Nepal Engineering College

Strengthening problem-based education in South Asian Universities 2019-2021

INTRODUCTION

Nepal Engineering College is the partner institution of the new collaborative project “Problem based learning (PBL)” along with the ten different universities located in Nepal, Finland, India, Bhutan, the Netherland and Lithuania which aims to promote problem-based learning in south Asia. This project is funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education and duration of the project is from 15-11-2018 to 15-11-2021, three years.

Further information on the project is available on the PBL South Asia website:

https://aaltoglobalimpact.org/pbl-south-asia/index.html

PROJECT PARTNERS

Applicant Coordinator

Partner Universities:

Program Universities:

PROJECT GOAL

1. Strengthen the capacity of partner HEIs in Nepal, Bhutan and India and contribute to local innovation ecosystems

 

• In Nepal and Bhutan, embed PBL content into existing project courses and/or establish new courses.
• In India, influence national educational content development.

 

2. Integrate themes of sustainable development, social responsibility and human rights into educational practice through PBL.

3. Consolidate best practices in PBL, from East and West, and create synergy between local design and innovation goals and global business and innovation contexts.

PROJECT TIMELINES

Work Packages

1. Management (Package lead: Aalto)

a) Overall project coordination (Aalto Global Impact)

b) Country-specific coordination and financial management (each partner)

c) Kick-off workshop in Finland, spring 2019 (Aalto)

2. Preparation (Package lead: IIT Bombay or IISc Bangalore)

a) Teacher training and curriculum design workshop in Bombay, fall 2019 (Component lead, IIT Bombay)

b) PBL best practices review (IIT Bombay or IISc Bangalore)

3. Development (Package lead: RUB or KU or AITM)

a) Student challenge pilots in 2019 (Component lead: Aalto)

b) Student challenges in Bhutan, Nepal and India 2020-2021 (led by 1 partner in each country)

c) PBL methodologies training workshop 1 (teaching methods) in the Netherlands (TU Delft)

d) PBL methodologies training workshop 2 (fieldwork best practices) in Bhutan or Nepal (RUB and/or AITM/KU)

4. Quality Plan (Package lead: Kaunas)

a) Assessment of students’ learning outcomes (2019-2021) (Kaunas)

b) Assessment of PBL courses’ relevance and contributions to local innovation ecosystems and external industry/societal partners (2019-2021, Kaunas)

c) Sharing global best practices in universities’ PBL education related to sustainability challenges workshop (autumn 2020, Kaunas)

d) Analytical report on findings for best practices in interdisciplinary, multicultural challenge-driven education projects in South Asia (2021, Lead: Kaunas)

e) Project monitoring, partnerships facilitation and continuous evaluation and quality assurance (Aalto)

5. Dissemination and Exploitation (Package lead: TU Delft)

a) Development of an online course for global PBL challenges (Component lead: TU Delft)

b) Regional PBL network and dissemination strategy development and implementation – (IIT Bombay and/or IISc Bangalore)

c) Final project workshop and dissemination event in 2021