Track 2. Engineering Education and Technological / Professional Learning Authors: Diogo Ribeiro, Teresa Neto, Ricardo Santos and Maria De Fátima Portela.

1. EXPERIENCE IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PROJECTS IN
PROFESSIONAL ENVIRONMENT IN A 1ST CYCLE OF STUDIES OF CIVIL
ENGINEERINGDiogo Ribeiro, Teresa Neto, Ricardo Santos, Maria Portela
TEEM 2018
TECHNOLOGICAL ECOSYSTEMS FOR ENHANCING MULTICULTURALITY
University of Salamanca, Spain, 24-26 October, 2018

2. 2
1. Introduction
 The promotion of curricular internships and its inclusion on the curricular
syllabus has known a significant growth on the last few years on Portuguese
Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s)
 A first cycle degree on the Polytechnic subsystem must “…give special emphasis
on the training concerning the development of a professional activity, ensuring a
component of applied knowledge directly related to their professional profile”
 Recent studies (e.g., Dias et al. [2015], Silva et al. [2018]) emphasize that the
promotion of internships on professional environments during first cycle degrees
strongly increase the employability of students (about 27% reduction on
unemployability)

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1. Introduction
 Cardoso et al. [2012] state that, on the specific field of Civil Engineering, the
promotion of curricular internships in professional environment lags behind
other areas of engineering partly due to the still recent construction crisis and
partly due to the reduced number of AEC companies involved in active
investigation, development and innovation
o In Portugal there are 2 universities and 12 polytechnic institutions that
include a first cycle degree on civil engineering. No concrete evidences could
be identified on the development of curricular internships in the curricula of
these degrees on a systematic and organized fashion

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1. Introduction
 Here, we present the pilot-experience of LEC-ISEP on the implementation of
projects on professional environment (2015/16 up to 2017/18)
12 (Foreseen)
16 (Fulfilled)
Projects on professional environment
8
3

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2. LEC syllabus and the Integrated Project curricular unit
 The Civil Engineering degree syllabus at ISEP has a duration of 3 curricular years
(6 semesters)
 The Integrated Project (PROJI) curricular unit (UC) occurs on the second semester
of the third curricular year
 On this UC the students:
o are supposed to develop, in groups of two elements, an application project
contextualizing and integrating the knowledge acquired during the previous
years under the supervision of a teacher
o may opt for an individual assignment developed in a professional
environment
 This curricular unit is worth a total of 7 ECTU credits

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3. Projects on professional environment
 The proposal of teaching and training for the Higher Polytechnic Education
according to the national legislation
 The indication of the evaluation boards: Evaluation and Accreditation Agency
for Higher Education (A3ES) and the Portuguese Professional Order of
Engineers (OE) in a recent EUR-ACE certification process)
“the need and importance of the promotion of professional experience”
 The consolidated experience, with a positive evaluation, of 11 out of 13 first
cycle degrees on ISEP that already promote internships or projects in
partnership with companies
Scope

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3. Projects on professional environment
 On all curricular units of other degrees the number of ECTU credits is larger than on LEC (7)
 Some degrees have adapted their curricula in order to allow extended periods of permanence of the
students on the companies
Scope

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3. Projects on professional environment
 A group of about 40 companies on the AEC sector already have cooperation
protocols with the Department of Civil Engineering
 The success of internships on professional environment occurring on the
Master on Civil Engineering
 The higher motivation and expectation of students for this kind of initiatives
Scope

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3. Projects on professional environment
Implementation

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3. Projects on professional environment
 Projects on professional environment are developed individually having a
supervisor at ISEP and another at the company
 Assignment application: students apply indicating 3 options according to their
preferences and the classifications of eight disciplines (UC’s) representing the
four subareas on Civil Engineering
 Student serialization: based on the average grade of the eight disciplines
(50%) and the evaluation on an interview conducted by members of the
Direction Board of the degree (50%). The interview is fundamental to assess
the profile and motivation of the student, along with some other factors
(transportation, schedule compatibility, …)
Implementation

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3. Projects on professional environment
 Students must ensure 10 weekly hours at the company (normally two
afternoons) on which they have no classes at ISEP
 Students have weekly meetings with the supervisor at ISEP
 The project lasts for approximately three months (normally between March
and June)
 The choice of the supervisor at ISEP takes into account hers/his availability
and professional and academic experience on the subject
Implementation

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3. Projects on professional environment
 Company selection considers:
o having a technical staff and organizational structure favourable to the
integration and supervision of students
o to give evidence of being capable of defining interesting and motivating
subjects, distributed among the four sub-areas considered in the degree
o accepting students on part-time schedules
o near location to reduce mobility costs and time
o having a previous and successful experience of internships, namely with
Master’s students
Partner Companies

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3. Projects on professional environment
Partner Companies
* Project in partnership with the Catholic University of Porto

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3. Projects on professional environment
 At the end of term the students submit an Internship Report
 The students present themselves to a public viva-voce evaluation before o jury
of at least three elements
 The final grade is decided according mainly to the quality of the report and the
performance during the presentation
 Last academic year (2017/18) the grading system was improved considering
five classification criteria presented in a radar chart, with classifications
between zero and four (for a grading scale between 0 and 20)
Project procedures and evaluation

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3. Projects on professional environment
Project procedures and evaluation

16. 4. Monitoring
16
 Grades
o 2015/16 – success rate 100%
average grade (15.7/20), superior to UC average (14.5/20)
o 2016/17 – success rate 85%
average grade (14.7/20), close to UC average (14.4/20)
o 2017/18 – success rate 81%, inferior to the rest of the UC (87%)
average grade (15.2/20), close to UC average (14.6/20)
Student evaluation

17. 4. Monitoring
17
Average grades (internships vs global)

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4. Monitoring
 Survey was sent to all 27 participating students (3+8+16)
 Answers with a reduced dispersion and globally very positive
 80%-plus students very satisfied/totally satisfied with the company where the
project took place and 77% are globally very satisfied/totally satisfied with
the initiative
 Most praised item: relevance of the internship subject for the student
training
 Aspects to improve: duration and number of hours at the company
considered insufficient
Student survey

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4. Monitoring
Student survey

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4. Monitoring
 Survey sent to all teachers involved (16 teachers)
 80%-plus teachers very satisfied/totally satisfied with the company where the
project took place
 Most praised items: relevance of the internship subject and importance to
the student training
 Global evaluation of the students performance in accordance with the
students high motivation (more than 60% totally satisfied)
Teacher survey

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4. Monitoring
Teacher survey

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4. Monitoring
 Survey sent to the 13 company supervisors involved.
 Most supervisors very satisfied with the initiative and the student
performance
 Aspects to improve : internship duration and schedule
 Some doubts seem to subsist on the clear definition and shared responsibility
(teacher/company supervisor) of the internship subject
 All supervisors, except one, stated their availability to supervise future
internships
Company survey

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4. Monitoring
Company survey

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5. Conclusions
 This experience is still being evaluated, having been applied to 27 student
assignments in the last three academic years (2015/16 to 2017/18)
 Monitoring has been performed via student grades and surveys conducted
among the participating students, teachers and companies
 The general appreciation, so far, has been extremely positive especially in what
concerns the teaching and training of students. All parts were, nevertheless
unanimous in considering the that the period of time spent at the companies
should be increased

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5. Conclusions
 The board of directors of the degree is considering a future change proposal on
the degree syllabus in order to better accommodate PROJI in the current form,
re-evaluating the number of ECTU and the amount of time the students should
spend at the companies.
 With this experience ISEP’s first cycle degree on Civil Engineering has tried to
contribute for the implementation of new and innovating models of teaching
Civil Engineering, allowing the students to have a hands-on experience in close
connection with the AEC companies that may, in the future, be also their
employers.

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Our students (2017/18)…

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1st cycle degree on Civil Engineering -ISEP
Porto-Portugal
The authors would like to express their gratitude to all students, teachers and companies involved for their collaboration.
Thank you!