Coordination of student teams focused on project management processes

Abstract

Engineering learning processes are expected to develop technical and transversal competencies on students that are demanded by the engineering professional bodies. The need for the development of competencies raised an incremental interest in applying innovative approaches in Engineering education. One of the methodologies used in this context is Project-Based Learning (PBL). At the University of Brasilia, a course degree in Production Engineering was created having as a main reference the Project-Based Learning (PBL) approach. The use of PBL implies a change of behavior of teachers who play a main role of facilitators of competencies development, and of the students, who learn in a collaborative way, working with others in teams. Students’ working in team and developing a project during a semester will require effective coordination models. The objective of this paper is to propose a model of coordination among students’ teams based on project management knowledge. Furthermore, a qualitative approach is applied to evaluate the application of this model during one semester. The results show that a coordination model for student teams developing projects is important to support their learning process, which is not solely dependent on students, as teachers/tutors have an important role before, during and at the end of the project. The tutor is especially important, as he/she is responsible for supporting the teams in several project management dimensions. This is an essential support for students to know how to manage the team, communicate, define goals, carry out the activities on time, plan the milestones and understand the impact of their decisions. These competencies are also part of student learning and are an important part of engineering education.