Virtualizing Project-Based Learning: An Abrupt Adaptation of Active Learning in the First Days of the COVID-19 Pandemic, with Promising Outcomes

Marco Antonio Carvalho Pereira,Luísa Miranda Nunes Da Costa Ignácio,Cristiano E Rodrigues Reis

doi:10.3390/su14010363

Marco Antonio Carvalho Pereira, Luísa Miranda Nunes Da Costa Ignácio + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su14010363

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Dec 30, 2021
Citations: 2	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Universidade de São Paulo, Earth University

Abstract

Project-based learning (PBL) is renowned as an active learning practice that promotes the application of the accumulation of knowledge through real-world and often open-ended problems. This work assesses a case evaluation of an introductory PBL course in a typical industrial engineering curriculum in Brazil. This course is taken during the first semester, in which students must develop solutions for a single given problem through weekly meetings. The case presented herein highlights the forced abrupt virtualization of the learning process, which imposed an unprecedented scenario on the students and instructors, especially with regard to this course, which is based primarily on presented discussions and activities. The first weeks of class following the abrupt virtualization of activities encountered misinformation and a lack of clarity about the adaptation of the activities. Fortunately, through rapid iterations, the adjustment process resulted in time invested by the students and classes, with an active discussion, using the tools made available by the university. This work aims to present the forced abrupt changes applied to this first-semester course, highlighting the challenges faced, and the positive outcomes obtained and observed by both the students and the instructor, and to make a comparison to the evolution of the course over the past years.

Highlights

The challenges involved in recreating novel and adaptable strategies in training future generations of engineers often converge along pathways leading to the roles of each participant in the classroom
The long-standing tradition of passive-oriented courses, with a unidirectional flow of knowledge coming from the active agent in the classroom, i.e., the instructor, reaching the learners, who stand as passive receptors of information, is often regarded as a method that fails to meet the majority of the objectives related to the learning process [1]
There were some limitations regarding virtual learning, the alternatives in which the course work was managed were valid and they led to a full learning experience and the possibility of the project execution”; “The transfer from the face-to-face to the virtual setting was well executed, and did not lead to significative losses concerning project-based learning (PBL)”; “Even with the setbacks related to the pandemics, I believe the course was well planned and taught”

Summary

Introduction

The challenges involved in recreating novel and adaptable strategies in training future generations of engineers often converge along pathways leading to the roles of each participant in the classroom. Among the strategies for overcoming the obstacles to which traditional engineering education is set, some active learning strategies have been developed over the past decades, with the main goal of transferring the flow of information within a classroom setting [2]. These methodologies address the students as the main characters, i.e., as the active agents of the learning process, making them responsible for gathering and working on the process of accumulating knowledge.

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