Applying Problem-Oriented and Project-Based Learning in a Transportation Engineering Course

A growing consensus in the literature on how to improve the quality of learning suggests that adaptions to problem-based learning (PBL) methods could firstly improve learning experiences, problem solving, skill acquisition and a reasonable level of skill transfer from a student perspective, and secondly develop better professional competence and preparation in these needed highway capacity analysis skills. This paper describes the educational basis of problem-oriented and project-based learning (POPBL) approaches that have been developed as an integral part of a four-year undergraduate engineering degree program at the University of Delaware and incorporated into the transportation curriculum, using real world cases to teach students how to think like expert practitioners. A seven-phase POPBL conceptual framework and the experiences of employing POPBL are presented to demonstrate how it operates in transportation engineering education.