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. AbdelhamidAjbar College of Engineering King Saud University aajbar@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).

6. 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.

7. 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)

8. 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)

9. Assessment Structure of the Course

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.

11. 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

12. 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.

16. ChallengePoints • 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.

17. ChallengePoints (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.