Problem-based learning (PBL) is a student-centred approach in which students, working in groups, learn about a subject trying to solve a concrete problem.
This active learning approach has been applied by i-strategies developing a project on “Big Data for Wine sector” that involved Ciù Ciù Tenimenti company and the students of the Big Data Analysis course of the Royal Institute of Technology. The project started with a problem statement composed of five questions to answer the company shared with students and their professor Haibo Li. Besides the problem statements, information about the company profile and the wine sector was provided to the students to contextualize their work.
After receiving the problem statement, the students were divided into small working groups and started a Big Data analysis to find the answer to the problem. After the end of their course, in the context of an online meeting, students presented the results of their work, through a 5 minutes pitch, directly to the company that shared an evaluation of the project work with the course professor.
“For our students, it was surely a positive experience mostly because they could apply their knowledge of Big Data to a concrete problem shared by a company. They could also better understand how the knowledge at the academic level can be transferred in a real corporate context” stated Professor Haibo Li.
“It was a positive experience also for us. Even if the entire module was online, in the end, it worked. According to the feedback we received, we also introduced some changes to the Problem-Based Learning module to make it more effective and impactful. We really belief in this teaching method that pushes students to become the drivers of their learning education” stated Gianluca Vagnarelli, i-strategies founder.