PBL implementation in a Lighting Design course

An engineering curriculum requires that its future professionals should be fully prepared to accomplish a variety of tasks involving not only theoretical concepts, but also skills acquired through effective practice. In the Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Coimbra (ISEC), Department of Electrical Engineering, preference was given to apply methods integrating technology in the learning and then evaluating the outcomes. Problem-based learning (PBL) was used as an instructional strategy of active learning, and adapted for use in the Lighting Design course. The students are presented with a virtual scenario, quite similar to the real world, where they are required to perform as they would in a real life situation. The emphasis is given to PBL so that they can learn to become autonomous, skilled and explore their own potential as well as improve team work skills/spirit and that can be applied to a wide range of students and subject matters. PBL is introduced to the students as a `learn by doing´ project. The project incorporates aspects of electrical engineering and computing skills. This study analyses the learning process/techniques that help students deal with the complexity of a Lighting Design Project and assesses its effectiveness and impact on the students. Essentially, it encourages them to be in charge of their education. The benefits of PBL in the Lighting Design course are visible in the improvement of the study and analysis of a Lighting Design project. The method may also bring benefits for Electrical Engineering programmes where educators struggle for improved teaching and learning. The simulation was performed using the Dialux 4.3 software package that runs in Windows Vista or XP environment.