Finding the optimum balance between theory and practice is one of the major challenges in higher education, especially on master level. A student-centered approach to learning is argued for by several educational researchers and practitioners. Deep learning could be accomplished by activating the students during the education. This paper reports on experiences learned from a course in Maintenance Data Management, which is thought on the first year on the master’s program, and in specific on how knowledge and skills in computerized maintenance management systems were trained. The course consisted of a series of lectures, laboratory sessions, exercises and seminars. In addition, two study visits and one guest lecture were arranged. In this paper one of the activities is described in more depth. The activity is an exercise in IT system selection, where the students are asked to define functional and non-functional criteria for the evaluation of systems alternatives, to find suitable candidates for evaluation and finally conduct an evaluation and discuss the results. This exercise exemplifies ways to create more open-ended and real-life resembling problems that activates the student in the learning situation.
Proceedings of the 11th International CDIO Conference, Chengdu, China, June 8-11 2015