WHERE WE STAND ON THE CDIO INITIATIVE

1
WHERE WE STAND ON THE CDIO INITIATIVE

• We have defined high level goals
• We have developed detailed learning objectives
• We have piloted many approaches to meeting the
• objectives and learning goals
• We have built the laboratory, assembled the team,
  and raised the necessary resources
• Now is the time to design the CDIO education

It is vital to involve the whole faculty in this
process, in order to tap all possible good ideas
and resources, and to develop consensus and
ownership.
2
GOALS OF CDIO PROGRAM

• to educate students to master a deep working
  knowledge of the technical fundamentals
• to educate engineers to lead in the creation and
  operation of new products and systems
• to educate future researchers to understand the
  importance and strategic value of their work

3
FUNDAMENTAL TENSION IN THE DESIGN

• If learning of fundamentals and learning of CDIO
  skills are both viewed as requiring the same type
  of time and resources for the delivery of
  information, they are in direct conflict for the
  scarcest resource student time.
• What are possible approaches to resolving this
  fundamental tension???

4
STRETCH GOAL FOR DESIGN EXERCISE

• Create a plan which causes the student to learn
  the skills of the CDIO syllabus effectively and
  within student time resources, while improving
  the learning of the technical fundamentals?

5
CONCEPTUAL APPROACHES

• The increased use of more "commodity learning
  materials to free faculty and student time for
  the learning of higher cognitive knowledge,
  psychomotor skills, and affective values
• The shifting for the responsibility for learning
  from the professor to the students.
• The transition of the organization of learning
  from a command or push system of education to
  more of a market or pull system.

6
THREE SCENARIOS FOR PLANNING
commodity
B
l
0 A organization
l
responsibility
C
l

• Scenario A - Intelligent overlay overlays the
  CDIO education over the disciplinary education
  in an intelligent manner, making maximal use
  of (potentially required) projects and
  internships.
• Scenario B -Maximum educational commodity
  utilization maximum of commodity
  materials for technical knowledge and
  application, making more contact time
  available learning of higher cognitive,
  hands-on skills and effective values.
• Learning community The extreme ends of the
  spectrum of student responsibility for
  learning and market organization are combined
  in the framework of the learning community. The
  community makes maximum use of more senior
  learners to educate students.

7
OTHER STRUCTURAL DIFFERENTIATORS

• Temporal characteristics, how time is used and
  broken up
• Assurance how we will assure the students are
  exposed to the material
• Assessment how we will evaluate the students
  level of competence
• The organization of the core
• Linkages among professional subjects
• The organization of the capstone
• Involvement of industry
• Use of organizing projects or themes
• Process for coaching and advising students

8
DESIGN EFFORT

• We will form teams based on the three scenarios
  (or four if enough attendees)
• Each team is chartered with devising a plan that
  drives its scenario to the appropriate extreme,
  but within the bounds of credibility (e.g.
  educational technology)
• "Overlay" as close as possible to current model
• "Commodity" to use as much a commodity as
  possible
• "Community" to rely as much as possible on
  student responsibility and a - "pull"
  organization
• Each team should design the CDIO education within
  scope of exercise, and make intelligent choices
  of the other structural differentiators
• Teams should construct a proposal according to
  suggested format
• Teams will present their design to whole
  community
• We will all critique, assess, and synthesize
  proposals

9
SCOPE OF DESIGN EFFORT

• The following are fixed, to first order
• the content of the fundamental disciplinary
  learning (CDIO Syllabus item 1)
• the structure of the core professional subjects
  capstone-
• the content of CDIO learning (CDIO Syllabus
  items 2-4)
• The following are free parameters for design
• all of the time the students spend learning
  (including dept program, extra curricular IAP,
  projects, UROP, and summers)
• how we teach and how the students learn
• the structure of the CDIO learning (where things
  are learned)

10
EVALUATION CRITERIA FOR THE SCENARIOS

• G1. Improvement in developing a deep working
  knowledge of the technical fundamentals?
• G2. Learning of the CDIO Syllabus (2-4) skills
  and attributes?
• G3. Doable within the student time resources
  available to the department?
• G4. Effective in use of faculty time (student
  learning/faculty time)?
• G5. Incorporate a system of assessment?
• G6. Produce students with a positive sense of
  self worth and positive outlook on their
  education?
• G7. Work toward building a community at MIT (in
  the sense of the Task Force on Student Lifelong
  Learning)?
• G8. Foster creativity in our students?
• G9. Allow flexibility in student schedules?
• G10.Within MIT guidelines (Policies and
  Procedures, Rules of the Faculty, etc)?

11
OVERALL PLAN FOR DESIGN EXERCISE

• Preparation by CDIO working group, and system
  design team
• This discussion, to set approach and expectations
• Your review of briefing materials, and indication
  of what team you want to be on (by May 8)
• Assignment to a team, your study of the briefing
  materials, and some minor amount of discussion
  within the teams prior to first workshop
• First workshop (May 19), with some review of
  curricular, teaching and learning and assessment
  pilots, and a lot of time for discussion and
  planning
• Work on the plans between workshops
• Second workshop (May 30), with presentation of
  the three plans, evaluation by all, discussion
  and a first attempt at synthesis.
• Follow up by working group and system design team
  to produce a working draft of the design.