Effectiveness of Project Based Learning (PBL)

Having heard great things about working in a product-based company, a 25-year-old developer was eager to jump from his current role in a famous multinational company to his new-found dream company, Flipkart.

He spent hours researching about the software engineer role, the different interview rounds he needed to crack to get there, and most importantly, the skills required to get noticed for the role. In no time, he had completed four certified courses online and had begun watching several tutorials to boost his resume with tech projects. He was excited to put his learning to practice.

Six weeks later, he realized that he hadn't learned much and was pulling his hair out about some of the concepts shown in the tutorials. He wondered if he would be able to build the same app without copying the video.

What is project based learning (PBL)

Today, it is essential for developers to connect their learning with real-world experiences instead of merely studying theory and testing it with quizzes and assignments.

Are you learning if you cannot apply those concepts to solve real world problems?

A hands-on learning approach where developers demonstrate their capabilities while working independently on projects is instrumental to gain skills and knowledge. This is project-based learning. It allows developers to reflect on their ideas and acquire in-depth knowledge by actively learning how to tackle real-world problems.

At Crio, we understand that learning can be difficult at times, but to make it an effective learning experience for you, our project-based learning platform fuses engaging developer roles with real-world experiences. At all times, you will be learning by doing as you actively immerse yourself in problem-solving in a real-world setting.

Key learnings from a project

When you link learning with real-world challenges, you start applying your existing knowledge to solve unseen problems. Until you discover the solution, it seems impossible to find one. Your patience, grit, and hunger to learn are put to the test. And when you solve the problem, you not only celebrate your accomplishment, but your experience has also taught you what not to do.

This way, the skills you learn stick with you for a lifetime. In other words, you learn by doing.

Problem solving

Project-based learning provides a safe environment where you can learn from your mistakes. This paves the way to creative thinking and innovative ideas to arrive at logical solutions. Problem-solving skills are enhanced as you deepen your understanding of a concept and apply them to solve a real problem.

Critical thinking

This learning methodology guides you to think with an analytical mind. It focuses on how to get solutions instead of telling you what to do. The choices you make, the reasoning to justify your solution, and the tradeoffs you make between alternate solutions are all improved as you learn by doing in real-world projects.

Ownership

Beyond practical skills, you also get the opportunity to hone an important soft skill sought after in developers - task ownership.

When interviewers bombard you with questions related to your projects shown in your resume, you will be in a better position to answer their questions as you know your project(s) inside-out. This is not always achieved by following tutorials without deeply understanding the "how" or "why" of every task.

How can real world projects help you learn tech

When you learn by doing, you are not only applying what you have learned, but also discovering concepts you were not aware of before. Working on real-world projects will help you pick on details you never paid attention to and force you to think beyond facts.

Different real-world scenarios will test and sharpen your ability to break down a problem and translate it into meaningful code. This skill is not easily learned and requires the right guidance at the start to become an independent problem solver.

Crio is a great place to start

Learning experiences at Crio follow a flipped learning methodology. Developers dive head-first into the tasks to build real-world products similar to Uber Eats, Yahoo Money, etc. Moreover, you get to engage with the tasks by donning the role of a real developer working in such tech companies.

This way, you actively learn software skills that are much-needed to excel in leading tech companies.

At the end of your learning journey, you walk away with:

• Real work experience to talk about in your job interview.
• A verified GitHub portfolio to showcase your developer skills.
• Knowledge of the best development practices followed by top developers in leading tech companies.
• Lifelong understanding of key concepts to tackle unseen challenges.

Through the journey, you will master the art of self-learning, another sought-after quality in developers of top tech companies. When you are stuck, you will be nudged by your Crio mentors who have worked in Cisco, Motorola, Google in the past. They will not provide you with the solutions but point you in the right direction to identify the solution on your own.

Unlike any other MOOCs or learning program, Crio.Do's philosophy of "Learn by doing" is a fresh experience for me. The program heavily focuses on making the student self-sufficient by searching for solutions and solving their own problem. We were required to scour the internet, read the documentation, and learn new stuff. The type of learning is very active and at times you need to get out of your comfort zone, but trust me the results will be very satisfying. I am very grateful to the Crio team for providing me with such an opportunity. I would highly recommend this program to anyone looking to learn core concepts of software development along with practical skills.