Board 49: Project-based learning course co-designed with regional enterprises
- Conference
- Location
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Baltimore , Maryland
- Publication Date
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June 25, 2023
- Start Date
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June 25, 2023
- End Date
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June 28, 2023
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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College Industry Partnerships Division (CIP)
- Tagged Topic
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Diversity
- Page Count
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12
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--42827
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/42827
- Download Count
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178
Paper Authors
Lufan Wang
Florida International University
orcid.org/0000-0003-0767-0384
I am an Assistant Teaching Professor at Florida International University.
Ruoying Chu
Fangzhou Xia
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
orcid.org/0000-0002-6314-3717
Fangzhou Xia received the dual bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, and in electrical and computer engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China, in 2015. He received the S.M. in 2017 and Ph.D. in 2020 both from the mechanical engineering department in Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA. He is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at MIT.
Zhuoxuan Li Stanford University
I am currently a postdoc in Management Science and Engineering department. My research interests include education system design, education policy and education entrepreneurship
Yan Wei Southern University of Science and Technology
Teaching Associate Professor at Southern University of Science and Technology, research interests focus on engineering education
Yiming Rong Southern University of Science & Tech
Professor Rong is the founding chair of mechanical and energy engineering department at Souhtern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China. He has worked as a professor and researcher in the area of manufacturing for many years, including with Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, and Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL.
Abstract
Project-based learning (PBL) courses in higher education require the instructor team to be very resourceful, multi-disciplinarily intellectual and very inspiring. It also needs student teams to be proactive, collaborative and good at inquiries. This learning methodology in higher education might be suitable for small-size resource-rich universities, or universities focused on teaching. For large research universities in short of resources, how to design and implement PBL courses can be challenging for faculty, whose career evaluation metrics are more based on research performance instead of teaching excellence. This work thus explores the methodology of PBL courses for engineering students in large research universities with no adequate resources.
We propose a PBL course design methodology with evolving regional entrepreneurs in the instructing team. The methodology includes four parts - a project selection framework focusing on output openness and impact, entrepreneur instructor selection criteria and training system, an incentive system for university faculty, entrepreneur teacher and students, and a platform for project management, file documentation and reuse of the projects archival data. To test the effectiveness of the PBL course design methodology, we performed two experiments in Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, in a form of a three-week summer school. Two-year data was collected including archival course data, interview data of students, faculty and entrepreneurs and four student survey data. We found that involving entrepreneur instructors in the course added the perceived impact of the projects which makes students more proactive in inquiry and more disciplined in documentation their progress. More results are forth-coming.
Wang, L., & Chu, R., & Xia, F., & Li, Z., & Wei, Y., & Rong, Y. (2023, June), Board 49: Project-based learning course co-designed with regional enterprises Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--42827
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