Hi everyone,
I’m Kerstin, a professor at a university in Northern Germany (DHSH - Duale Hochschule Schleswig-Holstein). I’m new to this community and excited to exchange ideas about meaningful, practice-based learning!
This week I’ve been seeing final presentations from my Project Management courses - and every time I do, I’m reminded why I love teaching this subject.
In my classes, students don’t just study project management theory, they apply it. Instead of writing a conventional exam, they form small teams, define their own project goals, and carry them out from start to finish. Each team must create a project that generates real value, not something designed for the drawer.
This year, my students launched initiatives that…
💛 … collected donations and essential items for homeless people (“Warmth for Kiel”, “Wärme schenken”).
🎁 … organized Christmas wish trees for children in care homes.
🌳 … connected generations through projects like “Fadenfreunde”, where seniors crochet toys for kids in hospitals.
🕶️ … brought digital joy to nursing homes with Virtual Reality trips to Venice and Paris.
☕ … set up charity coffee stands for local causes.
Throughout the semester, they use professional PM tools and methods:
- project charters and milestone plans,
- risk and stakeholder analyses,
- Gantt charts and progress reviews,
and finally, they document everything in a structured project report with reflections and lessons learned.
By embedding these theoretical frameworks in real-life contexts, students experience the complexity, uncertainty, and dynamics that make project management both challenging and rewarding. They learn what it means to set achievable goals, navigate constraints, and adapt when things don’t go as planned - skills no textbook can fully teach.
The result is a blend of solid academic learning and genuine community engagement - turning abstract concepts like stakeholder management or value creation into something human, tangible, and deeply memorable. Many of the projects from former years have actually turned into processes - where students repeat their projects even though they don't get credit points for them any more :)
For me, that’s what good higher education is all about: connecting knowledge, empathy, and action.
#Education #Teaching #ProjectBasedLearning #HigherEducation #SocialImpact #LearningByDoing #UniversityTeaching #Educators #EthicsInEducation #CommunityEngagement