Project-Based-Learning: Outcomes, Descriptors and Design

Peter D. HiscocksElectrical and Computer Engineering,

Ryerson UniversityToronto, Ontario

phiscock@ee.ryerson.ca

Abstract

The paper contains three sections on project basedlearning. First, we provide a rationale and a high-level view of projects and their organization. Second,we present some examples from Ryerson Universityand show how the these project descriptors apply. Fi-nally, we describe the Open Instrumentation Project,a new system of electronic instrumentation that sup-ports independent and project-based learning.

1 What is a Project?

Project: an activity where the participantshave some degree of choice in the outcome.The result is complete and functional, thatis, it has a beginning, middle and end. Usu-ally, it spans multiple lab periods and re-quires work outside scheduled lab periods.

Since there are choices in implementation, designis inherently a component of a project. A project isinherently different from an analysis or exercise, inwhich the solution has a predictable form.

Projects span a wide variety of possibilities: designand build, identify a system, do a forensic analysis,evaluate a product or assess some environmental sit-uation.

1.1 The Role Project-Based Learning inEngineering

Projects have a central role in engineering so en-gineering educators naturally turn to project-based-learning (PBL) as an educational tool. Engineersimplicitly understand that PBL is useful and manyprojects are introduced into the curriculum withouta detailed analysis of their pedagogical value. How-ever, it is useful to make explicit why we do project-based-learning and how it may be implemented.

First, project-based-learning actively involves stu-dents in the learning process, and results in inceasedmotivation, satisfaction and confidence. Motivationis critical: a popular project will cause students to putin a huge effort to succeed and complete the task, andthis enhances learning.

From [5]: compare the statements

Learn this because we know you will needit later.

vs

Learn this because you can see you need itnow 1.

Students are more motivated to learn when they havean immediate application for the knowledge, a situa-tion which applies in to project-based learning.

Second, compared to lecture assignments and labexercises, project-based learning teaches a differentset of skills:

• Project Management: How do we ensure thatthis project gets done in an orderly manner?

• Time Management: When do we have to haveeach item completed in order to meet the finaldeadline?

• Organization: What are the tasks that need do-ing, and in what order do they get done?

• Teamwork: Who does what? How do we coop-erate?

• Research: How did other people approach thisproblem? Where can we get advice?

• Procurement: Where do we find project mate-rial and resources? How can we adapt existingresources to our project?

1Emphasis added.

• Debugging: How do we troubleshoot these real-world problems? What tools should we knowabout that can help?

Furthermore, projects lead several kinds of meta-knowledge about engineering:

• Projects must be planned and managed,

• Projects take longer than you expect, even allow-ing for that effect

• System complexity is a non-linear function ofsystem size

• Anything that works correctly the first timeshould be regarded with intense suspicion.

Battle-hardened veterans of project managementhave their own sardonic rules, encapsulated in suchsayings as ’Systems only fail when being demon-strated to someone important.’ and ’The Law of Max-imum Aggravation applies’. Participating in projectsgives these rules resonance in the mind of a studentengineer and prepares them for project managementin the engineering workplace.

1.2 The Design of an EducationalProject

There are many ways of structuring a student engi-neering project. In this section, we’ll look at someof the alternatives. As always, the learning objectivesof the project should be carefully considered and theparameters of the project then mapped to those objec-tives.

1.3 Guidance

We naturally first learn to swim in shallow end of thepool. For beginners, the deep end is (or should be)frightening and dangerous. In the same way, projectbeginners need the equivalent of floatation devicesto keep them from drowning in project management.This is accomplished by a certain degree of guidancein the project which is provided by the supervisingstaff.

Early projects can be subject to significant guid-ance, that is, limited and artificial in comparison withfull-blown engineering projects. In effect they areguided designs which are provided with most of therequired information and some direction toward a so-lution to the project.

However, even a project that is strongly guidedcan increase motivation and confidence and intro-duce some of the management concepts of full-blownprojects.

For example, second-year Mech students can be re-quired to design and build a lever mechanism witha required output trajectory. Instructors provide thetechnical background and an example. Students tofill in some limited elements of the design, acquireparts, construct the circuit, troubleshoot errors anddocument the result.

Although the outcome is not in doubt, students ob-tain much the same sense of accomplishment as se-nior students completing a much more complex de-sign.

1.4 Structured and Free-Form

Some industrial engineering projects are defined by alist of specifications driven by marketing informationand the legal requirements, such as the placement ofheadlights on a vehicle or the emission of interferencefrom a computer.

Other projects are more free-form, in which the de-sign is driven by what is possible and what engineersdefine as the coolness factor.

In the same way, student engineering projects maybe tightly specified (we use the term structured) ormore open-ended (free-form). An example from elec-tronics:

Structured Free-Form

Design a flashlight us-ing 2 light emittingdiodes. The flashlightmust:

Design a flashlightusing light emittingdiode(s). Marks areawarded for:

Use a standard 9Vbattery for power

Compactness

Include intensity con-trol

Battery life

Occupy no more that10 cubic cm

Light output

Operate more thanone hour

Design aesthetics

The Structured form of the project assignment re-quires strong engineering skills and a disciplined ap-proach. The Free-Form form of the project assign-ment allows a wide latitude in the design encour-ages big-picture creative thinking. Both methods areequally valid – they address different skills.

2

1.5 Size of the Project Team

Should projects be done by individual students, orshould students be grouped into teams?

A team size of one is simple to evaluate: there isno place to hide. Furthermore, there are no issues ofteam composition, dynamics and evaluation to dealwith.

On the other hand, larger teams force cooperativebehaviour, important preparation for the real-worldengineering workplace. A larger team can take ona more extended project, and from the standpoint ofthe instructor, supervision and marking may be sim-plified. However, effective student teamwork does re-quire some up-front organization [13], [14]. The ma-jor objection to group projects - parasitic behaviour- can be dealt with by techniques [12] to evaluateteam members on their individual contributions to theproject.

1.6 Provision of Materials

Assuming that the project is about constructing somephysical system (such as an audio amplifier or modelcargo airplane), students will need to obtain certainmaterial. There are three alternatives:

1. Provide a completed hardware unit: This mightbe appropriate where the project is centredaround some application of the hardware, ratherthan its construction. For example, students maybe given a completely assembled robot. Theproject requires programming the robot to exe-cute some specific task (eg, fire-fighting), andthe learning objectives are entirely centered onthis software development.

2. Provide a kit of parts: Students assemble thekit, thereby obtaining some experience in con-struction in addition to the other project require-ments. In competitive project, a kit puts every-one on the same footing. Sometimes certain crit-ical parts (motors) are provided to deliberatelyrestrain the scope of the project.

3. Require students to chase the parts: Studentslearn how to track down parts and deal with sup-pliers, an important real-world skill.

2 Project Examples

In this section, we show some descriptors and imagesof projects from Electrical Engineering at RyersonUniversity.

Light Emitting Diode Project

Audience: Theatre technology and high school stu-dents. Objective: Learn to build simple electronicproject. Concept: Build light emitting diode ’de-vice’. Guidance: High, extensive written manual.Structure: Free-form, do something interesting, ex-amples provided. Team size: Individual. Hardware:Given parts list, required to shop.

FED FED

LED

LED

LEDLED

LED

LED

RESISTOR

RESISTOR(under)

(under)

(under)

RESISTOR

+ VE BUS

−VE BUS

Figure 1: LED Flower

Extremely Simple Processor

Audience: Intro to Digital Electronics, EE students.Objective: Learn how a microcomputer works at thehardware level. Concept: Write low and mediumlevel code to make functional computer. Guidance:High, extensive written material. Structure: Con-strained, must meet specifications. Team size: Two.Hardware: Provided.

Figure 2: Extremely Simple Processor

3

eebot: Microprocessor Robot

Audience: Introduction to Microprocessor Program-ming, EE students. Objective: Learn microproces-sor concepts and programming. Concept: Program amicroprocessor-guided mobile robot to execute var-ious tasks including line following and solving amaze. Guidance: Medium, pointers to informationprovided but students must design and construct theirown complete program. Structure: Constrained,specific goals. Team size: Individual. Hardware:Provided.

Figure 3: eebot

mechbot: Analog Guided Robot

Audience: Intro to Electronic Circuits, Mech stu-dents. Objective: Learn basic analog circuits. Con-cept: Create circuits to control robot, ultimately forsumo wrestling competition. Guidance: High, mostcircuits described in lab manual. Structure: Con-strained at first, then open form. Team size: Two.Hardware: Partial kit provided.

Figure 4: Mechbot

Weather Station

Audience: Fourth year EE students. Objective:Learn analog design for complete microprocessorsystem. Concept: Build functional weather stationwith three instruments. Guidance: Medium: stu-dents must do some hardware design and completesoftware. Structure: Structured, specifications aregiven and must be met. Team size: One. Hardware:Parts, including microprocessor kit, purchased by stu-dents.

Figure 5: Weather Station

eelab Instrumentation

Audience: Fourth year EE students. Objective:Learn instrumentation systems. Concept: Programmodular electronic instrument. Guidance: Medium,some documentation provided. Structure: Open-ended, choose and implement a system (from exam-ples). Team size: One. Hardware: Hardware is pur-chased and assembled by students from kit.

Figure 6: eelab

4

Thesis Project

Audience: Fourth year EE students. Objective: Ma-jor (capstone) project of EE Courses. Concept: Orig-inal project with significant design. Guidance: Low,students must do all research and design. Structure:Specifications are established by agreement. Teamsize: Two. Hardware: Purchased by students.2

Figure 7: Thesis Project

3 The OIP: Open Instrumenta-tion Project

Figure 8: OIP Oscilloscope and User Interface

In Electrical Engineering, project-based learningrequires access to certain fundamental items of in-strumentation: power supplies, signal generator, volt-meter and oscilloscope. Traditionally, the universityprovides this equipment but restricts access to spe-cific locations and times. For students, purchasingtheir own electronic equipment is not an option: it’stoo expensive.

2Photo credit, Luis Fernandez, Ryerson University.

The OIP (Open Instrumentation Project) is basedon one salient idea: if students had access to theirown personal electronic equipment then significantproject-based learning - and the execution of conven-tional lab laboratory exercises - could take place out-side scheduled university lab sessions. This wouldenhance student learning, allow more sophisticatedprojects, and reduce pressure on university resources.

We have developed a system based on open soft-ware that provides these same instruments to stu-dents. The system uses the hardware shown in figure8 and open-source software that runs on a personalcomputer. For the cost of about 2 textbooks, it is fea-sible for a student to own an electronics lab.

At this time, 3 instruments are available, similar inappearance to figure 8:

• Dual channel 20MS/sec oscilloscope

• Waveform generator

• Power Supply

These are the instruments used in basic electricity andelectronics laboratories3

A fourth instrument, a network analyser for mea-suring the amplitude and phase response of electroniccircuits [2], is available as free software that works inconjunction with the oscilloscope and waveform gen-erator.

3.1 OIP Architecture

A block diagram of the oscilloscope system is shownin figure 9.

The Open Instrumentation Project instrument hard-ware attaches to a PC host via the USB port. TheUSB connection provides power to the instrument sothat an AC adaptor is not required. The oscilloscopehardware is small and light enough to fit into a shirtpocket.

An example of the software – the oscilloscope GUI(Graphical User Interface) – is shown in the back-ground of figure 8. There are no mechanical switchesor controls - all operation of the instrument takesplace on the video display.

In addition to the control functions, the host PCprovides printing, storage and analysis facilities fordata.

The USB connection protocol is complicated. Inthis case, it is treated as a high-speed virtual serialconnection, which avoids much of the complexity.

3Low-cost digital voltmeters are also required. They are readilyavailable from other sources.

5

Virtual Serial Porteg, ttyUSB3, COM4

FTDIDriver

FTDIDriver

USB

Cable

SCI Port

Oscilloscope

USB Adaptor IC

Control Lines

Microprocessor

Hardware

GUI Software

Oscilloscope

Personal Computer

Waveform Generator

GUI Software

Osc

illos

cope

Har

dwar

e

Figure 9: OIP Block Diagram

There are two components to this system (figure 9).In the hardware, an IC converts the USB data streamto asynchronous serial format which is then handledby the serial communications interface of a micropro-cessor. In the host, driver software intercepts calls toa serial (tty or COM port) and converts them into aUSB data stream.

With this arrangement in place, the instrument soft-ware on the host PC can communicate with the instru-ment hardware by reading from and writing to a vir-tual serial port. Tcl/Tk, Visual Basic, C++ and Mat-lab have all been used to program the hardware. Aterminal emulator may be used to send ASCII com-mand strings to the hardware for debugging purposes.

3.2 The Host Software

The PC host software is written in the Tcl/Tk lan-guage, which has a number of attractive features forthis type of application:

• It is open source, maintained and extended bya large user community and freely available forany use [3].

• It is multi-platform and runs under Linux, Unix,Windows and Apple operating systems. Engi-neering students at Ryerson University often do

software development on a Windows machineat home and then demonstrate the same soft-ware on a Linux machine at Ryerson. The GUIchanges to suit the look and feel of its host ma-chine.

• Tcl is a scripting language, and so no compi-lation or linking are required to run a program.Programs are pure text and are interpreted by thehost.

• The Tk part of Tcl/Tk is a tool kit for the con-struction of a graphical user interface. As the re-sult of some clever design decisions, Tk is pow-erful and easy to learn. A graphical user inter-face can be constructed in a matter of minutes.An event handler is intrinsic in the language, somouse and keyboard events are trivial to pro-gram and manage.

• Access to the USB port is built into the language.It is treated as a ’virtual serial port’. No driversare required.

• It is possible to operate multiple instances of thesame program. For example, one computer canhost several power supplies, each connected toits own USB port.

6

• Sockets are available to support the inter-process communication of multiple GUI mes-sage sources. This simplifies the design of thesoftware. As well, sockets can support connec-tions to other networked sources. These could becomputers in the same laboratory, or via the in-ternet to some remote location. This has the po-tential for supporting remote access to the hard-ware, or the duplication of GUI clients at differ-ent locations so that other people can see what isbeing measured.

The Tcl instrument software source code is avail-able software from the Syscomp web site [1] andfrom Sourceforge [4], the traditional repository foropen-source software.

3.3 Configurable Instrumentation

It is possible to configure the hardware as new instru-ments for specific measurement applications. Thisis accomplished by creating a virtual instrument andgraphical user interface on the host computer, withoutmodification of the hardware.

For example:

• The waveform generator and oscilloscope areprogrammed to a perform frequency responseplot of a circuit network.

• The programmable power supply and voltmeterform a simple curve tracer.

• The power supply is used to sweep a heatsinkthrough a range of powers while the voltmeteruses a thermistor to measure temperature. TheGUI calculates and displays thermal resistancevs power dissipation.

• The system contains two function generators fora communications exercise. One generator pro-vides the information signal and the second gen-erator provides the modulation signal. The oscil-loscope software performs a Fourier Transformand displays the spectrum of the modulated sig-nal.

In this manner, the system can be used for projectsin instrumentation or perform specialized functions ina larger project.

3.4 Applications in Education

Any real technological innovation has applicationsand social implications beyond its obvious first use.

The first and primary use, as indicated in the intro-duction, is to support project-based learning. How-ever, there are other interesting possibilities for an af-fordable, modular electronic instrumentation system:

• Staged Introduction Because this instrumenta-tion is modular and affordable, students couldstage their acquisition of a complete system.The power supply and voltmeter support an in-troductory circuits course. The waveform gener-ator and oscilloscope complete a functional elec-tronics laboratory. The total cost could be dis-tributed over a period of time.

• Presentation Because this instrumentation usesa PC host, it is possible to use a digital projectorto demonstrate operation of the instruments ina classroom or laboratory. Commercial instru-ments generally do not have this facility.

• Networking Socket communication in the hostsoftware supports various forms of distance ed-ucation via the Internet.

• New Exercises and Demonstrations Tradi-tional lab equipment has limited functionality.For example, the standard university lab wave-form generator is capable of sine, square and tri-angle waveshapes. If an arbitrary waveform gen-erator is available, then a number of interestingexercises are possible. For example, the genera-tor is set up to produce a cardiogram waveformplus 60Hz noise. The oscilloscope is set up inspectrum-analyser mode to show the spectrumof this signal. The student then designs an activefilter to bandpass filter the desired signal.

• Instrumention Project As part of a course in in-strumentation, students could add features to theexisting software or, at a more advanced level,add new hardware and software modules to thesystem.

• Open Software Enhancements The instrumentgraphical user interface code for this project willbe in the public domain. In the tradition of OpenSoftware, we expect that students will contributeand benefit from contributions that enhance andmodify the instruments. For example, studentshave already contributed a waveform editor forthe generator and a waveform math package forthe oscilloscope.

7

4 Conclusion

Project-based-learning is an effective method oflearning in the engineering curriculum. It encouragesinvolvement of the students in the learning processand conveys important information on project man-agement.

Projects can have a variety of forms and structures.In the process of organizing an engineering project,some explicit consideration should be given to the al-ternatives and how they support the learning objec-tives.

It is now feasible to support project-based learningby providing students with their own set of electronicinstruments. The combination of of low-cost elec-tronic components, open software and powerful per-sonal computers makes it possible to provide a mod-ular, versatile system at very modest cost.

Providing students with electronic instrumentationholds out the promise of de-structuring lab access andimproving learning. It also creates a number of inter-esting possibilities at the lab curriculum level and inthe organization of university laboratories.

Acknowledgements

Jim Koch of Ryerson’s Department of Electrical andComputer Engineering was a major contributor to theimplementation of the projects shown in this paper.Devin Ostrom of Mechanical Engineering providemany of the electronics ideas for the mechbot. JasonNaughton and Ryerson EE technical staff assisted ina variety of ways. James Gaston is co-designer of theeelab and the Open Instrumentation Project systems.

References[1] www.syscompdesign.com

[2] www.syscompdesign.com/netanalyzer.htm

[3] www.activestate.com/

[4] www.sourceforge.net/projects/oip

[5] Lance Schachterle & Ole Vinther, ”The Role ofProjects in Engineering Education”, European Journalof Engineering Education, Vol 21, No 2, 1996, pp 115-120

[6] Knud Nielsen & Ole Vinther, ”Experiences of Successand Failure in Project Organization”, European Jour-nal of Engineering Education, Vol 21, No 2, 1996, pp133-139

[7] Francis C. Lutz & Lance Schachterle, ”Projects in Un-dergraduate Engineering Education in America”, Eu-ropean Journal of Engineering Education, Vol 21, No2, 1996, pp 207-214

[8] ”PBLE: A Guide to Learning Engineering throughProjects”, University of Nottingham, November 2003,http://www.pble.ac.uk,

[9] Brigid J.S.Barron, ”Doing with Understanding:Lessons from Research on Problem and Project-BasedLearning”, The Journal of the Learning Sciences, Vol7, Issues 3&4, pp 271-311

[10] Arne Gjengedal, ”Project Based Learningin Engineering Education at Tromsoe Col-lege”, http://www.ineer.org/Events/ICEE2000/Proceedings/papers/TuA2-1.pdf

[11] Marra, Palmer & Litzinger, ”The Effects of a First-Year Engineering Design Course on Student Intellec-tual Development as Measured by the Perry Scheme”,Journal of Engineering Education, Jan 2000, pp 39-45

[12] D.B.Kaufman,R.M.Felder and H.Fuller, ”Ac-counting for Individual Effort in Coopera-tive Learning Teams”, Journal of Engineer-ing Education, 89(2), pp 133-140, 2000http://wwww.ncsu.edu/felder-public//Papers/Kaufmanpap.pdf

[13] R.M.Felder & R.Brent, ”Effective Strategies for Co-operative Learning”, Journal of Cooperation and Col-laboration in College Teaching, 10(2), pp 69-75, 2001http://wwww.ncsu.edu/felder-public/Papers/CLStrategies(JCCCT).pdf

[14] G.Zywno, ”Cooperative Learning”, TheGREET Exchange, Spring Issue, pp 8-9, 2005http://wwww.ryerson.ca/lt/resources/exchange/index.htm

[15] John W. Thomas, ”A Review of Research on Project-Based Learning”, Autodesk Foundation, April 2004http://www.autodesk.com/foundation,

8