Professional competencies experienced during engineering project-based learning: occurrences, diversity, and variations

In this work we identified the professional skills that students experience during PBL by analyzing the challenges they face and the resources they use during projects compared to exercise sessions. We showed that, overall, students experience more challenges during PBL compared to exercises. More specifically, more students experience difficulties designing solutions and making decisions during projects whereas more students experience difficulties expanding their skills during exercise sessions. We also showed that students most commonly deal with challenges by referring to class material during exercise sessions and gathering information during projects. Moreover, students experience a bigger variety of professional competencies during PBL compared to exercises. Finally, students are exposed to different challenges during the different project phases. During the problem definition phase, most students face challenges in engineering within constraints whereas, during the solution design phase, students have difficulties applying skills, designing solutions, and devising the process. During the problem implementation phase, most students encounter difficulties while applying knowledge and skills. Finally, the most challenging competency during the building, prototyping, and testing is interpreting data. While challenges vary, students use similar resources to deal with them across different stages.