Application of Project-Based-Learning (PBL) in Process Control Course

1
Application of Project-Based-Learning (PBL) in
Process Control Course

• Presented by
• Prof. Dr. Abdelhamid Ajbar
• College of Engineering
• King Saud University
• aajbar_at_ksu.edu.sa
• Project Sponsored by
• Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching
• October 2014

2
Introduction on PBL

• Project-based-learning (PBL) is considered to be
  a subset of cooperative learning (CP)
• PBL approach uses a learning environment that
  simulates a real professional challenge
• PBL facilitates the learning of difficult
  subjects, encourages active learning, and allows
  the development of soft skills such as problem
  solving, thinking, team work and communication
  skills
• The starting point of learning in PBL is a
  realistic project-problem that serves to
  contextualize the new content that students have
  to learn before solving the problem.
• The project-problem is the central element in
  the approach. All academic and evaluation
  activities are oriented by the project-problem.

3
Why the Process Control Course?

• Process Control course (ChE 414) is taught in the
  Chemical Engineering Department. It deals with
  mathematical modeling of process dynamics,
  control systems design and analysis of chemical
  processes.
• This course is taught in the last year of the
  academic plan
• The Control course has unique and many
  challenging aspects for students.

4
Why the Process Control Course?(Cont)

• The course has its own mathematics (Laplace
  Transform) that takes generally 7 contact
  hours. During that time students get
  disconnected from the main objectives of the
  course.
• Students should also learn how to perform
  mathematical modeling which is a challenging
  task for them.
• Students are taught to analyze in three
  domains time, Laplace and frequency domains.
  Students have challenge switching between
  these three variables.
• Students are required to use software for
  simulations .This necessarily required some
  programming skills which add another dimension
  to the challenges faced by the students.
•  

5
Why the Process Control Course? (Cont)

• In a traditional lecture based learning (LBL)
  approach, the aforementioned obstacles limit
  the ability of students to grasp the essential
  aspects of the course.
• Students often fail to understand and visualize
  a process in operation, and relate mathematical
  theories to the physical reality.
• As a result, most students can barely decipher
  the problem-solving type questions in the exams.
  
• Consequently
• This course seems to be an ideal candidate to
  be put under the PBL experience.
• This will guide the students to learn and
  understand the subject better, as well as acquire
  the necessary soft (team work, communication,
  self-learning) and high level skills (synthesis
  and evaluation).

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Objectives of the Project

• Demonstrate that the PBL approach can be an
  efficient teaching and learning method in
  process control.
• Demonstrate that the PBL approach can improve
  students soft skills (team work, communication
  skills and self-learning)
• Demonstrate that the PBL approach can improve
  the students high level skills (synthesis and
  evaluation)
• Assess the potential difficulties of implementing
  the PBL technique
• Assess the potential of transferring this
  experience to other courses.

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Procedures for Execution of Project(First
Semester)

• In the first phase (first semester), the
  following actions were taken
• Literature review on previous applications of PBL
  on process control and selection of the Project
  that will lead the course activities.
• Prepare a plan to introduce students to PBL
  (through presentations and references), and
  prepare them psychologically to accept the
  project
• Preparation of a time plan for the implementation
  of the project in the second term
• Preparation of a plan on how to distribute
  students into groups
• Prepare written materials associated with the
  project, which will be distributed to the
  students in the second semester .
• Preparation of computer codes associated with
  the project
• Preparation of an assessment plan for the course
• Prepare a plan to evaluate the experience
  (including survey and grades)

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Procedures for Execution of Project(Second
semester)

• The second phase of the project consisted in the
  implementation of the measures that have been
  prepared and planned in the previous phase (first
  semester). These measures include
• Explain the project to the students and prepare
  them psychologically to participate in the
  project
• Distribution of the students into groups
• Implementation of stages of the PBL experience
  through
• Presenting the Project that will lead student
  activities
• Distribution of tasks between the student groups
  each week of the semester
• Distribution of prepared materials and computer
  codes
• Planning of activities of each lecture
• Assessment of the PBL project through analysis of
  students survey results and grades
• Overall evaluation of the experience (including
  success points and challenges)

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Assessment Structure of the Course
Type of Assessment Characteristics of Exam Mark
First Mid-Term Exam Addresses the knowledge, comprehension and application parts of skills Individual work   15
Second Mid-term Exam Addresses the synthesis and evaluation parts of skills   Individual work 15
Group Work (14 Assignments associated with the PBL project) Address all critical thinking and problem solving skills, continuous self-learning abilities, and teamwork and communication skills. Group work 20
Labs written and oral Reports Address communication skills, team work and ability to carry out experiments Group work 10
Final Exam Addresses the Comprehension, analysis, synthesis and evaluation parts of skills   Individual work 40
10
Evaluation of Course Learning Outcomes

• The achievement of course learning outcomes was
  evaluated using two different ways indirect and
  direct assessments.
• Indirect assessment consists of the results of
  the survey distributed to the students
• Direct assessment consists of the grades as
  was discussed in the assessment structure The
  first mid-term exam assesses the knowledge,
  comprehension and application parts of
  skills. The second mid-term exam addresses the
  high level skills of synthesis and
  evaluation. The series of tasks assigned to
  students target high level skills as well as
  soft skills (e.g. communication skills, team
  work skills). These latter skills are also
  assessed by two lab reports.

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 Overall Analysis of Survey Results

• The survey contains 18 questions and three
  open-ended questions. The survey is structured
  upon four sections. A section to evaluate
  course preparation planning (questions 1-5), a
  section to evaluate course delivery (questions
  6-9), a section to evaluate the course outputs
  (questions 10-16) and a section for an overall
  evaluation of the experience (questions 17-18). A
  section (questions 19-21) consists of open-ended
  questions where students can write their own
  comments.
• Average response to
  all questions

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 Overall Analysis of Survey Results (Cont.)

• Average response to (Overall I was satisfied
  with the PBL experience).

Average response to question ( I would like
the PBL experience to be used in other courses)
13
 Overall Analysis of Grades

• Comparison between combined grades (out of 60) of
  first and second semester 2013-2014
•  

Detailed grades for each assessment item  
14
 Opportunities for Extending the Experience

• Besides the chemical engineering department, the
  Control course is taught in electrical
  engineering (EE 351) and mechanical
  engineering (ME 461). The fundamentals of the
  courses are the same. So this experience can be
  readily transferred to these departments.
• There are two courses in chemical engineering
  that are good candidates for this experience.
  The Numerical Methods course (ChE 406) is a
  course that deals with the application of
  numerical techniques to solution of chemical
  engineering problems. The PBL approach can be
  very successful for this course. A project (e.g.
  a chemical engineering process) could be selected
  and modeled. The resulting equations could be
  served as leading Project to teach the variety of
  numerical methods. The PBL approach can help
  improve students soft skills (communication, team
  work), critical thinking as well as computer
  skills.
• The second course which is candidate to the PBL
  approach is the Computer Programming (GE 209).
  This is a general engineering course that is
  offered to chemical, civil, surveying and
  petroleum engineering students. This course is an
  ideal candidate for the PBL approach to improve
  students programming skills.
•  

15
 Success Points

• I managed to teach students, for the first time,
  how to develop codes in SIMULINK. The PBL
  approach managed to get students focused as they
  continuously learn by solving pieces of
  problems related to the main Project that was
  leading the experience.
• Students seem to be satisfied with the
  experience. Surveys, grades and the absence of
  withdrawn from the course can attest to that.
  Also as time goes by, I could feel that the
  students enthusiasm grow especially in the lab
  where they practiced the coding and simulations.
• The PBL approach managed to tackle and hopefully
  improve students high level skills (synthesis
  and evaluation). This is an important issue since
  the students taking the course are final years
  students and there is an emphasis from the
  educators and the accreditation entities (such as
  ABET and NCAAA) to improve these high level
  skills. The PBL experience allowed both group
  discussion and collective discussion. The nature
  of the given mini-projects allowed students to
  develop their own ideas, be creative and
  evaluate alternatives.
• Soft skills such as team work, reports
  writing/presentation, and self-learning were
  also improved as result of this experience.

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 Challenge Points

• The biggest challenge to implement the PBL is to
  motivate and reassure the students to accept the
  experience. As far as the students are
  concerned, the assessment (i.e. grades) is the
  most important issue. Students will learn what
  they think they will be assessed on, not what has
  been covered in lectures. For the course
  instructor, assessment is at the end of the
  teaching-learning sequence of events, but to the
  student it is at the beginning. It is therefore
  important to make connection between teaching,
  assessment and learning outcomes.
• Tutoring students is big challenge, especially
  during computer sessions. Students always look
  for course instructor to provide guidance and
  answers.
• It is important but challenging to test if each
  student in each group is actively involved in
  the team work. Oral presentation is important to
  differentiate between students.
• It is important to form groups of students so
  that each group will have both high and low GPA
  students. Unfortunately sometimes students choose
  their group according to the friendship they have
  with each other.

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 Challenge Points (Cont.)

• The selection of the Project is important and is
  the core of the experience. In this semester I
  have selected the stirred tank heater which is a
  simple industrial process. Going for more complex
  processes would be interesting for students but
  the complexity (modeling, simulations) will
  increase substantially. Careful choice should be
  made.
•