Valuation of questions in presentations of group projects

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of using rounds of questions posed by work groups of an Engineering Project course after their project presentations. Before, students were offered the possibility of putting questions to speakers before the lecturer asked his/her own questions. Unfortunately, student participation was often very low and questions sometimes lacked depth, or were irrelevant or poorly stated. However, question time is a good moment to raise doubts, which can help presenters think about their project. That is, student and lecturer participation can open the minds of presenters to new ideas about their own work. Students’ questions may even expand on the lecturer's questions and also create a spirit of positive criticism among students as part of student training. To enhance student participation, a controlled process is followed. Work groups think up and write questions which are later included in their project portfolio. Finally, student questionnaires are used to assess the process. Details of questionnaires and results, as well as an example of a project, are given elsewhere in the paper