Improving the development of engineering projects through informational competence and the introduction of social web tools

Abstract

This paper describes the improvement plan conducted in the “Engineering Projects” course, aimed at increasing the quality of academic work in the preparation, writing and structuring of the course final documents. The course is lectured in the last term of the degree courses at the Terrassa School of Industrial and Aeronautical Engineering of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). The lecturers of this subject provide guidance and mentoring to the final degree projects, encouraging the participation and interaction of the students in an active way. During the 2013-14 academic year, the following deficiencies were identified: lack of proper structure in the work, mistakes in bibliographic references, breach of copyright, low use of resources for the organization of information and lack of use of 2.0 tools. Therefore, a diagnostic survey was given out to identify the previous knowledge level which confirmed the existence of the above mentioned deficits. The UPC Libraries have extensive experience in the acquisition of informational skills to improve the use, management and communication of scientific-technical information in the technical studies. Because of that a partnership with training purposes has begun in which the Library staff has participated in the lectures of the project’s course. Many of these tools are Web 2.0 and social software. The Web 2.0 concept has been introduced and its application in active learning activities for minimizing time and effort, has encouraged collaboration and communication and promoted both critical thinking and knowledge sharing. During the academic year 2013-2014, the lecturers of the "Projects" course, along with library staff, jointly defined the goals for the improvement Plan, drew up a guide and developed teaching materials. In the current academic year, the collaboration in the lectures is still going on. The members in charge of assessing the FDP (Final Degree Project) evaluate the progress all over the period using a rubric with criteria linked to the objectives of the collaboration