Integrating Business Skills in Engineering Education: Enhancing Learning Using a CDIO Approach

T. Mejtoft (2016). Integrating Business Skills in Engineering Education: Enhancing Learning Using a CDIO Approach. 11.

2016 12th International CDIO Conference, Turku UAS, Finland

Statistics show that in Sweden students applying for higher education programs clearly tend to choose study programs that lead to degrees with a close connection to a certain profession, such as an engineering degree (UHR, 2014). Since these study programs have such close connection to the profession it is important not only to discuss the knowledge that the students acquire in the field of study, but all skills needed by the students to cope with their future profession. Multifaceted skills are, in general, desired by the industry (Mechefske, 2005).. Many of Umeå University’s engineering education programs are based on CDIO (Crawley, 2007), thus the students should have knowledge and skills in all parts of the product's life cycle. This involves, for example, identifying needs, planning the development process, develop, production, maintenance and marketing products. This project seeks to respond to the need to give students skills within the Extended CDIO Syllabus 2.0 regarding integration of business skills in engineering education. Thus, the purpose of this article is to discuss and raise interest in issues related to the role of the engineer as part of the development of society. The article presents results from two courses in business models in which students' knowledge of business thinking are integrated with a technical development project. The results are based on evaluations, student questionnaires and student interviews during 2013-2015.

The results show that introducing cross-disciplinary courses that focus on business development in engineering education changes the view on the development process. Students express this as the course “gives a clearer picture of how the technology is supposed to be applied and other aspects such as usability, cost, design etc… than just merely make the technology work” and “it is important to think about how other people experience products and how important the perceived value of a product is”. Furthermore there are both positive aspects on these courses as well as problematic areas to deal with. The greatest benefits concern the change in thinking that students gain through a user-centric focus on development: “I have become better to understand how others think. To create the best value proposition you have to put yourself in another person’s thoughts”, the business thinking: “I have become better to connect what I do to profitability, that what we develop should be economically viable”, as well as the opportunity to nurture entrepreneurial behavior: "I got much insight and knowledge of how it would be to start my own business". The benefits of a broader approach to technology, which more tangibly connect to students’ future professional roles as developers, clearly are stressed by a majority of students in the course. Most disadvantages involved that a focus on the needs and business opportunities are “obstructing in terms of the technological development”, since not all focus is on technology.

Furthermore the results of the paper discusses the need of focusing the choices that the students do in different courses to integrate a clearer focus on value creation.

Proceedings of the 12th International CDIO Conference, Turku, Finland, June 12-16 2016

Authors (New):

Thomas Mejtoft

Pages:

Affiliations:

Umeå University, Sweden

Keywords:

integrated learning experiences

Interdisciplinary courses

CDIO Standard 1

CDIO Standard 2

CDIO Standard 3

CDIO Standard 5

CDIO Standard 7

CDIO Standard 8

CDIO Standard 9

Year:

2016

Reference:

Aleamoni, L. M., & Hexner, P. Z. (1980). A review of the research on student evaluation and a report on the effect of different sets of instructions on student course and instructor evaluation. Instructional Science, 9(1), 67-84.:

Bacon, D. R., Stewart, K. A., & Silver, W. A. (1999). Lessons from the best and worst student team experiences. Journal of Management Education, 23(5), 467-488.:

Cardozo, R. N., Durfee, W. K., Ardichvili, A., Adams, C., Erdman, A. G., Hoey, M., Iaizzo, P. A., Mallick, D. N., Bar-Cohen, A., Beachy, R., & Johnson, A. (2002). Perspective: Experiential education in new product design and business development. The Journal of Product Innovation Management, 19(1), 4-17.:

Chapman, K. J., Meuter, M., Toy, D., & Wright, L. (2006). Can’t we pick our own groups?. Journal of Management Education, 30(4), 557-569.:

Crawley, E. F., Malmqvist, J., Lucas, W. A., & Brodeur, D. R. (2011). The CDIO syllabus v2.0. Proceedings of the 7th International CDIO Conference, Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen.:

Crawley, E. F., Malmqvist, J., Östlund, S., & Brodeur, D. R. (2007). Rethinking engineering education: The CDIO approach. Springer.:

De Graaff, E., & Kolmos, A. (2003) Characteristics of problem-based learning. International Journal of Engineering Education, 19(5), 657-662.:

Elmgren, M., & Henriksson, A-S. (2010). Universitetspedagogik. Norstedts.:

Fontana, A., & Frey, J. H. (2005). The interview. In N. K. Denzin, & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The Sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed.) (pp. 695-727). Sage Publications.:

Fowler, F. J. (2014). Survey research methods (5th ed.). Sage Publications. :

Gillham, B. (2000). Case study research methods. Continuum.:

Malmqvist, J., Young, P. Y., Hallström, S., & Kuttenkeuler, J. (2004). Lessons learned from designbuild-test-based project courses. In D. Marjanovic (ed.), Proceedings of the 8th International Design Conference (pp. 665-672). The Design Society:

Mechefske, C. K., Wyss, U. P., Surgenor, B. W., & Kubrick, N. (2005). Alumni/ae surveys as tools for directing change in engineering curriculum. Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association.:

Mejtoft, S., & Berglund, S. (2015). Project management - An environment for increased personal and interpersonal skills. In Proceedings of the 11th International CDIO Conference. Chengdu University of Information Technology.:

Mejtoft, T. (2015). Industry based projects and cases: A CDIO approach to students' learning. In Proceedings of the 11th International CDIO Conference. Chengdu University of Information Technology.:

Mills, J. E., & Treagust, D. F. (2003). Engineering education - Is problem-based or project based learning the answer? Australasian Journal of Engineering Education, 3(2), 2-15.:

Schwieler, E. (2007). Anställningsbarhet: Begrepp, principer och premisser. UPC-rapport 2007:2. Stockholms universitet.:

Stake, R. E. (2005). Qualitative case studies. In N. K. Denzin, & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The Sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed.) (pp. 695-727). Sage Publications.:

Svensson, L. (1997). Skill in learning and organising knowledge. In F. Marton, D. Hounsell, & N. Entwistle (Eds.), The experience of learning (2nd ed.). Scottish Academic Press.:

Turner, J., & Paris, S. G. (1995). How literacy tasks influence children's motivation for literacy. The Reading Teacher, 48(8), 662-673.:

UHR. (2014). Antagning till högre utbildning höstterminen 2014. Retrieved from https://www.uhr.se/globalassets/_uhr.se/studier-och-antagning/antagningsstatistik/2013- 2014/rapport_statistik-i-samband-med-sista-anmalningsdag-ht-2014.pdf:

Vest, C. M. (2007). Educating engineers for 2020 and beyond. In E. F. Crawley, J. Malmqvist, S. Östlund, & D. R. Brodeur (Eds.), Rethinking engineering education: The CDIO approach (pp. xiii-xiv). Springer.:

Yin, R. K. (1994). Case study research: Design and methods (2nd ed.). Sage Publications.:

Ying, L., Yan, Z., & Tong, L. (2010). Strategies for promoting better interaction between higher education and IT industry. 2010 International Conference on E-Business and E-Government (ICEE), 5520-5522.:

on August 1, 2016 - 04:50 MAndersson

Integrating Business Skills in Engineering Education: Enhancing Learning Using a CDIO Approach

Navigation

Integrating Business Skills in Engineering Education: Enhancing Learning Using a CDIO Approach

Share this content.