Reducing the drop-out rate of a technical oriented course by introducing Problem Based Learning – a first concept

Christian Kaufmann, Alexander Mense, Harald Wahl, Robert Pucher

At the University of Applied Sciences (UAS) Technikum Wien one of the most difficult courses in the Bachelor degree program of Computer Science is “Database Systems and Database Design”. Together with “Advanced Computer Programming”, this course accounts for the high drop-out rate in the degree program. For this reason, this course was chosen for a redesign, in line with the research project QUADRO (Measures to increase quality of teaching and to reduce drop-out rates) promoted by the City of Vienna – MA 27 (EU strategy and promote economic development). As the authors have already gained experience in Problem Based Learning (PBL), they saw an opportunity to improve students’ database knowledge by changing the teaching method to Problem Based Learning (PBL). The proposed paper first explains the current situation, identifies its drawbacks and difficulties. In a second step, it describes the new method, shows the students’ feedback after the first semester and the resulting changes in the concept.

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