A New Formative Pedagogical Model Emerged From The Experience Applicable To Engineering Courses Based On CSCL

Computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) has become a relevant field among researchers and practitioners in social and cognitive sciences as well as ICT engineering; thus, it constitutes a new trans-disciplinary field. However, systematic analysis of authentic experiences is necessary to asses practitioners on how to apply the existing know-how to their practice. That's why, in this paper we describe a case study called UVA-CA (University of Valladolid-Computer Architecture) carried during four years in an undergraduate computer architecture course at the University of Valladolid (Spain). We illustrate a pedagogical innovation applicable to engineering courses that suggests a formative model supported in the principles of the CSCL field and based on project based learning educational designs. It also emphasizes the idea of how qualitative case studies can contribute to make generalizations based on a thorough reflection upon a particular situation, yielding a number of "lessons learned" during the process that can be transferred to other practitioners in real environments