Design and validation of a collaborative learning environment in project management

Resumen

This thesis presents the Design and Validation of a Collaborative Learning Environment in Project Management, aimed at meeting the current training needs of the field in the context of university education. The implementation of this learning environment has taken place in connection with the Project Management course of the Centro Politécnico Superior of the University of Zaragoza, based on offering students their first experience of a professional nature in their discipline, by managing real projects for clients in teams of 5 or 6 members. The objective of the design proposed is to support students in managing their projects and aid learning for all the participants in the experience (teachers, students, researchers, and clients). At the same time, it has been intended as a useful tool for research in Engineering Education and Project Management applied to groups with no previous experience. Such research has progressed on the basis of the experiences taking place in the projects developed and the interaction among their participants. The 7 investigations making up this doctoral thesis describe the shape and functioning of the learning environment, and how it has been adapted and modified throughout the course of research. Also, they present the results obtained in the validation of this environment as a tool for teaching. The investigations also present the contributions arising from the learning environment in its use as a tool for research. These have been used to establish the most common causes of failure in projects and study how team coordination and functioning affect the results achieved by student groups, in order to develop tools to aid reflection upon the experiences taking place in projects and learn about the difficulties attending the project definition process. Finally, the limitations of this work are discussed, and possible lines of research are suggested to continue and extend the present thesis.