Abstract:

The subject called Projects belongs to all the studies programmes in engineering degrees, and it is specially complex due to the objectives and competences that the students have to achieve through this subject. Because of that, this subject joins together knowledge and theoretical proposals of very different nature. However, both are quite close and related to the professional development of an engineer. We think that this fact is really important, so it has to be considered to do the selection of the specific contents of the subject, and also to choose the pedagogical methodology to teach this subject, together with the form as the students learn Projects subject and the evaluation method of the students goals.

In this work we present the study, analysis and design of a specific methodology for teaching Projects subject in an engineering degree. This method has been applied with success in students groups that belong to classes of last years in engineering degree.

The methodology that is exposed in this work is based on real cases, what means that the students have to focus on the development of a real project (in small groups of students) for a competitive call for projects. This way, they all, in groups, present their proposals, and compete with the others for an only accepted project. The principal point of their projects is as the technologic part as the economic one, because in an engineering project both views have to be connected.

The evaluation of the projects will be done in the same way by all the students. But for this task, the groups of students are made again for this aim, being different from the initial groups that were done to realize the projects. So, the different groups of evaluators will never evaluate their own projects.

In order to apply this specific methodology, the theoretical part of the subject presents the essential principles that are necessary to know for realizing a project, the form as the proposal has to be presented in a competitive call for projects, the style, and finally, the criteria the projects are evaluated with.

The experiments have been realized during two courses, and the results have been really good. These results have been observed in the quality level of the tasks that the students have done and the marks they have obtained. But also we have been able to check the results in the satisfaction level explained by the students in the test-questionaries that they have filled. All these results support our purpose of consolidate this methodology for learning and teaching this subject Projects, so relevant for the engineers, by means of a method based on real cases projects that allows to improve the abilities, knowledge and qualification of the students of engineering.

Keywords:

Projects, real cases, engineering, methodology.