Project Based Learning in Computer Science – A Review of More than 500 Projects

Project Based Learning (PjBL) has become a widely used method of teaching in technical subjects. In the last ten years our experiences with PjPL reveal a very complex picture. On the one hand PPL does have benefits, on the other hand the handling of numerous projects is complex and the evaluation of the results difficult to standardize. Teaching with projects quite often turned out to be chaotic in the perception of students. Remarks, based on the results of projects turned out to be highly depended on the subjective point of view of the teacher. Most teachers agree that teaching with PjPL has numerous advantages especially in the field of computer science. Students are able to apply their technical knowledge, acquire practical skills in programming, get involved into team processes and understand in some cases even so called soft factors in project management. However IT projects in teaching environments behave very oddly when one tries apply standardized frameworks onto them. After more than ten years of routinely use of PjPL in Computer Science the authors try to identify critical success factors for such projects. Four main reasons could be identified: 1. Students are no experienced project managers and frequently run into problems in early phases of the projects. 2. The motivation of students to actually finish the project varies between low and extremely high values. 3. Interactions of teachers with students, dependent on factors like specific experience of a given teacher with a specific project or students who are shy to ask seemingly stupid questions very early. 4. Origin of the project or project idea.