Students’ views of assessment in project-led engineering education: findings from a case study in Portugal

Abstract

According to the demands of the Bologna process, new educational methods and strategies are needed in order to enhance student-centred learning. Project work is one of those approaches. This paper aims to evaluate the impact of project-led education (PLE) on students’ learning processes and outcomes, within the context of a first-year engineering programme. It explores students’ perceptions about assessment procedures and processes. Data collection was based on individual surveys at the end and the beginning of each PLE edition and through focus groups, after a period of six months. Findings are presented according to emerging themes from the data analysis, focusing mainly on students’ perspectives of learning and assessment, the role of formative and summative assessments in PLE and their impact on learning. Implications for improving assessment practices are discussed.

Keywords:

• higher education
• assessment
• project-based learning
• students’ perceptions

Notes

1. Due to the restructuring of courses at the University of Minho to meet the requirements of the Bologna process, this programme became, from 2006/2007 onwards, an integrated five-year programme (first and second cycles of the study), awarding a single master’s degree. However, the PLE experience that we describe in this paper takes place in the first year of this programme and, therefore, reports to undergraduate students (first cycle of the study).