Stakeholder-student interactions in engineering education: involving busy experts in project-based courses

Paper in proceeding, 2023

Project based learning (PjBL) is increasingly used in engineering courses as a student-centred approach for designing and improving solutions for real-world problems. A key feature of PjBL is the interaction between the problem “owner” and the students who work with the given task. Previous literature documents these interactions primarily from the perspective of students and teachers, leaving us ignorant of the stakeholders’ experience. Undertaken within a larger development process of creating an entirely new project-based Bachelor course at Chalmers, the aim of this study is to better understand how to work with city official as stakeholders and owners of the complex real world problems in the course. The process entailed negotiations with the city government officials, ensuring their participation and engagement in the course. Qualitative data collection provides the basis for comparing
expectations of stakeholders, students, and teachers with outcomes. Three components ensured long-term stakeholder involvement: relevant projects; clear rules of engagement for student-stakeholder interaction and; a final conference where students present results to stakeholder.