THE CDIO APPROACH TO ENGINEERING EDUCATION 2 Designing

THE CDIO APPROACH TO ENGINEERING EDUCATION: 2. Designing An Integrated Curriculum November 2007

SESSION TWO WHY HOW INTEGRATED CURRICULUM CDIO AS THE CONTEXT THE CDIO SYLLABUS DESIGNIMPLEMENT EXPERIENCES WHAT PROGRAM LEARNING ASSESSMENT INTRO TO ENGINEERING WORKSPACES FACULTY COMPETENCE HOW WELL EVALUATION

SESSION TWO OBJECTIVES Explain the rationale for an integrated curriculum Plan ways to benchmark an existing curriculum Describe the process for designing and implementing an integrated curriculum

THE CURRICULUM DESIGN PROCESS

ENGINEERING SKILLS • In addition to acquiring disciplinary technical knowledge, students must learn how to express and apply that technical knowledge • Personal, interpersonal, product, process, and system building skills are inseparable from applications of technical knowledge, and must be learned and assessed in technical contexts • Therefore, technical communication skills, teamwork, problem solving, professional ethics, etc. ARE engineering skills EXAMPLE Communication in engineering means being able to Use technical concepts comfortably Discuss a problem of different levels Determine what is relevant to the situation Argue for or against conceptual ideas and solutions Develop ideas through discussion and collaborative sketching Explain technical matters to different audiences Show confidence in expressing oneself within the field

FACULTY PERCEPTIONS OF SKILLS PLACE IN CURRICULUM Integral FACULTY PERCEPTIONS OF GENERIC SKILLS They are integral to disciplinary knowledge, infusing and ENABLING scholarly learning and knowledge. Application They let students use or apply disciplinary knowledge, thus potentially changing and TRANSLATING disciplinary knowledge through its application. Skills are closely related to disciplinary learning outcomes. Associated They are useful additional skills that COMPLEMENT disciplinary knowledge. They are part of the university syllabus, but separate and secondary to disciplinary knowledge. Not part of curriculum They are necessary basic PRECURSOR skills and abilities. They may need remedial teaching at university. (Barrie, 2004)

ACTIVITY: PAIR-AND-SHARE Using Barrie’s categories of faculty perceptions, discuss your own perception of the part that personal, interpersonal, and product, process, and system building skills play in the curriculum. What are the perceptions of the majority of your colleagues in your program? How do they compare with your partner’s ideas?

WHY INTEGRATE CONTENT AND SKILLS? Pedagogical Reasons Competence in personal and interpersonal skills depends on the context in which they are taught and assessed Engineering fundamentals are learned more deeply by learning related skills Faculty serve as role models when they demonstrate their own competence in skill areas Practical Reasons We can make dual use of available time and resources to be more efficient We can capitalize on the synergy of the simultaneous learning of skills and disciplinary content to be more effective

BEST PRACTICE CDIO Standard 3 -- Integrated Curriculum A curriculum designed with mutually supporting disciplinary courses, with an explicit plan to integrate personal, interpersonal, and product, process, and system building skills • Disciplinary courses or modules make explicit connections among related and supporting content and learning outcomes • Explicit plan identifies ways in which the integration of engineering skills and multidisciplinary connections are to be made

CURRICULUM BENCHMARKING Benchmarking means marking a known position for later reference and comparison. These comparisons can be made across time or across groups at one or more points in time. They may be internal or external to the program. Benchmarking Methods • Interviews • Focus groups • Written questionnaires or surveys • Comparative studies with peer institutions • Examination of “best practice” programs • Review of published data on performance

BENCHMARKING EXISTING CONDITIONS l Benchmark the existing curriculum for the inclusion of CDIO learning outcomes and topics l Benchmark existing teaching, learning, and assessment practices l Benchmark the availability and use of existing workspaces and facilities

SAMPLE BENCHMARKING TOOLS SAMPLE #1 FOCUS: Benchmarking the inclusion of CDIO learning outcomes in the curriculum SAMPLE #2 FOCUS: Benchmarking the teaching and learning of CDIO learning outcomes at the course or module level METHOD: Structured interviews and surveys METHOD: Open-ended interviews RESPONDENTS: Faculty and academic staff RESPONDENTS: Course instructors and instructional staff KEY QUESTIONS: To what extent are each of the CDIO learning outcomes included in your course? Do you introduce them? Do you explicitly teach them? Do you assume students have already learned them, and proceed to apply (utilize) them? KEY QUESTIONS: What learning outcomes from the CDIO Syllabus do you address? What do you expect students to have learned prior to your course? How do students get feedback on their learning, and how do they use that feedback? (A sample interview guide is found in the Handbook)

STRATEGIC CHOICES 1. Change the curriculum structure? 2. Re-task the existing courses? 3. Create new courses?

CURRICULUM STRUCTURE Disciplines run vertically. Projects and skills run horizontally. A strict disciplinary curriculum An integrated curriculum A problem-based curriculum An apprenticeship model Organized around disciplines, with no explicit Organized around disciplines, but with skills Organized around problems, but with Based on projects, with no organized introductions of introduction of skills and projects interwoven disciplines

BLOCK COURSE STRUCTURES Conventional Sequential Block Bus Linked/merged Simultaneous

SEQUENCING DISCIPLINARY CONTENT INPUT: Previous knowledge and skills Course (black box) OUTPUT: ”Final” learning outcomes, competence for the engineer Input to following courses All courses or modules in the program are presented through their input and output only • Enables efficient discussions • Makes connections visible (as well as lack thereof) • Serves as a basis for improving coordination between courses

SEQUENCING ENGINEERING SKILLS (Based on the curriculum in the Aeronautics and Astronautics program at MIT) 3. 2 Communications

MAPPING OF CDIO LEARNING OUTCOMES ONTO THE CURRICULUM Find appropriate combinations of CDIO Syllabus topics and disciplinary content Sequence the CDIO learning outcomes from simple to complex l Build on existing strengths – Identify the CDIO skills already taught in existing courses and consolidate these if necessary – Identify faculty who are enthusiastic about developing their courses in this direction and work with them l Create new courses when necessary l Take advantage of the course’s sequence in the program l

SAMPLE SEQUENCE AND MAPPING (Based on the curriculum in Vehicular Engineering at KTH) SYSTEMATIC INTEGRATION OF SKILLS Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Introductory course Physics Mathematics I Mechanics I Mathematics II Numerical Methods Mechanics II Solid Mechanics Product development Thermodynamics Mathematics III Fluid mechanics Sound and Vibrations Control Theory Signal analysis Electrical Eng. Oral Written communication Statistics Project management Teamwork

SAMPLE SEQUENCE AND MAPPING 3. 1 TEAMWORK YEAR 1 4 B 1052 Perspectives of Vehicle Engineering The project will have a strategy, a planning component, and a time plan. In the beginning of the project, students will have a lecture on how to plan and how effective teamwork are accomplished. In the time plan, different tasks will be divided between the team members. Students will write a short summary on their experiences with teamwork. SA 1226 Physics An assignment in experimental methods is solved in groups of two. YEAR 2 AC 1010 Solid Mechanics Assignment to be solved in groups of four students. Groups to be organized by the instructor. 4 F 1815 Product Development Students work in groups to solve a technical problem, from ideas to realization. 4 B 1117 Sound and Vibrations Students work in groups to build a silencer. (Courtesy of Chalmers University of Technology)

LESSONS LEARNED The integrated curriculum design process can be carried out in many different ways Program leader support and modest resources are required Support and commitment for the change process are needed from faculty, program leaders at all levels, student groups, industry groups, and other stakeholder groups Active student participation in all phases fosters creative ideas and facilitates implementation Monitoring of programs and achievements needs to be regular and consistent

REFLECTION AND SHARING In what ways can you integrate the learning outcomes specified in the CDIO Syllabus into your existing curriculum? Of the many alternative structures presented, which are feasible for your program? What are the key challenges that you face as you begin (or continue) to reform the curriculum in your programs?