Deployment of Capstone Projects in Software Engineering Education at Duy Tan University as Part of a University-Wide Project-Based Learning Effort

One of the biggest challenges for schools and institutions offering IT-training programs in Vietnam is how to minimize the amount of retraining by IT companies and corporations for new IT graduates due to the gap between college education and real-world practices in IT. In particular, how can our IT graduates acquire the right knowledge, skills and attitudes to fit in our IT labor market? There are many solutions to the above problem like restructuring the curricula, integrating the materials of higher-division courses, or adding in practical skill-set training, etc. However, the most effective solution from our experiences is to change our current methodology of teaching and learning IT in Vietnam, specially, enhancing our students´ capability through more use of real-world IT projects. This is usually known as the Project-Based Learning (PjBL) approach in which students explore real-world problems or challenges, and simultaneously developing interdisciplinary skills while working in small collaborative groups or teams. Since project-based learning is involved with active and engaged learning, it inspires students to acquire a deeper knowledge of the subjects they are studying. In this paper, we will present some current alarming issues of the IT training and education situation in Vietnam and how the Faculty of Information Technology of Duy Tan University tackles those issues through its deployment of major IT Capstone projects as part of a university-wide Project-based Learning effort.