Abstract:

Project-based learning (PBL) is engaging students with real-life challenges provided by industry partners and thus allows hands-on learning. The student motivation and learning outcome are significantly improved as students are actively involved. Research has shown that PBL is most effective in providing sustainable and long-term learning success.

Experiential Learning, Project-Based Learning and Service Learning are all heading in the same direction using a minimal different approach.

After years of undertaking projects with organizations outside the university, Hawaii Pacific University (HPU) has contracted with a third-party platform to help faculty better facilitate the process of identifying, scoping, implementing, and evaluating student projects. Although doing so has impacted an increasing circle of stakeholders, central to the new process are faculty and students. Providing automated reports to support College accreditations (I.e., AACSB) is of course important to higher education institutions and another vital advantage of third-party platforms, but the scope of this research is entirely on faculty and students. This study of a pilot project looks at how the objectives and activities of a project-based curriculum are affected by the move to a third-party platform. Students and faculty were surveyed and interviewed about the projects they completed using the new platform. The results will be used to improve the school’s faculty training for project-based learning outside the classroom, improve the student experience with project-based learning, and provide feedback to the platform administrators. The pilot will cover an entire academic year to better understand the timing and coordination necessary for successful projects. This study is a review of the first phase of the pilot project. HPU’s College of Business acts at the forefront of a university-wide project to integrate project-based learning into the curriculum of various other courses of colleges of all kinds.

In the pilot project phase, the focus was on project-based learning integrated into Cyber Security graduate courses with a small number of students in the course. This phase was used to understand in-depth the processes of the third-party platform, student behavior in working with the platform, and faculty challenges aligned with project identification and scoping.

After successful completion of this initial phase, PBL has been integrated into a wider variety of classes to include multiple disciplines but also eliminates the restriction to graduate courses. The contract with the third-party platform has been signed and the roll-out to the entire university has started. The entire process is used for research purposes as well.

This contribution is showing in detail and based on faculty and student interviews on how a third-party platform positively affects faculty motivation to incorporate PBL and what students’ biggest takeaways are. But it also provides valuable guidance on the preparation process for faculty and “dos and don’ts” with regard to student guidance.

This work is part of a series of research projects on the topic of project-based learning with HPU’s college of business.

Keywords:

Project-based learning, experiential learning, project management, student success, faculty motivation.