DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM

· A METU STUDENT SPENDS 13.75 HOURS A WEEK ON AVERAGE USING COMPUTERS

· THE STUDENTS USE THE COMPUTERS

o FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES SUCH AS

§ THEIR HOMEWORKS
§ AND PROJECTS

o FOR COMMUNICATION PURPOSES SUCH AS

§ E-MAILING
§ AND SURFING THE NET

o AS WELL AS FOR ENTERTAINTMENT SUCH AS

§ COMPUTER GAMES
§ AND WATCHING MOVIES.

· ALTHOUGH THERE ARE SEVERAL COMPUTERS IN LABORATORIES OF THE CAMPUS THEY MAY BECOME INSUFFICIENT TO DEMANDING NEEDS OF THE STUDENTS OR STUDENTS MAY NEED PRIVATE COMPUTERS DUE TO THE RESTRICTIONS IN THE LABORATORIES.

· IS THERE A WAY TO SATISFY ALL NEEDS OF THE STUDENTS?

· RENT A PC!

· IS IT POSSIBLE OR FEASIBLE TO ESTABLISH A PC-RENTING COMPANY IN THE METU CAMPUS? THAT’S THE PROBLEM GROUP-2 IS DEALING WITH.
 

ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEM

· THE SYSTEM GROUP-2 IS DEALING WITH IS COMPOSED OF

o DEMANDERS; THAT IS THE STUDENTS STAYING IN THE METU DORMITORIES,
o THE PROJECT COMPANY
o AND PC SUPPLIERS MEANING THE COMPUTER WHOLESALERS.

· IN ORDER TO DISCOVER THE PROBLEMS, PREFENRENCES AND THE DESIRES OF THE POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS e.g. THE STUDENTS STAYING IN THE DORMITORIES GROUP-2 HAS CONDUCTED A MARKET SURVEY

· TO OBTAIN OBJECTIVE AND UNBIASED RESULTS GROUP-2 TRIED TO REACH A WIDE RANGE OF STUDENTS FROM 1ST, 2ND, 3RD, 5TH, 6TH, 7TH, 8TH, 9TH, 10TH DORMITORIES AND THE GIRLS’ GUEST HOUSE.

· ACCORDING TO THE SURVEY,

o A METU STUDENT SPENDS 13.75 HOURS A WEEK ON AVERAGE USING COMPUTERS.
o 70.1 % OF THE STUDENTS FIND THE AVAILABLE COMPUTERS INSUFFICIENT DUE TO THE FOLLOWING REASONS IN THE ORDER OF IMPORTANCE:

§ THE CROWD IN THE COMPUTER LABORATORIES AND THE LONG QUEUES
§ THE SCARCITY OF THE OPEN LABORATORIES AT THE WEEKENDS
§ THE PROBLEMS IN USAGE OF THE DORMITORY COMPUTER LAB’S AFTER TWELVE O’CLOCK
§ RESTRICTIONS IN THE COMPUTER LAB’S ON:

· PLAYING GAMES
· WATCING MOVIES, LISTENING MUSIC
· TEAM WORK
· FOOD AND BEVERAGE

§ THE CONFILICTION BETWEEN THE OPEN HOURS OF THE LABORATORIES AND THE WORKING HOURS OF THE STUDENTS

· 84.7 % OF STUDENTS INTEND TO RENT PC ON WEEKLY, MONTHLY OR TERMLY BASES.

· THE RENTING FEES THEY OFFER FOR DIFFERENT TERMS AND OPTIONS ARE AVAILABLE ON THE TABLE
 
 

· IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND THE SUPPLY SIDE OF THE PROBLEM GROUP-2 MADE APPOINTMENTS WITH THE PC-RENTING COMPANIES.

· IN THOSE MEETINGS GROUP-2 DISCOVERED THAT MAINLY THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF COMPUTER RENTING COMPANIES.

· THE FIRST TYPE OF COMPANIES RENT SECOND HAND COMPUTERS OF LOW COST AND LOW CONFIGURATION FOR RELATIVELY LONG PERIODS.

o THESE COMPANIES BUY AND SELL SECOND HAND COMPUTERS AS WELL AS BRAND NEW ONES.
o POLARIS COMPUTER SYSTEM COMPANY IS AN EXAMPLE OF THIS CASE.

· AND THE SECOND TYPE OF COMPANIES RENT COMPUTERS OF HIGH CONFIGURATION WITH HIGH RENTS FOR VERY SHORT PERIODS TOGETHER WITH SOUND AND VISULAZATION SYSTEMS ESPECIALLY FOR LARGE CONFERENCES AND MEETINGS HELD IN ANKARA

o EVREN COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS AND EFFECT VISULIZATION SYSTEMS ARE EXAMPLES OF THIS KIND.

· HENCE AMONG THE COMPANIES MET NONE IS IN THE BUSINESS OF PC RENTING ONLY.

· ACCORDING TO MUMTAZ SAYIN, SALES REPRESENTATIVE OF ROMAR COMPUTER WHICH IS A COMPUTER WHOLE SALER FIRM, IT IS POSSIBLE TO HAVE UPTO 35 % DISCOUNT IN COMPUTER WHOLE SALES.

· MR. MURAT OF MCC COMPUTER RENTING COMPANY, WHICH IS FOCUSED ON NEEDS OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS, COMPLAINED ABOUT THE CONFLICTION BETWEEN THE LOW RENT FEES WHICH ARE ABOUT 15 USD PER MONTH AND THE HIGH COMPUTER PRICES BEGINNING FROM 700 USD.
 

DIFFICULTIES

· THROUGHOUT THE STUDIES THE MAIN PROBLEM GROUP-2 FACED WAS TO MAKE APPOINTMENTS WITH THE PC RENTING OR SELLING COMPANIES AND TO EXPLAIN THE SITUATION DURING THE MEETINGS.

· THE COMPANY REPRESENTATIVES CONTINUALLY POSTPONED THE APPOINTMENTS AND WHEN FINALLY GROUP-2 MET THEM THEY ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT GROUP MEMBERS WOULD RENT A LARGE NUMBER OF PC’S.

· WHEN THEY UNDERSTOOD THAT THE GROUP JUST WANTED INFORMATION THEY WERE SOMEHOW DISAPPOINTED.

· ACTUALLY THE GROUP MEMBERS HAVE NOT MET ANY INTERNAL DIFFICULTIES, AND EACH MEMBER STATES HIS PERSONAL PRIDE ABOUT BEING A MEMBER OF THE TEAM.
 

PLANS TO DO

· FROM NOW ON GROUP-2 PLANS TO DEEPEN THE INVESTIGATIONS ON THE PC-RENTING MARKET IN ORDER TO HAVE A BROADER VIEW

· THE GROUP-2 WISHES TO MAKE MORE APPOINTMENTS TO HAVE INSIGHT INTO ANY OTHER POSSIBLE RENTING POLICIES, WHICH MAY ENHANCE PROFITABILITY OF THE RESULTING COMPANY.

· AND GROUP-2 HAS INTENTIONS TO EXTEND THE BORDERS OF THE SYSTEM FROM THE DORMITORY STUDENTS TO INCLUDE THE ACADEMIC STAFF AND STUDENTS STAYING OUTSIDE THE CAMPUS.

· MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL, THE TYPE OF THE PROJECT COMPANY MUST BE DECIDED ON, REGARDING THE WORKING PRINCIPLES, MISSION AND VISION OF THE COMPANY; LAWS, DECREES, RULES AND REGUALTIONS ON THE FOUNDATION OF THE COMPANIES IN TURKEY, AND IN THE METU CAMPUS.

· AFTER GATHERING ALL DATA FINALLY GROUP-2 WILL MAKE NECESSARY ANALYSES TO DECIDE WHETHER THE PROJECT IS FEASIBLE OR NOT.
 
 
 
 
 

PART I

Project Based Learning

    Project Based Learning is an innovative model for teaching and learning. It focuses on the central concepts and principles of a discipline, involves students in problem-solving investigations and other meaningful tasks, allows students to work autonomously to construct their own knowledge, and culminates in realistic products.

Project Based Learning helps to develop:

• Group process skills
  
• Life skills (e.g., conducting a meeting, making a plan, using a budget)
  
• Technological skills (e.g., keyboarding, using software, measuring and marking)
  
• Cognitive process skills (e.g., decision making, critical thinking, problem solving)
  
• Self-management skills (e.g., setting goals, organizing tasks, managing time)
  
• Attitudes: love of learning, interest in further education
  
• Dispositions: self-direction, sense of achievement
  
• Beliefs: self-efficacy

    The projects we dealt with were really covering the requirements of the concept of the project. The projects given us were real world questions, which carry the problems presented in their full complexity. Therefore the projects made us to find interdisciplinary connections between the ideas, besides this, the obstacles faced during the project forced us to make our own connections among ideas and acquire new skills as working on different tasks. This provided us to simulate many professional disciplines like scholar, researcher, engineer, reporter, planner, manager, and other practitioners. In addition to educational skills, the projects had a great impact in developing the social skills of the team members by make us pursue coursework in a social context. Another important point is getting feedback about the worth of our ideas from expert sources related to the project and the teachers we were advised which is very important in the development of every college student and the feeling of learning on one’s own provides the self-confidence to the students.

    This approach is already being applied in many courses nearly in most of the departments. In fact in most of the engineering departments (like EE, ME, CHE…); the applications are limited by the graduation project only. There are some other projects in the courses but their contents are very narrow. Unlike the prejudices, social sciences are more familiar to these kinds of studies. For example in public Relations and Political Sciences there are term projects which the students choose a topic in the beginning of the semester and present their researches at the end of the term. Similar to the Public Relations and Political Sciences, the Sociology and Philosophy Departments’ students perform their Field Works. The approach in the Department of Economics and in the Business and Administration is similar to the one conducted in IE 404. On the other hand the conduct in Faculty of Architecture based on the projects performed continuously during all the education period.

     This approach should cover the other engineering disciplines (IE and CENG are already applying this approach.) where the projects are limited by only the graduation ones as mentioned above. Because of the positive yields stated item by item at the beginning of this report.
 

Action Based Learning

    Action based learning can be defined as a process in which a group of people comes together more or less regularly to help each other to learn from their experience. This was one of the most important ideas lying behind the viewpoint of the conduct of IE 404 course.

    The guests from different areas related with the topics of the course shared their experience with us. For example it was really very informative to learn the conduct of the small entrepreneurs and their problems from the first mouth, Nam?k Devecio?lu, in the lecture at the 31st October 2001. Besides this, to get information from the graduates of this department and to learn the working life waiting us after graduation was very helpful. In fact the concept of the action-based learning requires the mutual share of the experience but that is not the case for a university course. This side of the action-based learning faced by the team works carried out during the case studies and the projects. Team works helped us to share our knowledge, which made the most of the problems easier and they triggered the dynamics of the studies.

    Unlike the Project based learning this approach is a seldom-applied one in METU. Maybe the seminars arranged in the Department of Economics can be counted in this type of learning. Action based learning should be inevitably applied in all of the courses as possible since the students need to make use of the experiences of the experts and they need to hear the knowledge from the first mouth in some instances. Another point of the approach is the mutual feedback between the students and the guests because that is also very important that the guests benefit from the ideas and the questions of the students.
 

Problem Based Learning

    “The aim of problem-based learning (PBL) is for students to acquire knowledge and at the same time, that they are able to master application of this knowledge. In the traditional curriculum the acquisition of knowledge and application of the knowledge are more separable”(Barrows& Tamblyn, 1980).

    In the content of IE404, students also faced problem-based learning. The most obvious example of PBL is the on-line quiz assignments. Although PBL was not the mostly used technique in the IE404 course, content and the application of most of the lectures in our department as well as those in METU are based on PBL. In fact the education system of Turkey, from the primary school to university level, is based on PBL. The main reason of this approach is that the problem-based learning is the easiest way of quantifying the knowledge of students (i.e. for ranking them).

    The question “How can PBL be applied to METU?” does not make sense so much, since the current approach applied in METU is already a problem-based learning one. However we, as industrial engineers of the future, should ask the critical question “How can PBL be applied better to METU”. At this point, the Nijmeden Model (according to appendix A-1: Bosch and Kieft, Innovation, pain and pleasure 1999) becomes a good example that should be taken into account for the improvement of the current approach. The project carried out in the Policy Sciences Faculty of Nijmeden University has the following outcomes (Innovation, Pain and Pleasure, appendix A-1):

• More cross-fertilization between society and science
  
• Increasing the coherence within the curriculum
  
• Turning over the relation between teachers and students
  
• The training of intellectual and other skills should be encouraged
  
• The re-enforcement of the scientific level of the teaching and learning
  
• Plural learning paths

    These outcomes stated above may be considered as the basis of a project to be carried out in METU. However, one should exactly understand that what is proposed in the Nijmeden Model is a hybrid curriculum of problem-based learning and project-based learning.
 

Learning by Doing

    Most faculty design their courses based on curriculum and institutional standards.  That’s normal, and necessary to some degree, but it may not be the best way to serve student’s needs and interests. Learning by doing (or active learning as it is also called) has emerged as significant movement in higher education that encourages the students to involve more both intellectually and physically in their learning experience.  Basically, active learning has been defined as “anything that involves students in doing things and thinking about the things they are doing”

    Operationally, learning by doing is seen as a substitute for the traditional lecture method of classroom instruction.  While lecture continues to be the primary method of 80% of college teachers, studies have revealed that there is little assimilation of lecture material by students especially after the first 15 minutes (J. Stewart & R. Rutherford. 1978. Medical Student Concentration during Lectures. Lancet, pp. 514-516).  Learning by Doing seeks to increase student’s interest in, and understanding of, course material by using a wide variety of teaching techniques that are classified as:

• Techniques that emphasize interaction and collaboration among students or between faculty and students (e.g. small group exercises)
  
• Techniques that emphasize application of concepts and use of concrete real-life situations (e.g. case studies, service learning)
  
• Techniques that emphasize higher order thinking or students “thinking for themselves”  (e.g. use of simulations, role-playing, portfolio, labs)
  
• Techniques that require involvement of students in the class (e.g. use of presentation, “lead discussant,” minute memo)

    In our course learning by doing techniques have been utilized intensively. The first lecture was giving clues of how the course would be conducted. We have taken photos in the campus and after seeing all photos we have classified them, which gave us a deep understanding of classification, focus and perspective. This was showing that learning in this course would require active involvement of us instead of sitting and waiting for the instructor to transfer knowledge to us. It is sure that learning by doing approach was more enjoyable and more beneficial for students although it was harder to implement for the instructor when compared to the traditional lecture method. Term projects based on real life problems, case studies, presentations, guest speakers and site visits have been the other applications of the learning by doing approach throughout the whole semester.

    There is a very widespread complaint in our country about education. Almost everyone complaints about being have to memorize everything. Learning by doing seems to be a solution for this problem especially at the higher education level. In traditional lecture method the students attend the lectures, sit and listen the lecture and take notes. We attend the classes to learn, gather information and to develop ourselves. However just sitting and listening is a very passive way to achieve something good. In life there is nothing valuable you can get by sitting. Another major drawback of the traditional method is that students do not spend any time for the lessons out of the lectures. However with the application of the learning by doing approach both the student involvement and satisfaction can be increased. Also the students will have to spend more time outside lectures to get prepared for the lectures. By the application of this approach the students will also get rid of the burden of working for hours before the exam. Because the students will be already prepared for the exams and will remember what they learned since they were actively involved in the learning process instead of the listen-study-learn or memorize before the exam-answer in the exam- forget after the exam cycle in the traditional method.
 

Team Working

    In much of what we do throughout life we will be part of a social group and it is important that we can interact with confidence and make our voice heard, and also listen to the needs of others. Especially at a university like METU, all of us are involved in any number of groups: in a living accommodation, in sports teams, in performance arts, in clubs and activity groups, in friendship groups, and so on. Therefore we can say that in fact we are not unfamiliar to the idea of being involved in a group. In all these contexts we are gaining communicative skills but when working in a team on a project or time-consuming problem is considered there always exist a gap waiting to be improved. The team-works we have performed in this course was strikingly valuable in achieving improvements to fill this gap. The improvements can be collected under some titles as the following:

• Practice solving problems as a team and learn to appreciate the benefits of being in a team
  
• Plan for effective teamwork
  
• Communicate and co-operate to get tasks done more efficiently
  
• Understand each other’s working styles and how to use this
  
• Clarify team and individual objectives
  
• Experiment different behaviors
  
• Improve self awareness and personal development by recognizing our strengths by the help of other team members

    There was a saying we have heard many times which says: No body is perfect! There is another saying which is not as popular as the first one. That is: No body is perfect but a team can be. From this sentence we can conclude that by working in a team we can grasp the chance of bringing the best projects into existence. We have appreciated this reality when we felt the synergy created by working as a team.  Stephen Covey explains what teamwork can enable us to achieve very well in his saying:

    "Dependent people need others to get what they want. Independent people can get what they want through their own efforts. Interdependent people combine their own efforts with the efforts of others to achieve their greatest success."

    Team working approach can be generally applied in our university although METU includes a high variety of departments from social sciences to engineering departments. However being independent of the field of expertise every individual has a lot to gain from team working. Besides this every year hundreds of METU graduates start working in different industries and the ability to work in teams is an area of skill development that is highly valued by employers.    Therefore gaining team-working skills is also of great importance for the future career of the students. Being aware of all these facts team-working approach is being intensively used in METU.
 
 

PART II

METU’S POSITION

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Historical Evaluation of Universities as an Organization

    Both in the western and eastern civilizations, the earliest universities emerged from the religious organizations. However accompanying with enlightenment movements in Europe, the religious features in universities diminished and many of them acquired an autonomous structure. However still there exist some universities having strong relations with religious foundations. Becoming a core of democracy as a major facet of universities happened in the last century. Throughout this metamorphosis in the structure of universities, the critical thought fortified its status in the heart of the university concept up to middle of the last century.
Like many modern universities founded in the last two-century, METU has been established independent of any religious organization or any such idea. Accompanying with the democratic movements in the current years, METU has been a real castle for the warriors of democracy throughout its short history, and also it has managed to breed generations who have fully understood the idea and the practices of democracy. Having this idea in mind will make it easier to understand the structure of METU as an organization.
 

Systems Approach

    In order to examine the METU’s position with respect to systems approach, initially the system should be defined. The system that we concerned is whole education system including all units relevant with education instruments such as libraries, research centers, student unions, undergraduate, graduate and PhD programs, linkage to related industry etc. In system approach a university should cover all units within the education system, not to make students to try to seek solutions for their problems outside the university. In this perspective METU has absolute advantages to all other universities in Turkey and many in abroad with its configuration of many requirements of contemporary university.
Though, to maintain the current position in the ten years later against the growing private universities, METU should focus on its weaknesses. For example, knowing that an important share knowledge labor (engineers, scientist) that the Turkish industry possessed is provided by METU, the linkage between the university and the industry should be more strong to provide training alternatives for students and to cooperate in some projects (like the one between Stanford University and Silicon Valley).
 

Contemporary Structural Changes in Universities

    According to revolutions in the rules of the world, there have been some structural changes in universities. New World requires faster, easier, more productive and more profitable social life including learning activities. Therefore the universities should change its role of critical thought, which makes the process slower and harder without any gain, to a structure that generates social capital for the New World. According to Dr. Guillermo Duenos (Universities as Creators of Social Capital, Appendix A-6), in this vein, universities developed some new concepts such as distance learning, multi cultural society, market driven orientation, corporate universities with the help of improved information and communication technology and globalization of the world.
METU gradually keep up with this new university concept by its technologic background and reformist character. Asynchronous Internet Education (IDEA), Continuing Education Center, Distance Interactive Learning (DIL), METU Technopolis, Informatics Online (Master of Science Program), and a support system for regular, online and partially online courses as METU Online are the main formations in this area. Also the cultural variety among students and academic staff rather well indicates its global composition.
 

Our Proposals

    The educational system in Turkey is gradually being a competitive structure among the universities. To be on the front side in the future, METU management should focus on;

• To keep and improve its analytic, creative and reformist notions to the problems in social capital creatures.
  
• To create projects that enable METU stand on its own feet in financial manner, such as establishing a production system and then developing and producing high tech products (say computer chips) to cover a potion of its expenses.
  
• To provide technical and managerial consultancy services to the firms needed on the Turkish economy behalf.
  
• To attract important scientist and academic staff all over the world as well as to maintain its existing ones by supplying them good research and work conditions.
  
• To extend democracy concept within the university by providing more rights and control to the academics and students.

PART III

METU’S POSITION WITHIN THE EUROPEAN EDUCATION SYSTEM

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    As we all know the European countries are experiencing integration in almost all institutional areas as a consequence of the unification policies. Universities – as the higher education institutions – are a part of the integration and they also experience this fact. The Sorbonne Declaration, the Bologna Declaration and the meeting of the European Ministers, who are in charge of higher education, are the milestones of the integration of higher education.

    According to the (Towards The European Higher Education Area, Communiqué of the meeting of European Ministers in charge of Higher Education in Prague on May 19th 2001, appendix E-2) the following items can summarize, what is understood by “integration in higher education”:

• Adoption of a system of easily readable and comparable degrees
  
• Adoption of a system essentially based on the “long cycle” and the “short cycle” engineering education which are “development of scientific intellectual thinking at the master degree or doctorate level” and “a more practically oriented education” respectively.
  
• Establishment of a system of credits which will provide both transferability and accumulation functions
  
• Promotion of mobility so that free movement of the students, teachers, researchers, and administrative staff is assured.
  
• Promotion of European cooperation in quality assurance.

    “We must in particular look at the objective of increasing the international competitiveness of the European system of higher education. The vitality and efficiency of any civilization can be measured by the appeal that its culture has for other countries. We need to ensure that the European higher education system acquires a world-wide degree of attraction equal to our extraordinary cultural and scientific traditions.” says the Bologna Declaration (Ref. 7).

    SEFI (Société Europeénne pour la Formation des Ingénieurs) (Ref 8)desires to find a way to accredit the European higher education institutions. However according to SEFI an accreditation system similar to ABET is neither feasible nor desirable, and the European accreditation system should work on the basis of mutual recognition between existing national accreditation authorities. Therefore the countries or groups of countries today not having accreditation authorities should be encouraged to create such bodies. (SEFI’s Position on Engineering Education Accreditation in Europe, appendix E-1)

    METU cannot try changing its system in order to integrate with European higher education institutions for two main reasons. Firstly there is not such a clear standard in European Union. Secondly Most of the departments of the engineering faculty at METU has been accredited by ABET, and the American system of higher education is applied at METU. Changing the system of education for integration with European Union may cost METU losing its consistency with the institutions in United States.

    According to our group rather than making chances in the system, METU should play the leading role for creating a accreditation institution for Turkish higher education institutions which may work on mutual recognition with existing national accreditation authorities of other countries as SEFI stated.
 

REFERENCES