PBL Integration into a Software Engineering Undergraduate Degree Program Curriculum: An Analysis of the Students' Perceptions

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) has been adopted by undergraduate degree programs in different knowledge areas. In Brazil, although there are reports about the use of this approach in different formats on Computing Programs, we are not aware of many works available in the literature regarding its integration into the curriculum. On Software Engineering undergraduate degree programs, the only experience that mentions the PBL integration we know until the current date is that being applied at Federal University of Pampa (Unipampa). This paper shows how the PBL approach is integrated into the curriculum of this program by means of six problem-solving courses distributed along the curriculum and organized within thematic axes. Moreover, this work presents and discusses the students' perception regarding PBL adoption. These perceptions were obtained through a research instrument applied to both undergraduate students and bachelors in the program. Based on the results, we concluded that most students agree that the objectives of the PBL adoption in the curriculum have been achieved. However, current results suggest that collaborative work still is a challenge to be addressed.