The Future of Education

Project based learning (PBL) has become a widely accepted method of teaching at the University of Applied Sciences – Technikum Wien. This paper describes how computer science students are integrated into the research programs and real life projects in companies or at the University. Faculty staff organizes the work of students, to minimize the risk of failure of the students. The benefits for the students are numerous; they learn to work in real life situations, gain practical knowledge in various fields and are able to enlarge their network of contacts to companies and universities.

In many cases students are also allowed to suggest their own projects. These projects can be projects for companies, or software projects students want to realize.

It is very interesting to compare these two types of practical experience. Both forms of projects do have their own challenges and advantages in teaching.

A detailed analysis of around 500 projects shows how difficult it is to assign marks to PBL work. In many cases projects suggested by students get lower marks than projects suggested by faculty. However students are highly motivated to work on their own projects and it seems they do learn more in such projects.