Abstract:

In higher education today, there is an increasing need for working life-oriented cooperation and appropriate learning and teaching methods. The working-life partnership gives higher education up-to-date information about what skills are needed in working life. Higher education curricula should include study contents derived from the needs of working life. Cooperation during studies with working life helps the development of students' competencies to meet the needs of working life. It prepares students to immediately get involved in working life and its development after graduation.

This article describes research in which the Learning by Developing (LbD) action model has been used as a teaching and learning method for computer science students in Finland and Great Britain. The study has been conducted as action research, and its research target has been Laurea University of Applied Sciences (Laurea) and Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences (Haaga-Helia) from Finland and Robert Gordon University (RGU) from the United Kingdom. The research aims to gain information about lecturers' and clients' experiences of the LbD pedagogy and its applicability to study modules containing an authentic client project. The lecturers were also asked how well the students' skills developed during the study module. The customers were asked how beneficial the project's result was for their organisation and whether it produced new insights into operational development. The research has been conducted as action research, and separate research cycles have been implemented in all three higher education institutions. Research data from lecturers and project clients have been collected through thematic interviews. Narrative analysis has been used in the study of the thematic interviews because the number of participants is limited.

Keywords:

Learning and teaching methods, Learning by Developing, computing studies, project-based studies.