Service Learning and Integrated, Collaborative Project Management

Abstract

This paper describes the introduction of service-learning into an undergraduate course on project management. At ECU, engineering courses are taught in an integrated and collaborative education environment. The core curriculum requires junior level students to complete a course in project management as part of the program's commitment to industry to supply immediately productive, contributing new employees. The project management course is traditionally structured around system needs and analysis identification, functional requirements analysis, project timelines, network analysis, and project progress metrics. Introduction of servicelearning projects was embraced as a pragmatic approach to encourage students to commit to service to the community and to provide a "fast-track" application of the project management course concepts. Service-learning emphasizes problem solving, experiential education and civic responsibility while simultaneously providing opportunities to develop human relations. The paper describes approaches taken to, and early successes of, introducing service-learning projects into this project management course to students without project management and service learning experience, and into an engineering program in its development stage.

Understanding Interactions in a Classroom-As-Organization Using Dynamic Network Analysis

“…Students in different groups must collaborate on interdependent tasks to accomplish the organization’s goals (Barry, 1990; Putzel, 1992; Putzel & Park, 2007). Most of the CAOs described in the literature are one-semester long courses, ranging from 3 to 6 credits (Dixon, 2011; McDonald et al, 2011; Miller, 2017; Sheehan et al, 2009).…”

“…As Bright and colleagues (2016) noted, in a CAO, students get to lead and assess peers, two important constructivist meta-practices. In addition to facilitating cognitive development, collaboration in a CAO also helps students gain useful skills such as managing group dynamics and problem solving in organizational contexts (Barry, 1990; Cohen, 1976; Conklin, 2013; Dixon, 2011; Lynn, 2010; McDonald et al, 2011; McDonald & Spence, 2016).…”

Are they simply interested? An exploration of engineering students' most favorite classes

“…Service-learning provides students hands-on opportunities to gain skills and knowledge that may otherwise not be obtainable in their classes. Through service-learning, students are motivated to gain effective communication and project management skills [10].…”

Percepção da experiência de aprendizagem em termos de motivação, engajamento e desenvolvimento de competências: um estudo no ensino de gestão de projetos por simuladores para pós-graduandos no Brasil

“…Contudo, conforme aponta Dixon (2011), metodologias mais participativas e experienciais de ensino tendem a gerar bons resultados no desenvolvimento de habilidades requeridas no mercado de trabalho. No entanto, apesar de haver um certo consenso de que a utilização de metodologias mais ativas sejam eficientes, há estudantes que se caracterizam por uma postura mais receptiva e menos autônoma em seus processo de aprendizagem.…”

“…Apesar dos trabalhos mencionarem o processo de ensino e fatores relevantes nesse processo Ojiako et al, 2014;Mengel, 2008;Ashleigh et al, 2012;Chipulu et al;2011) ou de contar com a aplicação de técnicas múltiplas no ensino (Dixon, 2008;Stoyan, 2008), não há uma ligação entre técnicas de ensino, processo de aprendizagem e competências adquiridas pelo estudante.…”