A METHODOLOGY FOR IMPROVING THE LEARNING AND TEACHING PROCESS IN OPEN PROBLEMS

In the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), the paradigm of learning/teaching changes towards a student-based approach. Some of the key aspects that can be included in this change are: student-based education, new role of the instructor, more profound definition of objectives, new approach in the educational activities, changes in the concept of evaluation and new systems in the organization of learning.
The European convergence in teaching and the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) focus on describing the learning outcomes in terms of skills, and therefore, drive instructors to propose educational processes on these terms.
Students and teachers have a complex situation when they want to address the learning/teaching process using open problems. In some academic areas such as engineering, students are continuously solving problems or cases where the solution could have multiple alternatives i.e. open problems. In these cases, it is not only important that students know how to apply a procedure previously learned, but also to know how to apply strategies to search alternatives and to evaluate each one of them.
This paper presents a methodology that aims to improve student's skills and the development of teaching skills of instructors on the course named “Design, Planning and Management of Productions System” using real or pseudo-real cases. This methodology helps students to reflect and discuss about the decisions and criteria to be applied in each case. It also leads to improve the review process and feedback in industrial engineering open problems contributing to one of the most important competences of the degree: making good management decisions based on appropriate skills.