Real Engineering Problems in an Undergraduate Course: The learning methodologies and assessment tools

This paper presents the context of the Ubiquitous Computing course carried out in an Industrial Engineering undergraduate program throughout 2020 and the first semester of 2021. This course took advantage of the Institutional Modernization Program led by the Control and Automation Engineering Undergraduate Program, which consists in the modernization of undergraduate engineering programs at the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná. The course aimed to help develop competencies, i.e., a set of knowledge, skills, and attributes aligned with Student Outcomes suggested by ABET. Also, the course proposal brought the productive sector very close to the academic environment, proposing real engineering problems as challenges. However, what are the methods and assessment tools for practical learning in a course with modern elements? This paper proposed the flipped learning and the Challenge-Based Learning Framework with the support of the CDIO Framework as learning methodologies to answer such question. Additionally, quizzes, tests, presentations, rubrics, and peer evaluation were applied as assessment tools to measure the student's progress. Finally, students were listened to about their perceptions during the course. The results suggested that the learning methodologies and assessment tools are suitable for the course context, although some improvements are expected for the following course offers. Moreover, students approved the initiative to bring in real challenges proposed by companies, the mentoring hours, and the feedback about the projects.