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.

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.

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.

The Use of Blogs in a Project-Based Learning Context for First-Year Engineering Students\u2019 Teams

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anabela Alves ◽  
Ana C. Pereira ◽  
Celina P. Le\xe3o ◽  
Sandra Fernandes ◽  
Andre Uebe-Mansur
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
First Year ◽  
Learning Context

First-Year Engineering Students’ Conceptualization of Entrepreneurial Mindset

2021 ◽  
pp. 251512742110292
Author(s):  
Darby R. Riley ◽  
Hayley M. Shuster ◽  
Courtney A. LeMasney ◽  
Carla E. Silvestri ◽  
Kaitlin E. Mallouk
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
College Student ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Educational Experiences ◽  
Multidisciplinary Design ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Semester ◽  
First Year College ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Reflection Prompts

This study was conducted to examine how first-year engineering students conceptualize the Entrepreneurial Mindset (EM) and how that conceptualization changes over the course of their first semester of college, using the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN)’s 3Cs as a starting point. Students enrolled in an introductory, multidisciplinary design course responded to biweekly reflection prompts on their educational experiences (either in high school or as a first-year college student) and related this experience to one of the 3Cs of EM: Curiosity, Connections, or Creating Value. Results indicate that students’ conceptualization of the 3Cs often align with definitions of EM from KEEN, as well as foundational works in the entrepreneurship field, and that their interpretation of each of the 3Cs does change during their first semester in college. For instance, students were less likely to write about curiosity and more likely to write about creating value at the end of the semester compared to the beginning.

Ten Years of Positive Feedback on Project-Based Learning From First-Year Engineering Students’ Perspective

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anabela C. Alves ◽  
Francisco Moreira ◽  
Celina P. Leão ◽  
Sandra Fernandes
Keyword(s):  
Continuous Improvement ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Evaluation Process ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
First Year ◽  
Case Scenario ◽  
Student Centered ◽  
Student Centered Learning ◽  
Continuous Improvement Process ◽  
On Line

Abstract Project-Based Learning (PBL) is an active student-centered learning methodology. Several schools (of varying degrees of education) have implemented, in different ways, PBL, having as common strands that the student learns in teams, and being challenged in the context of a case-scenario. In Portugal, a PBL methodology has been implemented, in the first year of an Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) program, for more than 15 years. This represents a total number above 700 students of IEM enrolled in PBL during the reported timeframe. A continuous improvement process of the PBL activities was relentlessly pursued during such period. Grounded on end-of-term on-line PBL process satisfaction questionnaires, as well as on results of each PBL edition final workshops, this paper studies and reports on a number of such achievements and shortcomings. Thus, this paper presents the analysis of the results of ten academic years of PBL evaluation process, grounded on the compiled results obtained from 2009/10 to 2019/20. Also, a synthesis of the effective findings (either positive or negative), systematically pointed out by the students, will be presented. Altogether, the PBL implementation in the IEM program has been very positive for students and teachers and worth for others to follow.

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.

Project-Based Learning for First-Year Engineering Students: Design of CO2 Sequestration

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
P R Neal ◽  
M Ho ◽  
G Fimbres-Weihs ◽  
F Hussain ◽  
Y Cinar
Keyword(s):  
Co2 Sequestration ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
First Year

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.

scholarly journals Student Responses to a Tough Early Assessment: A Useful “Kick up the Bum”?

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 28-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Wilson ◽  
Kate F Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Diagnostic Assessment ◽  
First Year ◽  
Mixed Methods Design ◽  
High Failure Rate ◽  
Early Assessment ◽  
Student Responses ◽  
First Semester ◽  
The Right ◽  
Depth Interviews

First year is a delicate time for students. Many have little idea what to expect of university, and their sense of identity as tertiary students is fragile. A diagnostic assessment early in first semester may reassure students that they have chosen the right path. However, some academics, particularly in engineering, argue that this early assessment should be very demanding – so tough, in fact, that some students fail - in order to alert students to the hard work required to pass the course. This study uses a mixed methods design (weekly surveys and in-depth interviews) to explore the effects of a purposefully tough early assessment on first year engineering students at an Australian university. We find that, across the cohort, the high failure rate was not associated with a significant slump or spike in motivation. Although some students were initially dismayed by their results, most went on to address their study with resilience, and appreciated the “kick up the bum”, as they described it.

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