PRODUCT, PROCESS, & SYSTEM BUILDING SKILLS EDUCATION by CONSTRUCTING A CITIZEN SUPPORT SYSTEM

Abstract

The difficulty of Product, Process, & System Building Skills education in regular lessons is that all techniques for developing products and systems must be taught in a limited time. In addition, it is impossible to teach students the requirements of analysis, architectural design, etc., in the limited time, as these cannot be learned without actually experiencing them. This paper introduces the educational method of product, process, and system-building skills involving collaboration with industry and community. The method is based on Project-Based Learning and is applied to students at the Kanazawa Institute of Technology and Kanazawa Technical College. Education was carried out under a curriculum involving a project for system construction supported as a Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications IoT Service Creation Support Project. This paper explains in detail the practical project that was carried out in Nonoichi City. This was an educational project in which the students themselves thought about a given problem and methods of problem-solving by collaborating with companies and the city. In an effort to solve the given problem, we developed an information terminal bus stop and submitted proposals to Nonoichi City. Through active engagement with the project, students learned how to listen to individual requests, analyze the requests, and create the system. In addition, they also learned how to conduct the operational test, solve extraction problems, and improve the system. The project allowed students to receive hands-on education, and at the same time had favorable effects on the community. In fact, when using the prototype system for the citizens and conducting a questionnaire survey, we received numerous comments on its effectiveness in improving citizens’ lives. Also, we confirmed students’ growth from the student questionnaire survey.