Abstract-An engineering curriculum requires that its future
professionals should be fully prepared to accomplish a variety of
tasks involving not only theoretical concepts, but also skills
acquired through effective practice. In the Instituto Superior de
Engenharia de Coimbra (ISEC), Department of Electrical
Engineering, preference was given to apply methods integrating
technology in the learning and then evaluating the outcomes.
Problem-based learning (PBL) was used as an instructional
strategy of active learning, and adapted for use in the Lighting
Design course. The students are presented with a virtual
scenario, quite similar to the real world, where they are required
to perform as they would in a real life situation. The emphasis is
given to PBL so that they can learn to become autonomous,
skilled and explore their own potential as well as improve team
work skills/spirit and that can be applied to a wide range of
students and subject matters. PBL is introduced to the students
as a 'learn by doing' project. The project incorporates aspects of
electrical engineering and computing skills. This study analyses
the learning process/techniques that help students deal with the
complexity of a Lighting Design Project and assesses its
effectiveness and impact on the students. Essentially, it
encourages them to be in charge of their education. The benefits
of PBL in the Lighting Design course are visible in the
improvement of the study and analysis of a Lighting Design
project. The method may also bring benefits for Electrical
Engineering programmes where educators struggle for
improved teaching and learning. The simulation was performed
using the Dialux 4.3 software package that runs in Windows
Vista or XP environment.