Organization of project-based training of students in terms of social partnership between a college, university and enterprise

Miroshin Dmitrii Grigor'evich PhD in Pedagogy Docent, the department of Electronic Engineering, Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin 620012, Russia, Sverdlovskaya oblast', g. Ekaterinburg, ul. Mira, 22, of. 104 mirdcom@rambler.ru Other publications by this author     Michurova Natal'ya Nikolaevna PhD in Pedagogy 623286, Russia, Sverdlovskaya oblast', g. Ekaterinburg, ul. Mira, 22, of. 606 alexa10com@yandex.ru

Shterenzon Vera Anatol'evna PhD in Technical Science Docent, the department of Electronic Engineering, Ural Federal University named after the Firts President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin 620012, Russia, Sverdlovskaya oblast', g. Ekaterinburg, ul. Baumana, 5, of. 12 v.shterenson@gmail.com Other publications by this author

In the context of the transition of the Russian higher education system to updated federal state educational standards and taking into account the introduction of educational standards of universities, ensuring that the level and content of graduate training meet the requirements of employers, which are reflected in professional standards, is of particular relevance. Professional standards quite clearly outline the range of duties of a future specialist, defining his labor functions, disclosed by a set of labor actions, knowledge and skills, whereas federal state educational standards have a competence-oriented character, and the range of competencies is quite wide and determines not only the ability of a graduate to perform professional activities and his professionally significant personal qualities, supra-professional abilities and abilities towards integration into the professional community. Consequently, there is a contradiction between the competence-oriented structure of federal state educational standards and the requirements of employers reflected in the labor functions of a specialist specified in professional standards.

The revealed contradiction allows us to state the problem that is considered in this article - the problem of ensuring that the level and content of university graduates' training meet both the requirements of federal state educational standards and the requirements of employers reflected in professional standards.

Among the many options for solving this problem, the most promising is the option of organizing training in a social partnership of a college, university and enterprise. The contradiction between the requirements of society, the requirements of production and the possibilities of pedagogical science and practice, which arose in the late 20th – early 21st century, determined the transition from the normative-value pedagogical paradigm, within which the educational process was presented as a normative linear trajectory of the student's movement from ignorance to knowledge, to a spatial educational paradigm in which attention It focuses both on the specifics of the student, his abilities, his qualities, his capabilities, and on external socio-cultural conditions that determine a different organization of the educational process in modern Russian society. The key concept of the spatial educational paradigm is the concept of educational space ^{[2, 7, 8]}.

For the first time, the concept of "educational space" appeared in the Russian pedagogical thesaurus in 1995 and is defined as "a place existing in society, where many relationships and connections are subjectively set, where special activities of various systems (state, public and mixed) for the development of the individual and his socialization are carried out. It is also possible to have an internally formed, individual educational space, the formation of which occurs in the experience of each student ^{[4, 9, 12, 14]}. The authors of this definition, formulated during the period of the emergence of the spatial educational paradigm, emphasized the multidimensional nature of pedagogical phenomena that determine the effectiveness of education from the standpoint of creating conditions for the development and improvement of socially significant personality qualities.  Russian researchers of the educational space believe that it is determined by the educational environment, which is the material and organizational basis for its creation (in this sense, the educational space acquires institutional features and can be considered as an educational space of higher, secondary vocational, corporate education, etc.) ^{[4, 7, 8, 9]}.

These features allow us to consider the educational space as a real phenomenon in modern education, characterized by a strictly defined functional, reflecting the organization, orientation, structuring, content and effectiveness of education.

The determination of the educational phenomena of a professionally oriented educational space lies in the presence of interrelations between its various objects. The phenomena of a professionally oriented educational space form a pedagogical system, the system-forming factor of which is the activity of an enterprise for the manufacture, sale and maintenance of finished products.  The structural components of the system of a professionally oriented educational space can be: a material and technical component (educational environment), a procedural component (educational process), a subjective and personal component (subjects of the educational process).

In our study, the material and technical component of a professionally oriented educational space is the corporate educational environment created in the context of a social partnership between a university and an enterprise, the procedural component is reflected in the technology of project-based learning implemented in a corporate educational environment, and the subjective and personal component is the students being trained, the specialists of the enterprise performing consulting and mentoring activities, and the professorialthe teaching staff of the university.

Project activities implemented in a professionally oriented educational space allow students to express themselves, apply their knowledge and practical experience to solving tasks, and publicly demonstrate the result achieved ^{[1, 3, 5, 6, 13]}. At the same time, the design is based on the example of solving real problems and tasks of the enterprise, students carry out real projects.  The source of problems for real projects is the production process (in the article we consider engineering training), implemented at the customer company of trained personnel. Working with a real project is aimed not only at the formation of competencies provided for by federal state educational standards, but also at the performance of the labor functions of specialists underlying professional standards, which allows us to talk about the possibility of correlating two sources of the level and content of training within the framework of project training.

Unlike real educational projects, they are characterized by the fact that the source of problems for them is the educational process and the content of training, which is formed on the basis of ensuring that the graduate's level of preparedness meets the requirements of federal state educational standards. At the same time, educational projects are aimed at the formation of both professional and supra-professional abilities underlying integrated and general professional competencies, for example, the ability to work in a team, make decisions, use scientific methods in cognition, solve practical problems, etc.^{[1, 11]}.

The project work is carried out within a certain period of time and with the advice of the project manager.  When developing educational projects, the head is a teacher of an educational organization, and when developing real projects, the joint leadership of the teacher of the educational organization and specialists of the enterprise on the basis of which the real project is being carried out is organized. As a rule, in real projects, one or two or three mini-groups are assigned a head from among the specialists of the enterprise.

In general, the technology of project-based student learning involves six stages of implementation of both educational and real projects.

At the first stage, the subject, content and nature of the project are determined. The subject of educational projects is offered by the university, and real projects are offered by an enterprise with which a cooperation agreement has been concluded and which is interested in graduates of the university. Also, at the first stage, students are introduced to the enterprise in the form of an excursion and a subsequent joint educational and production conference

At the second stage, project groups are created and project topics are distributed in accordance with the needs of the enterprise and the wishes of the students.

 The third stage is the implementation of the project. If the project is educational, then its implementation is carried out within the framework of the university, if it is real – in the conditions of the educational space created under the social partnership agreement of the enterprise with the university. At the third stage, students select the necessary information, search for solutions to the tasks set in the project, develop project materials, form a bank of potential solutions to the main task of the project, evaluate solutions and choose the most appropriate and effective.

At the fourth stage, students design project materials, prepare explanatory notes, graphic documentation, and computer presentations.

At the fifth stage, projects are protected. The protection of projects is carried out in a specially created commission. When carrying out real projects, representatives of the customer's company of trained personnel are necessarily included in the commission, which is the basis for the implementation of the project and according to whose tasks the project is carried out by university students. During the defense, the level of formation of competencies, knowledge, skills of students, as well as labor actions, which are evaluated by specialists of the enterprise who are members of the commission, is stated.

The sixth stage is the stage of reflection, at which self–assessment of students' work in teams is carried out, original solutions are presented, mistakes made by teams in the implementation of projects are sorted out, existing knowledge and skills are updated and skills acquired during project activities are consolidated. The stage is held in the form of a final conference with the participation of specialists from enterprises interested in trained personnel who can offer distinguished students further cooperation.

The technology of project-based learning in the context of social partnership has been implemented since 2017 at the Institute of New Materials and Technologies of the Ural Federal State Educational Institution named after the First President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin and at the Yekaterinburg Technical College "Automation". So, at the Department of Electronic Engineering, within the framework of the technological cycle of academic disciplines, project training is currently being implemented in the context of a social partnership between a university and an enterprise. The core of project training is a university (in particular, the Department of Electronic Engineering), in which the necessary documentation and algorithms for the implementation of the project have been prepared. The college acts as a practice-oriented platform for the implementation of project-based learning in social partnership with the university. The source of practice-oriented issues for project training is an enterprise interested in training personnel who, after completing training, are provided with work at this enterprise or at enterprises of a similar profile.

The general concept of project-based learning is as follows: 

1. The enterprise, which is an engineering center, and is engaged in the development of engineering, technological and design projects in the field of production automation, robotics and mechatronics, offers problems in the field of developing mechanisms of modern CNC equipment, robots, automated systems presented in assembly drawings or general drawings.

2. In joint project activities in the college-university system and under an agreement with the enterprise, a joint mini-project group is created – a student design bureau of 2-3 people. The formation of project groups is carried out at a joint pre-project excursion to the enterprise, where they get acquainted with the problems, a pre-project session, where they create mini-groups and formulate the problem and topic of the project together with the heads from the university, and a pre-project educational and production conference, where the final formation of the project theme and the consolidation of design bureaus takes place.

3. In accordance with the requirements of the enterprise, each student design bureau receives the problem and, accordingly, the topic of the project. The topic is most often related to the design of the structure and manufacturing technology of parts of mechanisms of modern CNC equipment, robots, automated systems, and the mechanism shown in the assembly drawing is received by each student design bureau

4. Together with project managers and with the advice of a specialist responsible for this area at the enterprise, students decide which parts from the assembly they will design and develop their processing technology.

5. When the details are selected, the actual process of project execution begins, which is implemented according to the algorithm of joint implementation of a real project by university students. The algorithm for implementing project-based learning in the implementation of real projects by mini-groups of university students includes such stages as:

- Analysis of the design and purpose of the part (according to the assembly drawing);

- Development of a 3D model of the part;

- Development of a part drawing based on a 3D model;

- Analysis of the manufacturability of the part design;

- Selection of the type and justification of serial production;

- Selection of the workpiece and the method of its production, calculation of RAMP allowances;

- Development of a part processing strategy for mass production;

- Selection of equipment for mass production, tooling and cutting tools;

- Selection of cutting modes;

- Development of technological operations for processing parts;

- Development of a control program for CNC machines;

- Evaluation of the effectiveness of the project based on temporary or economic factors;

- Protection of the project in the joint commission.

The developed technology of project-based learning was tested in the implementation of joint technological projects by students of the Department of Electronic Engineering of the Ural Federal State Educational Institution named after the First President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, students of the Yekaterinburg Technical School "Automation" in social partnership with PJSC "Kalinin Machine-Building Plant", the Experimental Production Complex of UrFU, and Unimatic LLC, whose activities are related to the development of projects in the field of automation of mechanical assembly production and robotics and with which a cooperation agreement has been concluded.

Thus, a practice-oriented educational space was created, in which the proposed technology of project-based learning was implemented using the example of real technological projects. According to the agreement with Unimatic LLC, the project is of a design and technological nature and consists in analyzing the design of an assembly unit or node, selecting parts and developing their design and manufacturing technology. The project is designed for 16 weeks.

At the first stage of the project, in the course of joint consultation with Unimatic LLC specialists, students analyze the purpose of the mechanism and the design of the part according to the assembly drawing, after which they develop a 3D model and a drawing of the part and formulate technological tasks.

 The result of the second stage is an updated drawing of the part that falls under the technological design and formulated technological tasks that are coordinated with the specialists of Unimatic LLC.

At the third stage, students choose and justify the type of production. The type of production is justified by calculating the coefficient of assignment of operations to the workplace. Based on the type of production, the selection of the workpiece, the method of its production and the calculation of allowances are carried out. During the implementation of the third stage, joint consultations of university students and specialists of Unimatic LLC are also carried out.

The fourth stage of the design is the development of a processing strategy for the selected and designed part. In the course of joint activities, during the implementation of joint consultations with specialists of Unimatic LLC, students choose equipment, machine tools, choose control and measuring instruments and instrumentation. Students select cutting tools according to catalogs of Russian and foreign manufacturers of cutting tools. In accordance with the recommendations of the catalogs, students choose the cutting modes recommended by the manufacturers of cutting tools.

At the fifth stage of project development, students, with the advice of managers and specialists of Unimatic LLC, develop technological operations for processing a part, make up a technological process for processing a part and fill out technological documentation, as well as develop a control program for processing a part on CNC machines, focusing on CNC systems and equipment available at Unimatic LLC. And they simulate the processing process at automated workplaces. Next, the effectiveness of the project is evaluated according to time and economic indicators (piece time for processing one part and the technological cost of processing).

At the sixth stage, during a joint conference with the participation of representatives of the basic enterprise Unimatic LLC, the project is defended by students of project groups and the level of technological training of students is determined, reflected, among other things, in the recommendations of the enterprise.

The experimental approbation of the described technology of project-based training of students in a professionally oriented educational space was carried out during the implementation of the project module "Fundamentals of automated Production" by students studying at the Department of Electronic Engineering of the Federal State Educational Institution of Higher Education in UrFU in the direction of 03/15/04 Automation of technological processes and productions.

The project on the module "Fundamentals of automated production" is focused on the formation of students' professional competence PC-5 - the ability to participate in the development of new automated and automatic production technologies and their implementation, evaluation of the results obtained, preparation of technical documentation on automation of production and its equipment. The competence of PC-5 is disclosed in the professional standard 40.083. "Specialist in automated design of technological processes for manufacturing machine-building products using computer-aided design systems" by a set of labor actions included in labor functions:

- V/01.6 "Ensuring the manufacturability of the design of machine-building products of medium complexity";

- In/02.6 "Development using CAD-, SARP-systems of technological processes for manufacturing machine-building products of medium complexity".

Four groups of students from the Department of Electronic Engineering of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education in UrFU (78 students) took part in the experimental approbation.

To evaluate the results of the experimental approbation, criteria were developed for assessing the level of formation of professional competencies of a technological nature corresponding to the labor functions of professional standards and in particular ^[10]:

- reproductive level of competence formation - from 0 to 10 points;

- productive level of competence formation - from 0 to 20 points;

- the creative level of competence formation is from 0 to 30 points.

The range of points was determined to assess the completeness, originality and correctness of the project assignment. The experimental approbation included the ascertaining, forming and control stages.

At the ascertaining stage, through the use of control tests and complexes of control tasks, the initial level of formation of professional competencies of a technological nature was revealed by four groups of students of electronic engineering of the Federal State Educational Institution of Higher Education in UrFU and the average value of the level of formation of professional competencies of a technological nature was calculated. According to the results of the assessment, two control and two experimental groups were formed with a similar level of formation of professional competencies of a technological nature.  The comparative experiment was conducted for one semester (16 weeks).

In the control groups, students carried out educational projects according to the module according to the traditional design methodology at the Federal State Educational Institution of Higher Education. Typical mechanical engineering products were offered to students as design objects, traditional consultations were held without visiting the enterprise and without attracting the potential of Unimatic LLC.

In the experimental groups, classes were conducted according to the described technology of project-based learning using real projects in a practice-oriented educational space.

At the control stage, the projects were defended by students of control and experimental groups. The defense was conducted in a commission composed of representatives of the university and Unimatic LLC.  Based on the results of the defense, the competencies being formed were evaluated and the average level of competence formation for each student was calculated.

The results of the experiment show that in the control groups 54.8% of university students and 67.3% of college students found a reproductive level of competence formation, 22.5% of university students and 18.5 college students demonstrated competence formation at a productive level and only 22.7% of university students and 14.2% of college students reached a creative level of competence formation. Almost half of the university and college students were unable to rise above the reproductive level of technological competence formation. 

Figure 2 - The results of an experiment among students studying at the Department of Electronic Engineering of the Federal State Educational Institution of Higher Education in UrFU

In the experimental groups, only 18.2% and 28.6% of university and college students found a reproductive level of competence formation, respectively, 25.7% of university students and 33.4% of college students reached a productive level of technological competence formation, and more than half reached a creative level – 56.1% of university students and 37.9% of college students.

The evaluation of the statistical reliability of the results of the experimental approbation of the developed system of professionally oriented educational space and project-based learning technology was carried out using a one-sided sign criterion, which allows analyzing and statistically processing up to 100 pairs of observations and is based on counting the number of unidirectional results by paired comparison. As compared pairs, pairs of students from control and experimental groups were used, who at the ascertaining stage of the experiment demonstrated the same or similar levels of competence formation in the technological profile.  Statistical processing of the results of the experiment allows us to speak about the reliability of its results within 95%, therefore, it can be argued with a high level of reliability that the use of the developed technology of project-based learning in a specially organized professionally oriented educational space of a university-enterprise can significantly increase the level of formation of technological competencies of students.

The analysis of the experimental results confirms the high pedagogical efficiency of using the developed technology of project-based learning, implemented in a specially organized professionally oriented educational space of the university-enterprise. It can be assumed that the use of the developed technology will significantly increase the level of formation of students' technological competencies, which determine their ability to perform labor actions in accordance with professional standards, which will increase their competitiveness in the labor market.

Thus, it can be concluded that the planned project activity, carried out in a specially organized professionally oriented educational space of a university-enterprise and associated with real projects, is a fairly effective way to organize the learning process, including the development of students' design, technological and research skills, as well as cognitive skills, independent work skills, and skills to navigate in the modern information space and contribute to the effective formation of technological competencies.