0000000001055550
AUTHOR
Juho Heikkinen
Learning mechanisms in multidisciplinary teamwork with real customers and open-ended problems
Recently, there has been a trend towards adding a multidisciplinary or multicultural element to traditional monodisciplinary project courses in computing and engineering. In this article, we examine the implications of multidisciplinarity for students’ learning experiences during a one-semester project course for real customers. We use a qualitative research approach and base our analysis on students’ learning reports on three instances of a project course titled Multidisciplinary working life project. The main contribution of this article is the unified theoretical picture of the learning mechanisms stemming from multidisciplinarity. Our main conclusions are that (1) students generally hav…
Students’ Opinions on Financial Compensation from Project Work
Project-based learning with real customers arguably offer value for all stakeholders. This value has been discussed in literature both from the viewpoint of customers and the related economic value, and the enhanced learning of students. This paper presents the results from an empirical study on students who have completed a multidisciplinary project course with real customers. A qualitative survey was focused on how students see the value of project-based learning and whether there should be financial compensation to students. The students placed a higher value on learning than financial compensation, and while they argued that it would be fair and nice if some compensation was paid, they …
Optimal Dynamics of Functionality Development in Open Innovation
Abstract Sustainable functionality development has become crucial option for firm's survival in a new paradigm confronting a post-information society. This can be realized by earlier emergence of functionality development. In this context, effective utilization of external innovation resources leads to follower substitution for leader in open innovation. This substitution induces advancements of innovative goods by substituting gratification of their consumption for resistance to them. Thus, optimization of utmost gratification of consumption under certain investment would be crucial for firm strategy. Optimal functionality development dynamics is analyzed in this paper by integrating produ…
Conceptualizing the role of multidisciplinarity and student perceptions of university-industry collaboration in project-based learning
Project-based learning has a long history, especially in the disciplines of computer science and engineering. This approach is used to offer students a realistic view of their discipline, and this experience can be enhanced with industrial involvement as companies bring their real world problems to projects. One recent trend in project-based learning is utilizing multidisciplinary teams, enabling students to contrast their skills and experience with students from other disciplines. This thesis focuses on a project course involving multidisciplinary teams and real customers that has been organized at the University of Jyväskylä since 2011 focused on developing students’ general working life …
Perceived status and value
This article examines how students in a multidisciplinary project-based learning course involving real customers perceive their interactions with their customers. The authors conducted a qualitative study and analysed students’ learning reports by means of a thematic network analysis. The analysis shows how students perceive their status in relation to their customers and how their perceptions of their work affect how they see the value of the projects. The authors consider their empirical findings in the context of the existing literature on university–industry collaboration and thereby summarize different scenarios of the contrasting working practices and priorities in academia and indus…