To successfully teach students utilizing a project-based learning approach, lecturers need deep technical expertise and experience, soft skills, and didactic competencies, usually obtained over years of a professional career path. In this paper, we show how advanced high potential senior students that participate intensively in international engineering competitions can successfully act as self-reliant peer teachers for first-year students after receiving training in teaching and leadership skills. We explain how such high potential peers can set up a tailor-made project teaching approach based on their content-wise semi-professional expertise. We also highlight their preparation for this task and their own benefits from this activity. In particular, computer-aided design and electronic circuit board design were taught by the peer lecturers based on examples from their expertise in semi-professional formula race car design. At the same time, professors acted solely as mentors and course organizers. Performance analysis showed that not only did the course participants achieve excellent learning outcomes, but also that the peer teachers benefited enormously: In focus groups and interviews we learned that the high potential students obtained a much deeper understanding of the topics they taught self-reliantly. The experience of successfully teaching complex technical knowledge also resulted in increased self-confidence and prepared them to take over responsibility in future leadership positions. Furthermore, various prerequisites for a successful peer teaching approach were identified, e.g., the motivation to teach innovative content required in professional environments and a close long-term connection between student groups and the faculty.In conclusion, our faculty views the participation of expert students in the teaching process as a greatly beneficial addition to the overall course program. It gives student teachers and learners desirable opportunities for new learning experiences and professors the possibility to concentrate on personal mentoring activities.

Motivation to learn is a cornerstone for learning success. It can be promoted through active participation, reference to the topic, and a good learning atmosphere. One way to ensure an active role for the learner is through project-based learning approaches, which offer the opportunity to work on complex tasks that go far beyond classic theoretical modules. A rarely tried approach in an academic context to foster a good learning atmosphere and students’ connection to the topic would be to use highly qualified peers as instructors.As we strive to increase the level of understanding, we explore how peer teaching by specially trained senior student teachers can be set up in application-oriented project modules to augment learning outcomes for engineering university learners. To do so, the modules “Applied Computer-Aided Design” and “Applied Electronic Circuit Design” were chosen. We investigate in which respect the learning process is altered if advanced peers act as teachers. We also discuss what abilities are prerequisites for the students to act as peer teachers. They include experience in team leadership and project management, accompanied by strong technical skills.A survey-based analysis shows that participants significantly improved their technical skills compared to their level before the project. Furthermore, the data clearly indicates that learners felt more comfortable participating actively in the course if it was taught by a peer familiar with specific real-world applications compared to when it was led by professors. In addition, students were motivated because they were able to choose their own project as well as being encouraged and assisted in working on their own. In conclusion, we show that course modules taught by specifically trained and selected peer teachers can be a valuable addition to an overall engineering curriculum.