Teaching Design and actively applying it through project-based learning format: a practical case study of a collaboration between a university course and a company

Project-Based Learning (PBL) is one of the most popular strategies for facilitating experimentation and the transfer of design principles. For many years, the literature has highlighted how beneficial this approach is for helping students understand and assimilate the core ideas of a subject. In fact, it is founded on the constructivist finding that when students apply their own ideas and work practically, they comprehend subjects more quickly and easily. This research is based on the practical example of a collaboration between a company and a university course. The company, an industry leader in smart products, decided to collaborate with the university to explore new possibilities. The course faculty and the company reference people jointly developed a brief for the students as part of a PBL project. Fifty students had the opportunity to cooperate with the company for four months. During this time, they got to know the company, analysed it and proposed new directions to support the company in engaging new customers. Thanks to the application of PBL, the students experienced the project first-hand, being able to continually confront both the lecturer and the company contact people. This enabled students’ increasing and participative engagement. The article shows and discusses the different steps applied during the PBL project, focusing both on students’ perspectives and on the benefits achieved (and declared) by the company thanks to this collaboration and the adopted format. The study demonstrates how PBL is an effective and useful approach in the design world to tackle ambitious challenges and generate new ideas. It also proves how it is not only educational for students but also how the results that can be achieved are real and interesting for companies.