A Course Model Based on Learning Instead of Teaching

1 Bengt Lennartsson, Linköping University, Campus Norrköping, SE-601 74 Norrköping, Sweden. [email protected] Abstract  From a number of case studies in industry we have learned that the ability to learn new things is more important than the ability to remember facts and that the ability to question and to discover new trends is more important than the ability to follow detailed instructions. So we have tried to design a programming project course supporting the development of new skills or capabilities, but without loosing any of the traditional technical contents: distributed systems, computer networking, and client-server architectures together with object-oriented programming. We have used situations where the students have an initial understanding like modeling the facilities of a typical hotel. The student group develops a game-like system with a central information server keeping track of all the objects of the system and their states. The other subsystems are client programs modeling bars, escalators, gyms, gift-shops etc. Experience from different approaches during four years will be presented.