Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Project-Based Learning
How to Approach, Report,
Present, and Learn from
Course-Long Projects
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Keywords
client report, effective presentations, experiential learning, groups,
instructor feedback, iterative process, pedagogy, problem-based learning,
professional report, project management, project-based learning, p
rojects,
research paper, service learning, teaching
Contents
Chapter 1 Problematic Higher Education����������������������������������������1
Chapter 2 Laying the Foundation: Education����������������������������������7
Chapter 3 Laying the Foundation: Projects������������������������������������21
Chapter 4 Project-Based Learning�������������������������������������������������31
Chapter 5 Project Teams����������������������������������������������������������������47
Chapter 6 The Research Process in Projects�����������������������������������65
Chapter 7 Projects that Contribute to Practice������������������������������79
Chapter 8 Projects that Contribute to Theory�����������������������������109
Chapter 9 Communicating Project Results����������������������������������135
Chapter 10 Conclusion�����������������������������������������������������������������155
Appendix A Examples of Team Agreements������������������������������������159
Appendix B Example Form Student Waiver�����������������������������������169
Appendix C Examples of Nondisclosure Agreements����������������������173
Appendix D Example of Team Charter�������������������������������������������183
Appendix E Example of a Project Management Plan����������������������187
Appendix F Example Model Application���������������������������������������199
Appendix G Example of a Progress Report��������������������������������������207
Appendix H Examples of Lessons Learned��������������������������������������213
Appendix I Example Literature Review�����������������������������������������223
Appendix J Example Methodology Discussion������������������������������233
Appendix K Example Conclusion of a Project that Contributes
to Theory��������������������������������������������������������������������241
Appendix L Example Reflection on Project that Contributes
to Theory��������������������������������������������������������������������245
viii Contents
References�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������249
About the Authors�������������������������������������������������������������������������������257
Index�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������259
CHAPTER 1
Problematic Higher
Education
With the high cost of a college degree, it is not surprising that the ques-
tion often asked is: Does it pay to go to college? Although studies have
clearly established that there is an economic value of going to college, the
reasons why college matters are complex. While, when looking at the time
period from 1992 to 2012, young adults who did not attend college were
approximately 2.5 times more likely to be unemployed than those who
finished college, when recently looking at how college graduates do in
the labor market, the results are disappointing (Arum and Roksa 2014).
For instance, Arum and Roksa (2014) found that two years after gradu-
ation, over half of the graduates not re-enrolled full-time in school were
either unemployed or underemployed, and for those that were employed,
many of them were in low-paying jobs. Furthermore, 25 percent of col-
lege graduates were still living at home and parental support went consid-
erably beyond simply providing a place to sleep and instead parents were
covering many of their living expenses (Arum and Roksa 2014).
Arum and Roksa (2014) found that the performance on critical
thinking, complex reasoning, and written communication (as measured
by the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) is significantly associated
with the likelihood of experiencing unemployment. This means that
graduates with low CLA scores might have greater difficulties with secur-
ing employment opportunities, and if employment was secured, then
employers determined that these graduates were unable to perform at
adequate levels, and thus, they lost their jobs (Arum and Roksa 2014).
1
Interestingly, despite limited gains on the objective CLA measure of critical
thinking, complex reasoning, and writing, when students were asked how much
they believed they had developed on their skills in these areas, students overall
believed that they had substantially improved their skills in these areas (Arum
and Roksa 2014, p. 38).
Problematic Higher Education 3
per week preparing for their courses (Arum and Roksa 2011). Only 20
percent of students reported devoting more than 20 hours per week on
studying, whereas, in 1961, this was 67 percent (Arum and Roksa 2011).
Despite the limited amount of time spent on studying, students seem
to do well in terms of grades. On average, students were academically
evaluated as relatively successful by the instructors of the courses they had
chosen. The average collegiate grade point average of students was 3.2.
Furthermore, national research has highlighted the extent to which grade
inflation is rampant not only throughout higher education, but particu-
larly at elite colleges and universities. For example, in 1997, the median
GPA at Princeton was 3.42, and the proportion of course grades that were
A or A-minuses was 45 percent at Duke, 44 percent at Dartmouth, and
46 percent at Harvard.
What happens in the classroom is of course also important. Lecturing
remains the pre-eminent method of teaching (Ramsden 2003, p. 147).
However, a drawback of the lecture is that it is often teacher-directed
(Ramsden 2003). Research has shown that the traditional lecture mode
of teaching is only effective for low-level factual material, often only
dealing with factual recognition or recall (Gardiner 1994, p. 39) and
where students typically employ surface, rather than deep approaches to
learning (Ramsden 1994; Biggs 2003). Therefore, it has been observed
that the lecture style, where students only devote minimal time to intel-
lectual work yet with apparent ease pass through the American colleges
and universities, is partly to blame for the poor performance of gradu-
ates (Gardiner 1994; Arum and Roksa 2011). Instead, approaches such
as where students are active, work in teams, and apply material may be
more effective (Michaelsen, Davidson, and Major 2014; Wallace et al.
2014). The overall feel for a class in that case is one about learning to do
something, as opposed to learning some facts so that one can pass a test
(Michaelsen, Davidson, and Major 2014).
Chapter 10:
Conclusion
IMPLEMENT
Chapter 9:
Chapter 7: Chapter 8:
Projects that contribute to Projects that contribute to
practice theory
Chapter 6:
Chapter 5:
Project teams
THEORY
Chapter 4:
Chapter 2: Chapter 3:
Chapter 1:
covered in this book. The first three chapters lay the theoretical base for
understanding project-based learning. Chapters 2 and 3 start by build-
ing the foundation. These chapters provide what can be considered back-
ground information, but this information is important to understand the
context in which project-based learning takes place and why this approach
is a better alternative than the lecture-based approach. Chapter 2 explains
how education works and Chapter 3 provides information on projects.
Chapter 4 combines aspects from education and projects and explains
the concept of project-based learning. The next five chapters discuss the
implementation of project-based learning. Classroom projects are typi-
cally conducted in groups; therefore, Chapter 5 discusses project teams.
Chapter 6 describes some general characteristics related to the research
Problematic Higher Education 5
component of projects and Chapters 7 and 8 discuss more details for two
different types of projects, that is, those that contribute to practice and
those that contribute to theory. While both types of projects have simi-
larities, there are also some differences. These chapters also include advice
on how to go about doing a project. Chapter 9 provides information on
how to report on projects through writing as well as for presentations.
Some information is already provided in Chapters 6 and 7 as examples,
but Chapter 8 provides more clarification. Finally, the book ends with
Chapter 10, which provides a conclusion on project-based learning.
Index
Agile/adaptive approach reflective cycle, 74
business-case questions, 103–104 regulative cycle, 72–74
implications, 105–106 Detailed nondisclosure agreement,
product backlog, 104–105 176–181
purpose, 103 Discipline project, 39–40
retrospectives and planning, 105
sprint backlog, 105 Educational projects, 47
sprint/iteration, 104 Educational system
Agile lifecycle, projects, 27 goals and objectives
Association to Advance Collegiate Bloom’s taxonomy, 8–9
Schools of Business (AACSB), learning-centered approach, 18, 19
7 lecture-based learning
course design, 10
Bloom’s taxonomy, 7–10 deep approach, 17
Business analysis body of knowledge outcomes, 13, 14
(BABOK), 81 surface approach, 17
undergraduate education, 16
Capsim’s TeamMATE, 61–62 teacher-oriented approach, 18, 19
Case method classroom, 33
Change control system, 191 Factual knowledge, 9
Classroom projects Forming phase, project team, 47
characteristics, 35–36
discovery of theory, 44–45
Gantt chart, 91, 193
types, 39
Goal clarification stage, project team
utilization of theory, 41–43
performance, 48
Collegiate learning assessment (CLA)
educational preparation, 2–3
limited student learning, 1–2 High-performance stage, project team
Commitment stage, project team performance, 48
performance, 48
Communications management plan, Implementation stage, project team
196 performance, 48
Conceptual knowledge, 9 Incremental lifecycle, projects, 26–27
Constructivism, 18, 20 Inductive teaching, 32
Context, projects Interpersonal conflicts, 57
organizational strategy, 22 Iterative lifecycle, projects, 26
portfolio projects, 22–23 Iterative nature, research project
problem-project type, 75
Descriptive statistics, 239 student confidence levels, 76
Design sciences approach
criteria for, 74 Knowledge dimension, 9
260 Index