RESULTS FROM CROSS-FERTILIZATION OF COURSES FOR IMPROVED STUDENT LEARNING
Year: 2017
Editor: Berg, Arild; Bohemia, Erik; Buck, Lyndon; Gulden, Tore; Kovacevic, Ahmed; Pavel, Nenad
Author: Normark, Jörgen; Öhrling, Therese; Hĺkansson, Anders
Series: E&PDE
Institution: Luleĺ University of Technology, Sweden
Section: Design Education for the General Public
Page(s): 734-739
ISBN: 978-1-904670-84-1
Abstract
This paper describes results from the development of two new industrial design courses in order to improve student learning in both practical and theoretical skills. Practical skills, such as model making and sketching, cannot be studied only as theory. These skills need training, implementation, and time to allow the knowledge to mature. The new course design build upon the CDIO framework where especially two standards are incorporated in the new course design: Standard 3 - Integrated curriculum, where personal and interpersonal skills, and product, process, and system building skills are interwoven with disciplinary knowledge, and Standard 5 -Design-Implement Experiences, where emphasis is on learning by doing, that the students will learn from actually designing something. This paper contains results from studies made during the first implementation of the two new courses, both from a teacher- and a student perspective. Redesigning several courses at the same time facilitates constructive alignment on course level where course activities are aligned with examination, and on program level where course content build upon previous courses and the proper learning outcomes are addressed at the proper time in the education program. On a course level, the results indicate that students are positive towards the interwoven practical and theoretical parts. Also, the student understanding of how different knowledge interact, both practical hands-on and theoretical knowledge, seem to have increased compared to previous years. On a program level, there are indications that much effort should go into organizing the sometimes new roles for the teachers and if overlooked could affect the course negatively, but we now have the knowledge how to implement the CDIO framework to develop courses for improved student learning.
Keywords: Cdio Development, Merging Courses, Theory-Based Courses, Practice-Based Courses, Teaching Teams, Student Learning, Industrial Design Engineering.