During the implementation phase of the project, a number of spillover effects materialized such as:
Title of the Study Programme: BSc in Product Design
Level of PBL implementation: Study Program
Number of ECTS: 240
PBL:Support didactics ratio: 45:55
Language of instruction: Ro
Curriculum/Study Programme development:
Valeriu Podborschi, Associate Professor, Technical University of Moldova (team leader)
Maxim Vaculenco, Associate Professor Technical University of Moldova
Marianne Denise J. Stokholm, Professor, Aalborg University (mentor)
Curricular/Study Programme approved: pdf
Curricular/Study Programme implementation:
Student mobility:
Autumn 2018
Spring 2019
This extra staff mobility project - PBLMD-TOPUP - contributed to the implementation and sustainability of PBLMD project by offering extra 10 staff mobilities for the AAU team to travel to Moldova and engage in co-teaching, co-evaluation and training activities at newly designed 7 BSc study programs at 6 Moldovan universities. These study programs are:
PBLMD total grant: 25,450 EUR. PBLMD-TOPUP was implemented over a 2 year period. In the first year, the main activities were co-teaching at newly designed BSc study programs; co-supervising and co-evaluating the students; continuous training of Moldovan staff in PBL, student-centered and active learning approaches and methods. Co-teaching, co-supervising, co-evaluating, and training continued in the second year of project implementation. At the same time, student mobility (financed by the mobility tool of the main project PBLMD) commenced during this period, and the above main activities were also integrated and supported student mobility.
All related activities are integrated into PBLMD Staff Mobility.
Purpose of this inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional workshop is twofold. One, to introduce the importance of methodology and research design in PBL education, incl., group project work. Two, to facilitate inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional PBL group work by bringing the students enrolled at all 6 pilot PBL BSc study programmes redesigned within PBLMD project.
Agenda is available here.
Information is available on Project Intranet.
PBLIP builds on students’ experience and taking it a step further. During this PBLIP the students will work in interdisciplinary and inter-institutional teams of 6 (1 student from an MD partner university), identify, investigate, solve and report an interdisciplinary real life problem within the scope of Sustainability Development Goals.
The following time-table will be followed:
Feb 21-24: forming groups, identifying project research problems/topics, allocating supervisors, preparing for the project, incl., group exam (BSU and CSU students and staff travel to Chisinau); agenda cane be found here.
Feb-Mar: intensive project team work, incl.:
on-line group meetings and supervision
on-line, at least 2, joint supervision meetings with AAU mentors
one group face-to-face meeting per team (BSU and CSU students travel to Chisinau)
Apr 1 by 12pm: submission of PBLIP (electronically via Moodle)
Apr 11-14: PBLIP evaluation (BSU and CSU students and staff travel to Chisinau):
Apr 12: Formal group exams: two hours per group; examination team: 2 internal supervisors and AAU mentor
Apr 13: Project competition (informal group assessment): 30 min per group; evaluation panel: 6 CEOs from Entrepreneurial, IT, Law, Medical, Public sectors; there will be prizes for the first three places
PBLIP description: available here.
Summary of PBLIP projects: available here.
Judges:
Results (70% assesment by judges; 30% - by peers):
Pictures can be assesed here.
Mass media coverage of the event:
Final output: PBL Inter-Disciplinary and Inter-Institutional Project
The extension of the PBL implementation was done by implementing the courses based on the PBL at the following programs:
The updating the course units curricula and the introduction of the projects to other study programs within the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences:
At the Faculty of Economics, Engineering and Applied Sciences, the syllabuses for the following specialties were modified by introducing the PBL approach and approved by the Senate:
In all these programs the folowing discipline was introduced: Principles of study by the "Learning by problem research" method (PBL - Problem Based Learning). At the same time within all the mentioned programs were introduced mini-interdisciplinary projects and semestrial projects.
The PBL strategy was applied (partially or completely) in the Master programs offered at 4 faculties:
Faculty of Economics
Faculty of Biology and Pedology
Faculty of Psychology, Sciences of Education, Sociology and Social Work
Faculty of International Relations, Political and Administrative Sciences
Implementation of the curricular reform of the study program "Optometry" and modernization of the higher education program in the Republic of Moldova in accordance with the Bologna Process by implementing the PBL methodology.
Curricula redesigned for 5 Master Study Programs:
Next steps: At least another 2 study programs to be redesigned: Automatics and Robotics.
To support the development and implementation of the PBL-based BSc programmes, each MD partner took part in the development of internal PBL pedagogical training capacity.
To support this activity, each university put together a Pedagogical Training Team (PTT).
These PTTs contributed to the:
All members of PTTs as well as other academic staff from MD partners took in various training activities
organized in Moldova as well as at EU project partners. During the project, the following numbers of MD staff took part in various trainings at home and abroad:
Object in this publication is to explore how curriculum content and learning methods – in this case, Problem Based Learning – are shaped by non-academic, external social and political factors and in particular the extent to which populism and the populist agenda is influencing content and methods.
Dates: The book will be published in 2020
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Information: can be accessed here.
This draft has not yet been approved (as of Feb 2019); however, it only partially takes into account the changes proposed above (see Steps 1-3), thus still restricting university autonomy, especially academic autonomy.