Open project-based learning for dynamic adaptability of IT education

Abstract

The pace of technological change is accelerating, the duration of the trends is becoming shorter and the number of technological alternatives to solve IT problems grows quickly. Keeping IT higher education course curricula up-to-date becomes more and more challenging. This paper presents an empirical study that aims to assess whether an open-statement and open-solution methodology in an IT-related project-based learning (PBL) course led to the adaptation of the skills learned by students to the trends of the main IT technology domains. The study analyses data from more than 90 projects by students from eight academic years of the course” Project on Information Technologies”, carried out by students in the last year of the Bachelor of Science in Informatics Engineering at the Barcelona School of Informatics. Our results identify a high correlation between the technologies chosen in student projects and technological trends, which shows that the methodology encourages students to incorporate the latest technological innovations in their project work plan.