CDIO Integrating softgeneric competencies in engineering education

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CDIO - Integrating soft/generic competenciesin
engineering education Kristina Edström, KTH
DTU kristina_at_kth.se October 21, 2008
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KRISTINA EDSTRÖM
Kristina Edström is an engineer from
Chalmers.Educational developer and lecturer
(universitetsadjunkt) in Engineering education
development at KTH. Since 2001 participates in
and leads educational development projects at
KTH, in Sweden and internationally. Since 2004
also teaches faculty development coursesin
teaching learning in higher education.
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Two anecdotes...
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Industry needs a new kind of engineer

• Present focus
• Context Engineering science
• Reduced, pure problems(with right and wrong
  answers)
• Design phase
• Individual effort

• Desired focus
• Context product and system development (products
  and systems in a wide sense, not just Mech.
  disciplines)
• Systems view, problems go across disciplines, are
  complex and ill-defined, and contain societal and
  business aspects
• Understand the whole cycle Conceive, design,
  implement, operate
• Teamwork, communication

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Engineers who can engineer...

• The CDIO vision is to educate students who
  understand how to conceive - design - implement -
  operate complex value-added engineering systems
  in a modern team-based engineering environment.

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The CDIO Syllabus - a long list of desired
competences

• Technical
• Personal
• Interpersonal
• Conceive - Design - Implement - Operate in the
  societal and business context

The CDIO Syllabus is available at www.cdio.org
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CDIO DISSEMINATION
FOUNDERS
Linköping
MIT
Chalmers
KTH
NEW COLLABORATORS
Politecnico di Milano
JönköpingUniversity
Hogeschool Gent
Umeå U.
Daniel Webster College
University of Colorado
California State U.
U. Wismar
U. Sydney
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AN INVITATION

• The bookCrawley et al. (2007) Rethinking
  Engineering Education The CDIO Approach,
  Springer Verlag. ISBN 0387382879
• Visit the 5th International CDIO ConferenceJune
  8-11 2009, Singapore polytechnic, Singapore
• Visit www.cdio.org

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CDIO IS NOT A COOKIE CUTTER APPROACH
CDIO is not a prescription Everything has to be
translated-transformed to fit the context and
conditions of each university / program Take
what you want to use, transform it as you wish,
give it a new name CDIO provides a toolbox for
working through the process Local faculty
ownership is key
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CDIO is NOT a research project

• The focus is on development of programs
• We take on the challenge as an engineering
  problem rather than a research problem
• Of course we publish papers - but as a
  by-product

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THE BASIC IDEA OF CDIO
SYSTEMATIC INTEGRATION
Year 1
Introductory course
Mathematics I
Physics
Numerical Methods
Mechanics I
Mathematics II
Year 2
Solid Mechanics
Product development
Mechanics II
Sound and Vibrations
Fluid mechanics
Thermodynamics
Mathematics III
Year 3
Signal analysis
Control Theory
Statistics
Electrical Eng.
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• 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

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• When Edison invented the light bulb in 1879...
• ...KTH was already celebrating its 50th
  anniversary.

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BARRIERS WHY AND HOW

• Integrating competencies doesnt make sense
  unless we see them as engineering competencies

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Key question
?

• Why integrate skills

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WHY INTEGRATE COMPETENCES?

• Competences are context-dependent and should be
  learned and assessed in the technical context.

...communication as a generic skill...
... communication as contextualized competences
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EMBEDDED COMPETENCES
Communication in engineering means being able to
? use the technical concepts comfortably, ?
discuss a problem at 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 the
technical matters for different audiences, ?
show confidence in expressing yourself within the
field... Communication skills as contextualized
competences are embedded in, and inseparable
from, students application of technical
knowledge. The same kind of reasoning can be
made for teamwork, ethics (etc...) as well. This
is about students becoming engineers!
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NOT A ZERO-SUM GAME

• Practising CDIO competences in the disciplinary
  context means that students will have
  opportunities to express and apply technical
  knowledge.
• Training for the competences will therefore at
  the same time reinforce students understanding
  of disciplinary content they will acquire a
  deeper working knowledge of engineering
  fundamentals.
• I cant see that a credit of writing reports in
  my course is a wasted credit. Writing reports is
  an appropriate learning activity in my subject.
  (Claes Tisell, KTH Machine design)
• Engineering faculty are engineering role models
  and we must show commitment by involving
  ourselves.

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MAPPING CDIO LEARNING OUTCOMES ONTO THE
CURRICULUM

• Find appropriate combinations of disciplinary
  knowledge, engineering skills, and attitudes
• Sequence the CDIO knowledge, skills, and
  attitudes from simple to complex
• Build on strengths
• Identify the CDIO learning outcomes 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
• Create new courses when necessary
• Take advantage of the courses sequence in the
  program
• Facilitate coordination between courses
  (communication between faculty)

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THE BASIC IDEA OF CDIO
SYSTEMATIC INTEGRATION
Year 1
Introductory course
Mathematics I
Physics
Numerical Methods
Mechanics I
Mathematics II
Year 2
Solid Mechanics
Product development
Mechanics II
Sound and Vibrations
Fluid mechanics
Thermodynamics
Mathematics III
Year 3
Signal analysis
Control Theory
Statistics
Electrical Eng.
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OK, lets add a lecture on group dynamics
then.Of course they learn communication in my
course, we have a written exam.
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LEVELS OF COMMITMENT

• Introduce (I)
• the topic is treated in some way in the course,
  but
• it is not assessed, and
• probably not mentioned in the course objectives.
• Teach (T)
• there is an explicit course objective,
• and it is part of a compulsory activity,
• students get to apply and get feedback on their
  performance (usually in assessment).
• Utilize (U)
• it is applied in a compulsory activity, but
• mainly to achieve or assess other objectives in
  the course.

Taking responsibility means this!
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CONSTRUCTIVE ALIGNMENT - A MODEL FOR COURSE
DEVELOPMENT
What should the student be able to do as a result
of the course?
John Biggs 1999
What work should the students do, to reach the
objectives?
What should the students do, to demonstrate that
they reached the objectives?
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DESIGN-BUILD COURSE
Integrating several engineering competencies in a
project course...
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DESIGN-BUILD PROJECT (EXAMPLES)
Solar-driven aircraft, KTH
Nano satellites, MIT
Walking robot, LiU
Formula Student, Chalmers
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A project course is a framework for students to
build things
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AT KTH NEW PROJECTS EVERY YEAR...
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BUT ALWAYS THE SAME LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• After the course the participant is expected to
  be able to
• work in a project setting in a way that
  effectively utilises the knowledge and efforts of
  the group members
• explain mechanisms behind progress and
  difficulties in such a setting
• communicate engineering orally, in writing and
  graphically
• analyse technical problems from a holistic point
  of view
• handle technical problems which are incompletely
  stated and subjects to multiple constraints
• develop strategies for systematic choice and use
  of available engineering methods and tools
• make estimations and appreciate their value and
  limitations
• pursue own ideas and realise them practically
• make decisions based on acquired knowledge
• assess quality of own work and work by others

They enter as students and leave the course as
engineers!
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The CDIO implementation process
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Starting point I Validation

• What competencies (in the CDIO Syllabus) should
  be prioritized in this program?
• Validate plans with all stakeholders
• This was made through surveys to alumni,
  students, industry
• Comparisons with accreditation / regulations etc
• Discussions in faculty

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Survey data KTH
Benchmarking Engineering Curricula with the CDIO
Syllabus. Bankel et al. (2005)The International
Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 21 No. 1,
2005.
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Starting point II Existing curriculum

• What competences (in the CDIO Syllabus) are
  already addressed in our courses?
• The existing curriculum was benchmarked against
  the CDIO Syllabus
• This was made through interviews with every
  faculty member responsible for a course in the
  program

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Plan for systematic integration
Development routes (schematic)
Year 1
Introductory course
Mathematics I
Physics
Numerical Methods
Mechanics I
Mathematics II
Year 2
Solid Mechanics
Product development
Mechanics II
Sound and Vibrations
Fluid mechanics
Thermodynamics
Mathematics III
Year 3
Signal analysis
Control Theory
Statistics
Electrical Eng.
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BARRIERS WHY AND HOW

• Integrating competencies doesnt make sense
  unless we see them as engineering competencies
• Integrating competencies still doesnt
  happenunless we see how it can be done

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Course development phase

• 1. Create new courses or retask existing ones
• build on existing strengths (consolidate
  develop existing learning activities)
• work with faculty who are willing able
• invite proposals rather than give orders
• 2. Supporting the development
• increase number of credits for new
  responsibilities?
• allocate resources for course development, give
  individual support
• allocate resources for faculty development
  individual support, workshops etc
• Remember that we are developing the people as
  much as we are developing the programme

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INTEGRATED CURRICULUM - SAMPLE

• VEHICLE ENGINEERING KTH
• Table of contents
• Introduction
• Program goals
• Engineering skills (CDIO Syllabus to second level
  of detail and associated expected proficiencies)
• Program structure
• Program plan
• Explicit disciplinary links between courses
• Program design matrix
• Sequences for selected engineering skills
• All courses in program
• Intended learning outcomes
• Contribution to engineering skills

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Black box coordination exercise
OUTPUT
INPUT Previous knowledge and skills
Input to later course i
Input to later course ii
Course (here black box)
Input to later course iiietc.
Final competence

• All courses in the program are presented through
  their input-output only
• The black box approach enables efficient
  discussions
• Makes connections visible (as well as lack
  thereof !)
• Serves as a basis for improving coordination
  between courses
• Helps faculty learn about the program as a whole

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Process overview
1b. Benchmarking of existing courses (interviews)
1a. Validation with stakeholders
2. Mapping of CDIO competences to existing and
new courses
3. Course development
4. Fine-tune coordination
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Results of 7 years of CDIO
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Effects on different levels
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The 2005 national evaluation of all engineering
programs

• The National Agency for Higher Education used the
  CDIO Standards as a framework for the evaluation.
• The final report was extremely favourable for the
  programs that had implemented CDIO.
• CDIO occurs 66 times in the 270 page report.

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2007 and 2008 networks for educational
development

• Bids were made for nationally funded networks for
  educational development.
• CDIO was chosen as the framework for the
  engineering education network.

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2008 national prizes

• The National Agency for Higher education awarded
  5 national prizes
• 2 of them went to CDIO programs (KTH Linköping)
• We think there will be a CDIO winner also in 2009
  -)

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Effects on different levels
1. Engineering education in Sweden
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Out of 15 programmes at KTH

• Vehicle Engineering is now a CDIO programme in
  steady state.
• 3 programmes have been thoroughly overhauled with
  a CDIO light approach
• Mechanical Eng.
• Product Design Development Eng.
• Materials Eng.
• 5 other programmes have been inspired and done
  parts of the CDIO development.

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Also the educational development unit reshaped
itself around CDIO

• Our unit is (more) legitimate and aligned with
  engineering faculty
• The staff development course (7,5 ECTS credits)
  has been made over to address CDIO-style course
  development
• 300 staff have now completed the course. And
  counting...

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Limitations

• Success is created through successful
  implementation, it is not inherent in a method

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Begin with the end in mind

• We planned for steady state from the very
  beginning
• Strategies
• The trick is to make the permanent organization
  able to carry on by themselves
• It was never seen as a project with limited life
• Making it pervasive this is just the way we do
  things around here nowadays...

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Learning dimension

• It turned out at KTH that the CDIO project was
  actually developing people as much as it was
  developing programs.

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• If you want to learn about a system, try to
  change it (after Le Chateliers principle)