Project-Based Approach to Teaching Event-Driven Simulation

Project-based learning emphasizes gaining new skills and knowledge by exploring and solving real-world problems. This should capture students' interest and motivate them to invest substantial effort in the knowledge acquisition and practical application. In this paper we describe and evaluate an implementation of the project-based learning to a graduate course focusing on the event-driven simulation. To create simulation models, the course uses Coloured Petri nets. It is a modelling language, combining the diagrammatical form of Petri nets with the Standard ML functional language. The paper describes the curriculum of the course, shows how the project-based approach is incorporated into it and analyzes several aspects of the student projects.