Vertically integrated projects (VIP) at Inha University: The effect of convergence project education on learning satisfaction

Due to the advent of the 4
^th
Industrial Revolution in the 21
^st
century, people with abilities based on convergence thinking are required in various fields of society. In addition, there is a growing interest in emphasizing the innovation of knowledge through academic, industrial, and technological convergence, and in how to foster convergent human resources as the scope of creativity expands. To this end, it has become necessary to change educational practices in higher educational institutions. Inha University began developing a convergence education curriculum at the Innovation Center for Engineering Education in 2013 to cultivate undergraduate students with convergence competency. This paper describes the implications of the results of multi-year, multi-disciplinary convergence education and the effectiveness of various convergence education methods for continuous education improvement. The VIP (Vertically Integrated Project) course, which has been run every semester at Inha University since the spring semester of 2014, is designed to give students practical research experiences connected with the industry in advance and apply actual projects in which professors participate to undergraduate education. The curriculum is designed to improve students' major knowledge, research skills, and collaboration skills by teaming up multi-year and multi-disciplinary students. In addition, the effectiveness of convergence education is analyzed through various student evaluations every semester, and based on the results, the students' understanding of convergence education and the need for training convergent human resources in educational institutions are further expanded.