Integration of chemical engineering skills in the curriculum of a master course in industrial engineering

Abstract

Promoting new teaching methodologies is essential to improve the participation, motivation, interest, and results of students in all educational stages. In this sense, flipped classroom and problem-based learning have emerged in the last years as fascinating options to be implemented in high education levels thanks to the students’ maturity and previously acquired background. Working with motivating case studies based on real processes with their restrictions appears as an opportunity to bring future professionals closer to the industrial problems; this will capacitate engineers to solve and understand complex procedures getting tangible results. In this context, the main goal of this work is to combine flipped classroom and problem-based learning methodologies to gain the interest of students of a Master course in Industrial Engineering in the subject of Chemical Processes using real data of local companies. A survey, designed by the academics involved, will help collecting the opinion of students as well as the acquired skills in the frame of the specific subject. Results demonstrated the satisfaction of the students with the course, highlighting mainly the acquisition or improvement of self-learning skills (survey 4.0/5.0), capacity for organization and planning (survey 4.0/5.0), analytical ability (survey 4.2/5.0), and teamwork (survey 4.3/5.0). In addition, the grades accomplished during the year of implementation show that although the success rate is quite similar to preceding years, the marks achieved are considerably higher.