Effectiveness of Project-Based Computer Science and Information Technology Courses in the First and Final Year of University in Terms of Students’ Readiness, Attitudes and Academic Achievements

Abstract

Project-based learning (PBL) refers to an approach to teaching that is centred on learners. It requires students to work collaboratively in groups over an extended period to achieve the required project outcomes. The popularity of PBL has increased owing to many factors, including that it helps students to acquire technical and professional skills. Both types of skills are important in academic and work environments. When PBL is incorporated into computer science (CS) and information technology (IT) courses, students benefit from the opportunity to develop and practise technical and professional skills. These skills include the ability to work in teams, communicate effectively and cope with diverse challenges. Using PBL enables CS and IT students to simulate the experience of working as a group in the professional world and to explore some situations that may arise and ways to deal with them. Working in groups can increase their confidence level and benefit them when they seek employment after graduation. Within this context, students’ preparedness in terms of technical and professional skills, and group composition, are important factors that affect group success. The benefits of PBL are contingent on several factors, and the inappropriate implementation of PBL or group composition can lead to many problems. Therefore, lecturers should pay close attention when implementing PBL, especially for first-year students, because these students have less experience of working in a group than later-year students. Selecting a suitable PBL implementation strategy can result in a well-designed, collaborative, project-based group and prevent many issues, which would positively affect students’ performance. Companies have extensive requirements for potential employees—they seek to hire individuals who have both technical and professional expertise. Therefore, PBL needs to be implemented effectively from the first year at university to allow students sufficient time to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to meet employers’ expectations. However, very few studies explore the important factors that should be considered when implementing and forming groups in PBL and the manner in which these factors may affect group performance—especially in higher education, and more specifically with first- and final-year CS and IT students. Therefore, this thesis has attempted to fill this literature gap by exploring the perceptions of students and lecturers about the implementation of PBL in the first and final years. In particular, it provides students an opportunity to present their opinions on the benefits and shortcomings of PBL, group success factors, encouragement factors, their preferred group composition and their preferred role within the group, both before and after group work. This thesis also provides students the opportunity to describe the conflicts they have encountered during group work. It provides further insight into the important factors that influence groups’ academic performance; students’ readiness for, and perceptions of, PBL; their preferred group composition; their preferred role in the group; and the most and the least important group success factors. This thesis also investigates the differences between first- and final-year CS and IT students regarding their readiness for, and perceptions of, PBL. Moreover, it investigates the differences in these students’ preferred group composition, preferred role and the most and the least important group success factors from their perspective. In addition, this thesis aims to provide in-depth knowledge about lecturers’ perceptions regarding the advantages and challenges associated with PBL, the methods they adopt to manage these challenges, group success factors, group formation methods, the difficulties they experience when forming groups and the methods they adopt to deal with