CONNECT4PLM aims e-learning content creation for interdisciplinary master of science program in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) within European communities. For this aim, the project will be focused on the preparation of the curriculum that can be applied in all the partner countries and to provide the system properties that e-learning can be based on. The background of the project is based on the completed EU project of the partners “RAPROMISE”. In that project aim and outcomes were based on the increase of awareness on PLM concept. After creating this, it was noticed that although there is a need for educated people on PLM, there are not many Master of Science programs on PLM education. For this reason, this project was aimed on the establishment of the curriculum and providing an e-learning platform so that the same educational level can be established in several European countries namely as Germany, Austria, Spain and Turkey. In this project the specific objectives are: • To develop an international curriculum for Interdisciplinary Master of Science (i3MSc) Program in PLM • To create the e-learning content for i3MSc Program in PLM • To establish an e-learning module structure for i3MSc Program in PLM • To learn how to use the available software regarding PLM practices • To test the contents of the i3MSc Program with a Pilot Group of voluntary graduate students and young professionals. In the project, six partners are involved. Among them Ege University, TU Kaiserslautern, Ruhr Universitat Bochum, TU Wien and Polytechnique University Valencia are having education programs on PLM. On the other hand, Vestel and BMC as two leading companies from industry are also involved to provide their background on PLM applications. The main activities of the project that are also defined as work packages are the management of the project, performing the needs and competencies analysis, training the trainers, the customization and configuration of e-learning platform, developing the curriculum and creating the e-learning course content, performing the pilot training, preparation and following the quality plan and finally executing the aimed dissemination activities. The main distribution of the methodology in this project will be paperwork for searching the existing and necessary courses for master of science program on PLM and software based research work to provide e-learning platform, prepare course contents that are suitable for e-learning, train the trainers that will use the e-learning platform and provide and test a pilot course. The main outcomes of the project that are also defined as intellectual outputs are; • Systematic mapping study for e-learning platforms, • Training the trainers manual, • E-learning platform for i3MSc, • i3MSc curriculum, • E-learning courses/modules for all courses in the curriculum, • Pilot course/module for the selected e-learning course/module. Finally, after the completion of the project an interdisciplinary, internationally and internet based master of science program (i3MSc) will be ready on the basement of curriculum and e-learning platform. The partners upon taking approval from respective higher education councils of their countries may directly open the e-learning master of science program on PLM. The partners from industry and several others in each country may have the chance for their young professionals MSc study in online system.
The main outcomes of the project are: Apply a systematic mapping study process, produce a systematic map for e-learning platforms, and publish the output of systematic mapping as a review article. Prepare a manual about ADDIE model for e-learning to guide PLM instructors. Develop an open source e-learning platform that includes the preparation of interactive course contents, support for multi-tenant user management, and access to course contents from mobile devices. Develop i3MSc curriculum: decide the contents, obligatory and elective courses, and the ECTS credits of each course. Develop a pilot course: an example in the adaptation of several courses for PLM to e-learning. As a result of these outputs, increased communications between the participating partners led to further collaborative projects, dissemination of the PLM concept at the EC level, increased communication skills among the lecturers from different education institutes by e-learning module on PLM, and the same educational level in partner countries are provided.
Global companies use PLM applications widely and SMEs are also starting to adopt them in the EU in various sectors ranging from automotive to medical, from megastructures to aerospace, from defense to packaging. However, both in developed and emerging economies of EU, there is a lack of well-trained people ready to work in a collaborative environment with PLM; in other words, there is a need for people who have the ability to use PLM systems in their workflow. This makes companies in these economies vulnerable to the competitive challenge they are be facing in the global economy. At this point, the need for PLM education arises. However, the challenge for universities is to train a highly skilled engineers pool and professionals able to work and communicate effectively in PLM systems. To overcome this challenge, the project focused on the establishment of the curriculum and provides an e-learning platform for an interdisciplinary master of science program to train HE graduates, researchers, and young professionals so that the same educational level can be established in partner countries and PLM systems can be effectively used in professional life.