Educating future product developers in collaborative product development : lessons learned from the european global product realization (EGPR) international course

Fain, Nusa and Vukasinovic, Nikola and Zavbi, Roman (2009) Educating future product developers in collaborative product development : lessons learned from the european global product realization (EGPR) international course. In: 2nd international multi-conference on engineering and technological innovation, 2009-07-10.

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Abstract

Changes in the business environment, responses of companies to these changes and the available information and communication technologies (ICT) pose a number of challenges to present and future product developers, as well as to educational institutions. An appropriate response to these challenges is to create a solid basis for strategies to combat stronger competition, since existing educational programs have provided this only to a small extent. In our opinion, the E-GPR course carried out by 5 European universities reflects the tasks of professional product development teams and their work conditions as realistically as possible and will enable students attending the E-GPR course who will soon enter the professional world to later progress along a steeper learning curve. This paper focuses on the role of communication between members of virtual teams and presents experiences gathered during the organization, designing and performance of each year’s courses.