Bots and Blocks: Presenting a Project-Based Approach for Robotics Education

Synthesis: Geger, Briechle, and Rausch (2026) propose a project-based learning approach for teaching robotics in higher education, arguing that classic study programs often fail to prepare students for industry work because of a lack of practical experience caused by solely theoretical lecturing. They present a framework for an agile, semester-spanning project where students learn to work with robots, part of the applied computer science degree program "Digital Technologies." The paper presents the framework and an exemplary project featuring the development of a disassembly software ecosystem for hardware robots.

Key Findings

• Classic study programs often fail to prepare students for industry work because of a lack of practical experience from solely theoretical lecturing.
• A project-based learning (PBL) approach is proposed for teaching both practical and theoretical robotics skills interactively.
• The approach uses an agile, semester-spanning project in which students learn to work with robots, within the applied computer science program "Digital Technologies."
• The paper presents the framework and an exemplary project: the development of a disassembly software ecosystem for hardware robots.

Study Design & Method

This is a design/case presentation of a project-based learning framework for robotics education. The authors describe an agile, semester-spanning project within the applied computer science degree program "Digital Technologies" in which students work with robots. They present the pedagogical framework and an exemplary project — the development of a disassembly software ecosystem for hardware robots — illustrating how the approach integrates practical and theoretical robotics skills.

What this means for practice

• Educators. Run robotics as an agile, semester-spanning project rather than a single course, using two-week Sprints, twice-weekly Daily meetings, and a Review Party one week into each Sprint.
• Educators. Staff the Scrum roles for teaching: a scientific staff member as Product Owner, a senior student as Scrum Master, and all students as the Development Team that self-manages the user stories.
• Instructors. Front-load theory in short "schools" — a roughly 60-minute lecture, a live demonstration, and a matching exercise — then taper them from week three onward as independent project work takes over.
• Instructional designers. Assess understanding of AI-assisted work through intermediate exams that make students defend and explain their own ROS-based solutions, rather than banning tools like ChatGPT and Copilot.
• Faculty developers. Give project courses real curricular weight — 60 of the 180 ECTS points here — and mix cohorts across bachelor's and master's levels so junior students work alongside more advanced peers.

Limitations

• The paper presents a framework and a case example rather than a rigorous comparative evaluation of learning outcomes; empirical evidence of effectiveness is not comprehensively reported in the abstract.
• The approach is specific to one applied computer science degree program and context, so generalizability to other programs and levels is limited.

Citation

Geger, T., Briechle, D., & Rausch, A. (2026). Bots and blocks: Presenting a project-based approach for robotics education.