WPI Alumni Survey Confirms Value of Project-Based Learning in Higher Education
0Worcester, Mass. June 7, 2024 – More than fifty years after Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) revolutionized its undergraduate engineering education, data from a recent alumni survey prove that working on multiple hands-on projects throughout a student’s college career equips them with valuable skills that contribute to their personal and professional success and resilience for years to come. These data provide further evidence to support WPI’s unparalleled approach to project-based learning.
Responses from more than 2,200 alumni who graduated from WPI between 1980 and 2019 confirm that required experiential learning opportunities, whether completed on or off campus, prime students to develop the leadership, teamwork, communication, and problem-solving skills that are in high demand in today’s workplaces, communities, and everyday life.
“WPI’s transformative project-based learning model provides an experience that prepares students to work as a team, think critically, communicate, collaborate, see the world from different cultural perspectives, and be motivated to address problems that truly matter to society,” says WPI President Grace J. Wang. “Technological advances, in many ways, have elevated the importance of these skills. WPI’s unique education equips students to be knowledge-ready, job-ready, and future career-ready.”
Ninety-four percent of survey respondents said their formal project experience at WPI enhanced their ability to develop ideas. In addition, 93 percent said it enhanced their ability to effectively function on a team, and 88 percent said their projects contributed to the development of a stronger personal character.
“Projects give students experience dealing with ambiguity, learning how to learn, and developing a sense of agency to handle open-ended challenging situations. In today’s world, that may be the best thing higher ed can provide students,” says Kris Wobbe, director of the Center for Project-Based Learning at WPI.
These benefits from project-based learning position students well for success in the current job market. According to the American Association of Colleges and Universities, employers today are looking to hire candidates who excel in skills such as teamwork, critical thinking, problem solving, ethical judgment, and applying knowledge in real-world settings.
These are exactly the skills that WPI alumni say they learned through the hands-on projects they participated in as undergraduate students. A full 95 percent of respondents said their project experience at WPI prepared them for their current career and nearly all respondents also reported feeling a sense of professional satisfaction.
Project-based learning has been woven into the fabric of WPI’s curriculum since 1970. That’s when the university’s leaders threw out the traditional lecture-heavy curriculum and replaced it with a model prioritizing active, hands-on learning, known as the WPI Plan.
Today, every undergraduate must complete three major projects to graduate: an interdisciplinary team project (Interactive Qualifying Project); a culminating project in their major field of study (Major Qualifying Project); and the Humanities and Arts Requirement, which is the equivalent of a minor in the humanities or the arts and includes a seminar or practicum in a chosen focus area. For the interdisciplinary project, students explore a real-life problem that connects science, engineering, and technology to society. For the major project, students produce a professional-level design or research study.
“WPI’s highly distinctive curriculum builds a scaffold of multiple research projects throughout a student’s journey,” says Arthur Heinricher, WPI’s interim senior vice president and provost. “Project work at WPI challenges students to demonstrate that they can actually use, and extend, what they are learning in the classroom. Projects make learning deep, real, and connected to purpose. Indeed, project-based learning is a fundamental survival skill for the future our graduates will build and live in.”
Students can do any of their required projects at one of WPI’s more than 50 project centers across six continents. To help ensure that all students have equitable access to off-campus experiences, WPI’s Global Projects Program offers every undergraduate a Global Scholarship of up to $5,000 for related expenses. This support is one reason why nearly 85 percent of WPI students participate in an off-campus project during their undergraduate experience.
Many students also work on smaller-scale solo and group projects throughout their time at WPI: Almost two-thirds of alumni report having projects in at least half of their undergraduate courses, and survey data show that this repeated exposure to hands-on learning and problem-solving is key to the success WPI alumni find after graduating.
“Most students go through a lifetime of teacher-centered education. But project-based learning flips that model,” says Kimberly LeChass...