Implementing Digital Methods into Project-Based Engineering Courses

Abstract

Digital transformation increasingly affects all fields of life. Today’s students need a vast variety of collaboration skills and have to be able to work in interdisciplinary teams and in remote workspaces by applying future-oriented digital instruments at the same time. It is the role of academic education to impart technical and social competences, stimulating the courage and the curiosity for a lifelong learning. Against this background, academic courses require contemporary content and didactical methods. In fact, academic teaching in engineering disciplines today predominantly consists of conventional teaching methods such as lectures, exercises or laboratory tutorials. This paper outlines two project-based concepts, including digital instruments and collaborative forms of teaching and learning. Students, who participate in pilot projects since 2017 study either mechanical or civil engineering at Ruhr West University of Applied Sciences.