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Background Medical degree programs use scholarly activities to support development of basic research skills, critical evaluation of medical information and promotion of medical research. The University of Sydney Doctor of Medicine Program includes a compulsory research project. Medical student projects are supervised by academic staff and affiliates, including biomedical science researchers and clinician-academics. This study investigated research supervisors’ observations of the barriers to and enablers of successful medical student research projects. Methods Research supervisors ( n  = 130) completed an anonymous, online survey after the completion of the research project. Survey questions targeted the research supervisors’ perceptions of barriers to successful completion of projects and sources of support for their supervision of the student project. Data were analysed by descriptive statistics and using manifest content analysis. Further quantitative investigation was made by cross-tabulation according to prior research supervision experience. Results Research supervisors reported that students needed both generic skills (75%) and research-based skills (71%) to successfully complete the project. The major barrier to successful research projects was the lack of protected time for research activities (61%). The assessment schedule with compulsory progress milestones enabled project completion (75%), and improved scientific presentation (90%) and writing (93%) skills. Supervisors requested further support for their students for statistics (75%), scientific writing (51%), and funding for projects (52%). Prior research supervision experience influenced the responses. Compared to novice supervisors, highly experienced supervisors were significantly more likely to want students to be allocated dedicated time for the project ( P  < 0.01) and reported higher rates of access to expert assistance in scientific writing, preparing ethics applications and research methodology. Novice supervisors reported higher rates of unexpected project delays and data acquisition problems ( P  < 0.05). Co-supervision was favoured by experienced supervisors but rejected by novice supervisors. Conclusions Both generic and research-related skills were important for medical student research project success. Overall, protected research time, financial and other academic support were identified as factors that would improve the research project program. Prior research supervision experience influences perceptions of program barriers and enablers. These findings will inform future support needs for projects and research supervisor training for the research supervision role.

There are subjects which university students perceive as uninteresting and which they are reluctant to learn. The use of an appropriate approach to learning can contribute to the formation of positive students’ opinions on learning. Project-based learning (PjBL) is characterized by active research, problem-solving, and student-made projects which is nowdays usually facilitated by the use of computer and network technologies. The aim of this research is to assess opinions of students of physics and technology at University of Novi Sad, Republic of Serbia, on PjBL, as well as to analyze these opinions in connection to three different factors: gender, academic performance, and study program. The physics content Diffusion and Osmosis was realized using PjBL. This topic was chosen because of possible interdisciplinary concepts’ relations between physics, chemistry, and biology. After students’ group work on projects and their project reports, a survey was conducted. Research results showed that opinions of students participating in the research about PjBL were independent of their gender, academic performance, as well as whether they study physics or technology. All students had equally positive opinions on PjBL. Further implementation of PjBL is planned in the authors’ departments, along with the integrative implementation of PjBL in teaching science in collaboration with other departments at the university.

The prevalence of project-based learning (PBL) has increased significantly, contributing to serious discussions about its advent. PBL’s critics doubt whether accentuating the practice supports teachers in using a technocratic method in education, instead of promoting instruction that is responsive to students’ ideas. Thus, this study aims to develop on using the effectiveness of the PBL approach, as a way to engage students in learning as well as to incorporate literature on the PBL method for educational purposes. The research hypotheses therefore measure the influence of the PBL method on collaborative learning, disciplinary subject learning, iterative learning, and authentic learning, which, in turn, engage students in learning. To achieve the research purpose, a questionnaire was employed as the main method of collecting data and dispensed to 124 teachers who were using the PBL approach. Structural equation modeling (SEM), a quantitative research method, was employed to obtain the findings. A significant relation was found between the PBL method and collaborative learning, disciplinary subject learning, iterative learning, and authentic learning, which, in turn, produced student engagement. The results show that the PBL technique improves student engagement by enabling knowledge and information sharing and discussion. Thus, the PBL approach is highly recommended for educational use by students and should be encouraged in universities.

Employing student-driven project work in a higher education setting challenges not only the way in which we understand students’ learning and how we define the expected learning outcomes, it also challenges our ways of assessing students’ learning. This paper will address this question specifically and illustrate with a case that highlights some of the challenges that may arise in practice when assessing student-driven, problem-based projects. The case involved an assessment situation in which a discrepancy arose between the internal and external examiner in relation to what was valued. The discrepancy had consequences not only for the concrete assessment of students’ work, but also for the validity of the problem-based university pedagogy in general, and it raised the question of how to assess students’ work adequately. The research focus of this study was to explore the implications of assessing student-driven projects within a progressive approach to higher education teaching, along with the potential underlying issues. We found a need for clear assessment criteria while insisting on a space for students’ creativity and reflexivity as essential parts of a learning process. The paper thus makes a case for the notion of reflexivity as an assessment criterion to be integrated into learning objectives.

Women use technology to mediate numerous aspects of their professional and personal lives. Yet, few design and create these technologies given that women, especially women of color, are grossly underrepresented in computer science and engineering courses. Decisions about participation in STEM are frequently made prior to high school, and these decisions are impacted by prior experience, interest, and sense of fit with community. Digital Youth Divas is an out-of-school program that uses narrative stories to launch the creation of digital artifacts and support non-dominant middle school girls' STEM interests and identities through virtual and real-world community. In this article, we discuss the framework of the Digital Youth Divas environment, including our approach to blending narratives into project-based design challenges through on- and offline mechanisms. Results from our pilot year, including the co-design process with the middle school participants, suggest that our narrative-centered, blended learning program design sparks non-dominant girls' interests in STEM activities and disciplinary identification, and has the potential to mediate girls' sense of STEM agency, identities, and interests.

Purpose As one of the five concrete actions recommended for implementing sustainable development at universities (internal operations, institutional framework, research, education and capacity building), capacity building has received the least research attention. Although capacity building can be a tangible implementation of outreach that offers empowerment to universities, it is currently unclear how capacity building can be operationalised in concrete activities and which parties represent the university and the community. The purpose of this study is to provide the idea that capacity building can be organised through student training projects. Design/methodology/approach To provide support for our suggestion that student training projects can act as an implementation method for capacity building, an illustrative case study is presented. The case study concerns an academic consultancy training project for students in the domain of sustainable development. Findings The case study analysis reveals that, as an implementation method, student training projects can provide benefits for both universities and communities. It appears that student training projects do not depend on individual engagement, on individual university staff members or on research grants and that they provide community members with access to resources, expertise and experiences of academics. Moreover, student training projects overcome the major challenges of both power distance and continuity. Originality/value To summarise, student training projects may provide a new, promising avenue as an implementation method for capacity building that provides substantial benefits and overcomes the challenges of other methods mentioned in the existing literature.

This two-year qualitative study explored the learning process alongside students' perceived outcomes within an interdisciplinary project-based learning (PjBL) task. Students from three different undergraduate courses were assigned a project that spanned across all three classes and placed student teams in the roles of client and contractor. Content analysis of reflective journals and focus groups provided a rich view of the learning experience from the student perspective. Findings from Year 1 demonstrated ways in which students had employed soft skills (e.g., communication, collaboration), but also revealed the need for changes to the course design to fully realize the interdisciplinary vision of the project. Findings from Year 2 showed how students negotiated the realistic tensions of the client-contractor relationship while working to develop both soft skills and hard skills (e.g., programming, design, market research). Overall, this study reveals how the interdisciplinary nature of this project supported important aspects of student learning that might not have occurred through a more traditional class project. In addition, it sheds light on the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration among instructors when designing a PjBL experience that pushes students to crosses disciplinary boundaries.

Emerging research is highlighting the importance of fostering artificial intelligence (AI) literacy among educated citizens of diverse academic backgrounds. However, what to include in such literacy programmes and how to teach literacy is still under-explored. To fill this gap, this study designed and evaluated an AI literacy programme based on a multi-dimensional conceptual framework, which developed participants' conceptual understanding, literacy, empowerment and ethical awareness. It emphasised conceptual building, highlighted project work in application development and initiated teaching ethics through application development. Thirty-six university students with diverse academic backgrounds joined and completed this programme, which included 7 hours on machine learning, 9 hours on deep learning and 14 hours on application development. Together with the project work, the results of the tests, surveys and reflective writings completed before and after these courses indicate that the programme successfully enhanced participants' conceptual understanding, literacy, empowerment and ethical awareness. The programme will be extended to include more participants, such as senior secondary school students and the general public. This study initiates a pathway to lower the barrier to entry for AI literacy and addresses a public need. It can guide and inspire future empirical and design research on fostering AI literacy among educated citizens of diverse backgrounds.

In this article, the author describes a group project to create student-generated podcasts on economics topics. This project provides an innovative opportunity for students to demonstrate proficiency in skills required for the undergraduate economics major and valued in the professional marketplace. Results of a student self-assessment survey on the project reflect findings in the literature that collaborative assignments utilizing technology tools can provide opportunities for students to practice their economic proficiencies, for instructors to assess even the higher-level proficiencies, and for students to enjoy the learning process.