Application Of Project Based Learning In Student’s Engagement In Advertising Course

Project-based learning is defined as a complex task based on challenging questions or problems that involves students in design, problem solving, decision making or investigative activities. It gives students the opportunity to work in a relatively independent manner over extended periods of time and resulting in realistic products and presentations. Thomas (2000) projected five features of Project-Based Learning (PBL). They are; curriculum based, student driven, constructive investigations, autonomy and realism. In PBL the project is part of the teaching and learning strategy. Students explore and learn the concept and application through the project which means projects that are not designed based on curriculum will not be considered as PBL (Thomas,2000). The projects may focus on activities, products, performances and presentations that challenge the cognitive and learning skills of the students. There must be connectivity between academic work , life and the work skills of the students in completing the project (Railsback, 2002). Bachelor of Communication (Hons) Advertising programme can be linked to the PBL since most of the course required students to do presentation, group project for advertising campaign, develop new product and etc. Projects should also characterized by constructive investigation that involves planning, decision making, problem solving and discovery. This exploratory study looked at the application of PBL on student engagement in learning and teaching in Bachelor of Communication (Hons) Advertising programme. This study identified kind of project used by lecturer and to examine its effectiveness to maximize student’s engagement in learning by four criteria, namely responsible learning, strategic learning, collaborative, and energized by learning (Learning Point Associates, 2004). One of course offered namely Sales Promotion Design has been chosen whereby the real project was implemented and student’s are given a real design competition as a projects. The result reveals that students viewed working with real project using digital technology as more engaging and entertaining