Traditional computer science curriculums emphasize lecture-based classroom teaching, with limited exposure to real-world problems and projects. Often, instructor-crafted "toy" projects provide little resemblance to those that arise in the real-world. Students find it difficult to relate what they are studying to the fast-changing computing world, frequently resulting in them becoming discouraged with computer science. A CS graduate is often faced with poor preparation for professional software development and a steep learning curve upon beginning work in a real-world computing environment. On the other hand, it has been shown that in real-world project-based courses, student motivation for learning is much higher. Students are more willing to learn project related material on their own, and the knowledge learned lasts longer. The goal in ProjectMT is to enhance the CS teaching and learning experience with real-world projects woven into the entire CS curriculum. The process is further enriched with a stable and consistent local industrial connection that brings in innovative computing ideas, technologies, and real-world experiences. Bachelor's-level students will participate in the development of real-world applications, and engage in active learning of project and class-related materials. The proposed innovation in the CS curriculum will prepare each graduate to be ready to work competitively and successfully in the industry from day one. Through pilot course development, it will add to the body of knowledge on project-based teaching and learning additional findings for designing and teaching real-world project-based courses, strategies for encouraging student active learning, and challenges facing curriculum wide transformation. The project brings together faculties at MTSU's CS department, other departments at MTSU, local stakeholders and educators at area institutions. It establishes a framework that supports project-centric curriculum development. This framework includes specific components to interact with local stakeholders for project collection, evaluation, and report communication; a Project Management Course structure to maintain a database of projects, assign projects to courses, and track project development; and mechanisms to include local educators in collaborative course development and project implementation. Students in the project-based curriculum are expected to be more motivated to study in CS courses, learn the course material better, have better training for their future jobs, and be more committed to work in the CS discipline.
The goal in ProjectMT is to enhance the computer science teaching and learning experience with real-world projects woven into the entire curriculum. During last three years, we have built a strong relationship with local businesses, and have solicited more than 25 real-world projects from the local area. These projects were adopted in variant computer science courses such as software engineering, Java, database, web technology, and capstone. To facilitate the project management, a website was developed to solicit projects, assign projects to courses, and track project development. During this pilot study, we had a better understanding of challenging issues we are facing when real-world projects are incorporated into a classroom setting, and such findings have been shared with computer science educators. More than 200 students have participated in the project and benefited from it. Our study shows that students seem to be more motivated because the sponsor is depending on their teams to get the project done; that students are more self-motivated to engage in active learning on topics not covered in the class, yet required by the project they work on; and that students may not learn a broad-range of topics like they do in a traditional class but the topics they use during the project are learned in-depth. The local industry also benefits from this project by having more competent IT workforces, and shorter on-job training programs. Additionally, they can have a closer connection with our students. The real-world projects we collected were also adopted by instructors from other departments and other universities. One project supported by the grant was reported in the newsletter HighSigns, which highlights the accomplishments of all TBR (Tennessee Board of Regents) universities and is distributed at the TBR board meeting each quarter.
