Problem Based Learning (PBL) Activity for Delivering Vehicle Dynamics

Vehicle Dynamics is one of the core courses offered to Automobile engineering students in their curriculum at most of the Indian universities. Earlier this course was delivered using traditional classroom delivery method with exam based approach to evaluate students. This paper aims to study the use of Problem Based Learning (PBL) as a tool to engage students actively in the teaching learning process and also evaluate them throughout the semester for in-semester evaluation. The students were asked to work in groups and complete activities which are given to them in the form of problems to depict real life problems that the vehicle has to encounter. Finally, students were made to submit a report and present their findings to the whole class.

An evaluation rubric was also developed to grade the students. It was designed in such a way that it takes into account all the components of the learning which the students are expected to learn as an outcome of the course. Also, the activities to be performed are designed considering the learning outcomes specified by ABET and graduate attributes specified by NBA.