Design and Product Development Engineering Degree at the University of Zaragoza, and its objective is to improve the processes involved in information management required to perform this work. For this purpose, the design of a personal learning environment (PLE) is proposed, using Symbaloo Edu. This tool provides methodological support to select and organize information sources, and its use favours collaborative work while helping to develop digital competencies, providing students with an environment that complements formal learning. Results show that between 70 and 75% of the students viewed PLE as a tool that made them feel more active and autonomous in their learning process.

Loneliness and the Development of Social Relationships in Malaysian University Students

2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Intan H. M. Hashim ◽  
Siamak Khodarahimi
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
University Students ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
First Semester ◽  
The Social ◽  
The University

In this study we investigated loneliness and how social relationships develop in university students. Participants were 67 first-year students beginning their first semester in a university in northern Malaysia. We collected information regarding respondents' background, their descriptions of the social network at the university, and their level of loneliness. The study was conducted in 2 parts over a 10-week period; at 4 weeks after their registration and then at 14 weeks after their registration. Findings suggest development of friendship was still in progress and loneliness had increased at Time 2.

scholarly journals Ten Years of Project-Based Learning (PBL) in Industrial Engineering and Management at the University of Minho

2017 ◽  
pp. 33-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui M. Lima ◽  
José Dinis-Carvalho ◽  
Rui M. Sousa ◽  
Anabela C. Alves ◽  
Francisco Moreira ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Industrial Engineering ◽  
The University
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