1. PBL at Aalborg University
Session 4: The Aalborg model. Topic 2-5
Four lectures about how PBL is used in the educations at Aalborg University, by Associated Professor, Lars Peter Jensen
Problems and project proposal topic 2
Projects and teams topic 3
Courses and project work topic 4
The role of the teacher/supervisor
Directing the studies topic 5
Study regulations, exam
Welcome to this lecture, my name is Lars Peter Jensen, and for the next four lectures I will take you to a guided tour on Aalborg University, trying to explain how we use problem based learning at the university.
In the first lecture in this session Palle Qvist explained the principles behind the Aalborg PBL model. In this guided tour i will explore how these principles are used in common practice and go into details about how we and the students actually do things.
PBL is a total concept of all the educations at Aalborg university, but i will concentrate on the engineering educations.
The issues for the four lectures covering topic 2 to 5 in session 4 will be:
This time: How we define a problem suitable for a project and ”transform” it to a project proposal.
Next time about how project work is carried on in Aalborg and how the teams function
The third lecture, that topic 4, will explain how courses are held and how they relate to the project work, which changes the teachers roles as lectures and ad a new role as a supervisor for a group of student working with a project.
The last of the lectures are concerned about the structure of the study regulations and how the learning outcome of the projects are ”measured” in a group examination resulting in individual marks.

2. The Aalborg model - one way of dealing with PBL
Key words:
Problems
Projects
Team work
The first two lectures I will dig into - what the university it self - calls The Aalborg model, where the key principles, as Palle Quist told in lecture one are that the students solve actual problems throughout their whole education. For this purpose the university uses large scale project work with one large project each semester. The projects are carried out in groups where the students both solve the problems and document the work in a project report and at the same time develop team work skills.
The key words will be addressed by asking what, why and how to each of them starting this time with problems.

3. Problems
What ?
Three different types of problem based projects at AAU:
The task project
The discipline project
The problem project
What kind of problems could be the basis for a student group project?
At the engineering educations in Aalborg three different ways of using problem orientation has emerged:
The task project, the more discipline oriented project and the real or total problem project. I will now explain more about them.

4. The task project Considerable planning and control by the supervisors
The problem and the subject as well as the methods are chosen beforehand
The educational objectives are easily controlled
Being a supervisor is easy in that the supervisor knows exactly what is going to be explored in the project and can direct the students' choices in the planned direction.
The less problem oriented project is called the task project, which is characterised by a very high degree of planning and direction by the teacher, involving a large task to be solved.
Both the problem, the subjects and the methods are chosen in advance.
This means that the educational objectives are easily controlled and the supervisor knows exactly what is going to be explored in the project and he or she can direct the students in the planned direction.
But we know that the more the supervisor control’s the project the less the students feel that it is their project and their motivation falls.

5. The task project Problem Subject Suject
Metaphorically, you may think of the task project as a football game where you know where the football ground and the ball are as well as the basic rules, so you can just go and learn how to play, knowing the rules of the game. An example of a student project could be that in the firm X they have a machine emitting too much noise. The task given is to measure the noise level, calculate the necessary attenuation and find a silencer.
This kind of project may be proposed by teachers who want to be totally in control of the project.

6. The discipline project
The disciplines and the methods are chosen in advance
The students have to identify and define a problem within the described disciplines
The educational objectives are mostly formulated for each discipline
Being a supervisor in this process may be a bit uncertain, because the students are allowed to make some choices on their own. However, the scientific field is described well and hardly any surprises occur
The discipline project is more problem oriented although the disciplines and the methods are chosen by the teachers.
But it is the students that – within these disciplines have to identify a problem and define it and solve it.
The educational objectives will be defined for each of the disciplines and although the supervisor don’t know which problem the students will choose, the scientific field is well known and hardly any surprises will occur.

7. The discipline project
Problem
Again, metaphorically you may think of the football game. Now you know where to find the football ground and you know the basic rules, but before starting the game you must find the ball and set the game into play. An example of a student project could be a description of the scientific objectives as using a digital signal processor and creating a filter. The student will then have to start by finding a problem where a filter is needed in the solution and it would be a good idea to use a digital signal processer.
This kind of project might be used at semesters where there are a lot of different disciplines to be learned, and the teachers wants to be sure that they all becomes part of the project.

8. The problem project Based on problems as the starting point
The problem will determine the choice of disciplines, theories and methods
The educational objectives emphasises ability to analyse and methodological skills
The problem has to be chosen within a broader social and technical frame
Being a supervisor in this process may be difficult because it is a self-directed learning process and the supervisor may find him/herself at the edge of capacity
The 'problem project' is, contrary to the two former types of problem orientation, based on problems as the starting point. This means that the problem will determine the choice of disciplines and methods which correspond to the original idea of a problem-oriented learning process, as explained by Palle Quist in lecture one of this session, where the students have to start with a problem and analyze it, find fundamental solutions to the problem, choose the right solution and outline strategies for implementation It is very often an interdisciplinary project and the educational objectives concern ability to analyze and obtain methodical skills. Of course, the problem has to be chosen within a frame, but this frame is mainly described as a broader social technical topic. Being a supervisor in this process may be difficult because it is a self-directed process and the teacher may find him/herself at the edge of he’s capacity.

9. The problem project Problem Discipline
Metaphorically, we here deal with a situation where the students do not know what the football ground look like, and they hardly know the basic rules. But they have a ball and they are eager to play.
They have to start from scratch and set up the whole frame, marking the field and defining the playing rules before the game can be started. An example of a student project could be that in the firm X there is too much noise emitted in the production hall. Analyze the problem in order to find the noise sources and find solutions.

10. Common features of project work
For all three types of projects, a problem has to be analysed and solved by means of different theories and methods
The phases of the project are common to all three project types
Although there are great differences in if it is the teacher or the students that are in control in the tree project categories there are also similarities:
All the project types start with an analysis of a problem an then the student will try so solve it by means of some engineering theories and methods that has already been presented in a project unit course in the beginning of the semester.
This mean that the phases of a project are typically undependable of the type of project.

11. Problems Why ? Real world problems are interdisciplinary and complex
It is a learner-centred process
It meets the learners' interests and enhances motivation
It emphasizes development of analytical, methodological and transferable skills
Why do we use problem based project work in Aalborg ?
Because real world problems are both interdisciplinary and complex and being able to solve this kind of problems are skills that we want the students to develop.
It is a learner centered process which very much meets the learners interest and therefore enhances the motivation among the students.
The skills they develop are both analytical and methodological but most important – they are transferable in the sense that they can be used when solving other problems as well

12. Problems
How ?
The project groups choose their own problem to work with in the projects
The problem has to be analyzed within a relevant context before it can be solved or analyzed further
The problem determines the choice of methods and theories to be used
How do we treat the problems ?
Most important is that each student group are to choose their own problem to work with as their project each semester.
This is the basis for their feeling of ownership of the project, which is a very important motivation factor and enhances the learning process.
The problem has to be analyzed within its context before it can be solved and the result of this analysis determines the choice of methods and theories to be used.

13. Who is in control of what ?
Problem
Discipline
Results
Task Project
Supervisor +
Students
(?) ?
Discipline Project
(+)
Problem Project
When a teacher have to develop a project proposal it would be a good idea to look at the project classification , and propose a project that is well suited for the actual semester, but also for he’s or her capability.
As you can see the supervisor is able to control the problem, the disciplines or methods and the results for the task project, where the students only know the problem and have to learn the methods and gain a result. A new and insecure teacher or supervisor might be attracted towards this kind of project but it has the disadvantage that the student motivation might be very low if they are directed to much by the supervisor, so it is recommended to use one of the other project types or categories.
In the subject project the supervisor is in control of the disciplines and methods and have also some control over the problem as he can talk the students into a specific problem and thereby also to a certain amount control the results, at least concerning the disciplines they learn.
The students control the problem and the result them selves.
In the problem project the supervisor knows what disciplines and methods can be used, but who controlles the methods the problem and the results is very much up to the cooperation between the student group and the supervisor.

14. Exercise
Four project proposals at:
Categorize the project proposals into the tree types or categories used in the lecture
I have chosen not to present some specific project proposals in the lecture, because i will like you to analyze some project proposals for your self.
In the exercise document for this topic you will find 4 project proposals from real projects that has already been used at the University.
Now the task for you is to categorize each of them into one of the tree types presented in this lecture:
The task project, the discipline project or the problem project.
That was all for this lecture – thank you for your attention