Discussion of the results

In this section, key results are discussed and a few areas are identified where the existing design could be improved.

5.5.1 About CLPBL model design and its outcomes

The development and implementation of CLPBL for the SITL was a first attempt.

National and institute-level requirements were considered in the design process of CLPBL (refer to chapter 4). The national level requirements included the graduate learning outcomes outlined in the ABET criteria. In this design, the local conditions for offering the propositional knowledge essential for content learning have been fulfilled. The design of the course was grounded in the PBL principles and practice. The approach adopted motivated students to be self-directed learners. Cooperative-collaborative approaches of learning were promoted as students worked in groups to complete the project. Students were challenged in working on the project. To achieve completion of the project, students were required to apply knowledge, higher order thinking and communication skills.

This CLPBL model was implemented for the period of one semester in the year 2012. The first cohort welcomed this initiative with positive feedback. They considered it highly relevant to the needs of their profession and recommended that it be applied to future courses.

Multiple objectives were achieved through the implementation of this model. A blend of traditional teaching with PBL was exercised.

At the end of the semester, 18 out of 19 teams were able to complete the project. Through out the project, the groups used team-based and self-directed learning techniques to tackle a project. They collected information, carried out analysis of a problem and found the final desired outcomes. The students completed the entire project without taking much help from a teacher, which showed their ability to learn and apply the concepts independently. As the students‘ first time working in a PBL environment, they enjoyed the group work and learned from each other by exchanging ideas and knowledge. Thus, a very good environment for collaborative and cooperative learning was created. The students valued teamwork and understood its importance in building team spirit and accomplishing the given task in due time with comparatively less effort than when done individually. Students‘ learning capabilities were enhanced through teamwork and they learned new things from each other.

113 Each team developed their own strategy of doing things or managing project activities. The teams completed the desired set of activities in time, which showed their successful time management and project management skills. In the following section, I will discuss a few areas where improvement is needed.

5.5.2 Complexity of project

Three interesting and contradictory results emerged from the questionnaire responses.

Firstly, the questionnaire produced mixed response relating to the level of challenge posed by the problem design or project. Eighty-four per cent of the students felt that the project work was challenging and provided various sets of difficulties (AQ1, see figure 5.3). However, 14% of group members thought the problem did not pose difficult enough challenges.

Secondly, interesting responses were given by the students about the importance of teamwork for the project (DQ2, see figure 5.6). Forty-one per cent of students felt that teamwork was not critical for the project activity, while 51% felt that it was. Thirdly, responses regarding the capacity of the project to engage students in learning were also of interest for potential future improvements (BQ5, see figure 5.4). Only 63% of students felt that the project engaged them throughout the semester. The remaining37% did not agree with this statement.

After reflecting on these three sets of responses, I found that they were interlinked. There are two major reasons for these responses. First is the project design and second is the team composition. I will explain this further in the following paragraph. Problem design is a very important aspect of PBL. The nature of the problem should be such that it should challenge the students‘ abilities to solve it and make them confront tasks involved in the problem-solving process. In the current research, the problem was designed with the students‘current cognitive abilities in mind. I designed the project activity withconsideration to the fact that the students had never worked on this type of project and to their inexperience withgroup work. As a researcher this was my first experience of implementing PBL at SITL; I was unsure whether or not the students would be able to do it. Perhaps I under estimated the students‘ capabilities and designed a less complex project than necessary.

Another aspect that played a crucial role was team composition, specifically the number of members per team. In this model, each team had five members, with the exception of a few groups that had six members. In the students‘ opinions, this was a large number of members for a less complex project like my CLPBL model. The project was not challenging enough to engage 5-6 members of a team. Even during interviews, students suggested reducing this number to 3 students per group. For this reason, students might have felt that the teamwork was not critical for the project. In the survey, 63% students agreed that they were engaged in a semester, which indicates that only three members per group worked seriously on the project. Hence, the project design and team composition were closely interlinked. These responses suggest an opportunity to increase the complexity of the project work in the next cycle and to reduce the number of students per team. Taking these measures in the next design would ensure that students were engaged in learning and felt the importance of teamwork.

Although the participants suggested that the project was not challenging enough, it still had enough potential to bring the students out of the classroom and make them think about material outside the classroom. The project also made the students struggle at various phases of the project work, such as in finding suitable information, doing fieldwork or writing technical reports. Thus, it can be concluded that the project was very effective in nurturing the students‘ ability to handle the activities independently and to take responsibility for their own learning. From the reports and student presentations, it was also evident that this project

114 was very effective in improving students‘ technical knowledge. The project helped students to gain in their knowledge and confidence. Students showed commitment to complete the projects in time, and a great desire to engage in the self-directed learning process.

5.5.3 Team composition

Considerable flexibility was given to the students in choosing their team members and the mechanism to be analysed. This way, they had ownership of the project and followed their interests. The students found their own ways of managing the team and project work. Team composition included the number of team members, their genders and their abilities. In this experiment, the project teams comprised of five or six members. As the project activity was insufficiently complex to give each member in the team a significant workload (discussed earlier), this created a divide in some groups. As a result, a few groups had issues with the group divide and sub-groups were formed within. These sub-groups worked independently without much communication between them.

Another factor that played a crucial role in group divisions was residential location (hostel groups, local groups) and demographic differences. In the essays and interviews, students said that they could not meet each other because they were staying at different locations. For example, if a group had three members staying in the hostel and two members outside in the other locality. Then, the hostel students worked separately and two members worked separately from home. This could delay in the work and create group divide. The student essays reported that most of the groups had group leaders whom the others followed. In such cases, the group leader was the one who knew and understood the subject content better than the others. Also, the leader was someone who was sincere and dedicated to the project work.

The other students relied heavily on the group leader to do the assigned work. While this might have improved peer learning, this improvement was not evident during presentations because the group leaders would step forward to answer most of the question. This raises questions as to whether or not peer learning was improved and raises the issue of learning for the weaker students.

During the feedback and informal discussions, only a few of the weaker students reported that their learning and understanding of the subject content had improved due to group work.

Out of 19 groups, two had all average and weak students. These groups suggested that the group‘s composition should be a mixture of good, average and weak students. These groups struggled to cope with the expectations of the project. Hence, in future designs, team composition of bright and weak students may be encouraged, with groups comprising of four members.

5.5.3.1 Problems in the groups with mixed genders

The mixed gender groups were those with both boys and girls. There were seven such groups. This was the first time these students had worked together. It was not the usual for them. As a result, students felt some discomfort working together. I highlight the problem of one of the mixed groups in which the boys and the one girl foundit difficult to work together.

The boys generally preferred to work in the hostels where the girl was not allowed to enter.

The same problem was applicable when girls had a majority in the group. Four girls who were resistant to working with boys formed their own group with only one boy (G8). This group had difficulty managing time to work together. The girls would work in the hostel where boys were not permitted to enter. The group managed to meet during and after college hours but most of the work of this group was done by the girls.

115 I deliberately encouraged the arrangement of at least one girl member in each team.

During the professional life of an engineer; he has to work with people of different ages, genders and cultures. Thus it made sense to have a girl and boy in every group to give students the opportunity to experience working with the opposite gender. This was much closer to the real world job experience. It was anticipated that the boys and girls would face some difficulties in working with each other. I expected that they would find ways to manage working together in due time. I would like to maintain this aspect of the model, as some students learned to work with the opposite gender and accepted the situation.

5.5.4 Time management and timing of activities

In the mid-semester essays, 10 groups informed me that they had not yet started the project, suggesting that these groups were very slow to choose and start their projects. A few groups reported that they were unable to find a project in time. In these cases, I had to push them for a selection or sometimes had to suggest projects to the group. Later, these groups found themselves lagging behind the other groups and working hard to meet the deadlines.

There was a serious time management issue for many of the students in this semester.

In the survey (refer to figure 5.3, AQ2 and AQ5), students discussed their dissatisfaction with the timing and integration of the project into the curriculum. During interviews, the students also complained about time and timing of the project activities. I believe, this was a legitimate complaint, to some extent. Due to my late arrival in India (the semester started on January 2^nd, 2012 and I arrived in India on February 12, 2012), I started project implementation when the semester was half over. Naturally, students found that the time was not sufficient. The second issue was integration of the project activities into the curriculum.

This issue was also related to the timing of activities. Due to the overlap of an international conference at the institute, students‘ project presentations had to be postponed. The students were not happy with this. To complete the project presentations, I called them in during their preparation leave. Preparation leave is a period in which the students are free from all departmental and institutional activities so that they can study for the main examination.

Naturally, the students felt inconvenienced. Hence, the students said the time and timing was not good. In the next cycle, care must be taken to have all project activities finished before preparation leave or within the academic period.

5.5.5 Project management

The students‘ essays and interviews illustrated that the students managed the project by dividing and distributing the work equally to each member. Later, this individual work was shared and combined in the report. This was a logical way for students to manage the project work. Although the groups reported using project management principles in the survey (see figure 5.5, CQ7), the tools and techniques used for project management were not discussed in the report or in the presentations. This gave me an indication that the students might need input on the principles of project management. In future designs, some input on project management may be given.

5.5.6 Project reports

From the project report analysis, it has been found that 90% of the groups followed the format given to them and included all the steps needed in the project work. This is a very good sign of their learning to write a project report. However, the quality of the reports was not up to the desired standard. Most of the students copied and pasted material from the

116 Internet into their reports and failed to write proper references. In general, the students paid little attention to the report preparation. This may be attributed to lack of time and improper time management. This indicated the need to train students in report writing and referencing.

For future designs, clear instructions on how to write a project report will be necessary.

Although the students were given a project format to use in writing their technical report, there was generally a gap between the format and the actual reports.

5.5.7 Learning in PBL model and achievement of learning outcomes

In general, all of the students responded positively to the project and explained how the project was helpful to their learning. They also reported positively on the knowledge sharing and peer learning aspects. It is evident from the feedback that the majority of students felt that their learning and understanding had improved in CLPBL. Furthermore, most of them hinted that they learned better from working in a team than in the classroom. Overall, 95% of the students were satisfied with their learning during the semester.

Referring to the LOs defined in the first chapter and the project design in the fourth chapter, it is concluded that the current PBL model proved effective in directly advancing LOs ‗a‘, ‗b‘, ‗d‘, ‗e‘, ‗g‘ and ‗k‘. The project helped students to learn and apply knowledge to real life engineering mechanisms (LO-‗a‘). For the achievement of learning outcome ‗b‘

(conducting experiements and data analysis) both traditional and PBL approach were useful.

The traditional approach helped the students to conduct experiments in the laboratory and the PBL approach helped students to gather data from the field experiment. In both cases, students used data for calculation purposes.

Students were not expected to work in a team in the regular curriculum for the course. In the CLPBL model, students were provided the opportunity to work in a group, with the opposite gender, throughout the semester. This provided them useful experiences from which to learn from each other and get used to working in a team, advancing students towards achievement of LO‗d‘. In the survey, 89% of students mentioned that their ability to work in a team had improved. Regarding LO ‗e‘, students were not asked to solve areal life engineering problem but were instead asked to analyse a real life machine for the content learning aspect. Students were asked to solve the problem of finding the DOF of a real mechanism. In this sense, students were given an opportunity to solve an engineering problem.

In the CLPBL model, students got the opportunity to communicate with their group mates in various modes such as discussion, explaining to each other and sharing ideas and perspectives. In the presentation, they had the opportunity to communicate in front of their peers. In the project report, they had the opportunity to write and manage technical information. All of these activities would help them to improve their verbal and written communication skills. In the survey, 97% of the students mentioned that their ability to write a report had improved. This is not an opportunity that they would have got early in the engineering curriculumin a traditional setting. In the process of working on the project, students needed to find relevant information from various sources and to understand and apply that information to a relatively challenging problem. They managed their work fairly independently, showing their ability to engage in lifelong learning (LO ‗i‘). The students used Microsoft Power Point and Word software to prepare presentations and reports, exhibiting their ability to use the tools needed for engineering practice (LO ‗k‘).

The LOs ‗c‘, ‗f‘, ‗h‘ and ‗j‘ remain untouched. This is because the design activity was not included in the project work. In future designs, efforts could be made to add a few design

117 activities to ensure that this deficiency is addressed. It should be noted here that these LOs were not considered in the design of my CLPBL model. Overall, it can be concluded that this CLPBL design helped students towards achievement of the intended LOs and better nurtured their abilities incomparison to the traditional setting.

5.5.8 Role of supervisor

My role in this model was twofold. At the beginning, my role was to pass on the basic information and propositional knowledge of the project units. My intention was to make the students ready to apply their knowledge and tackle the project activities independently. In the later phases of the model, I acted as a supervisor for the 19 groups, providing advice when needed. I provided feedback on the students‘ work and evaluated all the projects. Since the students managed the project work in their own capacity, not as much of supervision was required. Only a few groups demanded advice; for those groups, timely advice from the supervisor helped them to complete the projects.

5.6 Conclusions

Referring back to the first research question,‗what characteristics of the course level PBL model are needed to fulfil students‘ learning requirements?‘ relating to PBL model design, this research has created a model for PBL implementation in the Indian academic setting.

This experiment has increased the possibility of PBL implementation in other courses at SITL and of other institutes having a similar set-up. My understanding of the local context and academic culture and requirements helped me tremendously in designing an

This experiment has increased the possibility of PBL implementation in other courses at SITL and of other institutes having a similar set-up. My understanding of the local context and academic culture and requirements helped me tremendously in designing an