2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Project-based learning provides students with valuable opportunities to explore unknowns and learn through experience and discovery, but providing these experiences presents a variety of challenges on the part of the course designer. This study highlights the lessons learned over the course of two iterations of a project-based learning class. In both iterations of the project, graduate and undergraduate students in Mississippi State University's split-level course, CSE 4663/6663 Human-Computer Interaction were tasked with working in five-person teams to design and develop multi-view graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for use in the supervision of off-road autonomous vehicles in a partnership with the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems (CAVS) at Mississippi State University. In the first iteration of the project which took place in the fall semester of 2024, students were given an open-ended project and provided with a simulation built inside the Mississippi State University Autonomous Vehicle Simulator (MAVS). In addition to this simulation environment, students were provided with a ROS bridge package that exposed the autonomous vehicle data inside the Robot Operating System (ROS). Students then implemented backend interfaces using Robot Web Tools libraries to provide data to their designed interfaces. Observation of students during this project suggested that the scope was potentially too broad for optimal learning. With the hypothesis that student learning outcomes would improve with a more structured project environment, the second iteration of the project, which took place in the fall semester of 2025, put more guardrails into place for students who were provided with a controlled set of implementation constraints including standardized hardware and software as well as specific data for testing. This included providing each student team with a Raspberry Pi 5 equipped with Ubuntu and ROS 2, a 12inch screen, access to Robot Web Tools libraries, and a ROS 2 bag with approximately 30 seconds of simulation data for testing. The learning outcomes of the two iterations of the course were compared by having students from both classes fill out an instrument for evaluating self-reported learning outcomes adapted to suit a project-based course on interface design and development. The comparison of these approaches allows for discussion on best practices in problem-based learning, specifically how the balance among student freedom, instructor guidance, and project structure can impact learning outcomes and student experiences in project-based learning classrooms.