لخّصلي

4.One of the reasons we can do a complex real-world case study in the integration project is that is it not a course in any particular academic subject, like software engineering or information system design, in which students have to acquire textbook knowledge and skills.We are convinced, however, that the key success factor of the BIT integration project is the combination of three elements that reinforce each other: training of management and communication skills, re-activating and integrating knowledge gathered at other courses, and practicing these on a real-world problem.Due to the way in which our university is organized - every lecturer is responsible for his own courses, and there is little reward for improving the quality of teaching - it is not self-evident that lecturers get to know about each other's teaching and discuss the aims of the different courses and the overall curriculum.Fewer than three weeks before, the information system design exercise (partly overspecified, partly underspecified, and generally vague) was a hard experience for most students, as testified in the course evaluation.Yet the case study assignments in the project week were no less vague, but nobody thought this inappropriate, and the teams were now better prepared for it. In sum, our experiences show that it is possible to cover real-world case studies in a limited time span, 160 hours of work.To be fair, it has to be remarked that the faculty's evaluation procedure does not validate whether the objects of a course are the proper ones - but for the integration project there is little reason to worry - and whether the students have truly acquired the skills they think they have acquired.8

Trivial as it may seem, it takes some quite some coordination effort to ensure that the modules in this course, for which different persons are responsible, are consistent with each other and with what is taught in half a dozen other courses.The integration project fosters this process and thus has a beneficial effect on the coherence of the curriculum.Moreover, the project week is set up in such a way that the team members must work on different tasks in order to get the work finished in time, but have to share, discuss and integrate their findings in order to obtain a coherent result.Such evaluations are based on students' assessments of whether the objectives of the course have been reached and are geared towards issues that can be improved.Our key to success in a rather compact course is to combining the three mentioned factors into an integrated project in which they reinforce each other.A suitable case study and good preparation are obviously prerequisite to make a project like this worthwhile.o Real-world cases.

4. Discussion and conclusions
   We are convinced that this project is very useful indeed, although it is hard to quantify its value. The students get a first experience of the nature of a real-world IT problem and learn to apply academic skills and team skills in a nontrivial case study. Moreover, what has been learned here is followed up in other project-based courses. In the following years, there are several larger projects, in which students are expected to work in professional teams. The BIT integration project has been subject to the faculty’s formal evaluation procedure several times. Such evaluations are based on students’ assessments of whether the objectives of the course have been reached and are geared towards issues that can be improved. Invariably it comes out that the objectives are reached and that the course is among the ones most liked by the students. To be fair, it has to be remarked that the faculty’s evaluation procedure does not validate whether the objects of a course are the proper ones – but for the integration project there is little reason to worry – and whether the students have truly acquired the skills they think they have acquired.
   The students’ impression is that the case study is very realistic. Further evidence that this is so comes from the experts on the panel in the final session. They assess the quality of the best four teams’ results (two for every assignment) from the context of the real project. This shows that the material presented to the students properly reflects the real case and, more importantly, that the quality of the delivered work is high.
   One of the reasons we can do a complex real-world case study in the integration project is that is it not a course in any particular academic subject, like software engineering or information system design, in which students have to acquire textbook knowledge and skills. It is a separate required course unit, specifically designed for this purpose.
   8

Trivial as it may seem, it takes some quite some coordination effort to ensure that the modules in this course, for which different persons are responsible, are consistent with each other and with what is taught in half a dozen other courses. Due to the way in which our university is organized – every lecturer is responsible for his own courses, and there is little reward for improving the quality of teaching – it is not self-evident that lecturers get to know about each other’s teaching and discuss the aims of the different courses and the overall curriculum. The integration project fosters this process and thus has a beneficial effect on the coherence of the curriculum. A suitable case study and good preparation are obviously prerequisite to make a project like this worthwhile. We are convinced, however, that the key success factor of the BIT integration project is the combination of three elements that reinforce each other: training of management and communication skills, re-activating and integrating knowledge gathered at other courses, and practicing these on a real-world problem. Looking at each of these activities in context, we observe the following.
• Management and communication skills. There is a huge difference between the first sessions in the introductory phase, in which students do an exercise in presentation, and report sessions in the project week, in which students present their own work. The latter presentations have substance, as the work they report on has substance. We may still comment on the form, but these presentations are a lot more professional than what we have seen only a few weeks before. The same holds for playing to be a team, in the first module, and being a team in the project week. On average, the quality of the work delivered within the short time frame can only have been achieved because the team did work as a professional team.
• Integration of knowledge. Actively using and combining knowledge from different university courses is hard work. An efficient way – if not the only way – to achieve this, is to work on a task which makes sense and which requires these different kinds of knowledge in order to get solved. Moreover, the project week is set up in such a way that the team members must work on different tasks in order to get the work finished in time, but have to share, discuss and integrate their findings in order to obtain a coherent result.
• Real-world cases. In order to dig into a real-world case that is not trivialized but retains its real-world characteristics, one does need a team with professional competences. The work done in the project week is of high professional quality, and this cannot result from enthusiasm alone. The skills needed to get the job done have been trained (and using these skills in the project helps to further internalize them). Fewer than three weeks before, the information system design exercise (partly overspecified, partly underspecified, and generally vague) was a hard experience for most students, as testified in the course evaluation. Yet the case study assignments in the project week were no less vague, but nobody thought this inappropriate, and the teams were now better prepared for it.
In sum, our experiences show that it is possible to cover real-world case studies in a limited time span, 160 hours of work. Our key to success in a rather compact course is to combining the three mentioned factors into an integrated project in which they reinforce each other.