Evaluation of a pilot course of project management for industry 4.0

Abstract

The fourth industrial revolution created the need for the development of new competences for Industrial Engineering and Management. In order to address this need an Erasmus+ project, developed by a consortium of nine universities, has been engaged in Curriculum Development of Master's Degree Program in Industrial Engineering for Thailand Sustainable Smart Industry (MSIE4.0), co-funded by the European Commission. In the context of this project, there are 16 master level courses being developed and piloted. One of the courses is Project Management for Industry 4.0 (PM4I4). The objective of this paper is to present the evaluation of this course based on the perceptions of the enrolled students. This evaluation was based on written reflection of the course delivered at the end of the course by a total of twelve students. Most of students enrolled (10/12) provided a positive perspective about the course, considering that will contribute for their professional practice in the future and recommend it for other engineering students. Part of these students considered the project related to the development of a questionnaire of I4.0 in a company quite interesting and contributing for their formation and other students considered it less practical that they expected to. It is worthwhile to notice that most of the students really enjoyed the diversity of pedagogical experiences and teachers engaged in the process (a total of 4), and the development of transversal competences, but some of them would prefer to have contact with less teachers. Thus, as final contributions, it could be recommended to create better framework for the Industry 4.0 questionnaire project and create opportunities for the students to enrol in management of more practical projects related with that main theme.