A Qualitative Study of a Course Trilogy in Biosystems Engineering Design

Journal of Engineering Education, Jul 2005 by Friesen, Marcia, Taylor, K Lynn, Britton, M G (Ron)

ABSTRACT

Engineering design encompasses professional competencies that complement a solid understanding of engineering science fundamentals, theories, and methods. Engineering schools are increasing their efforts to integrate design into the curriculum, and this paper critically analyses one initiative at a research-intensive Canadian university, where a three-course sequence (Design Trilogy) forms the design education backbone in the undergraduate Biosystems Engineering program. Data collection consisted of focus groups with students and one-on-one interviews with instructors and industry cooperators. The findings yielded authentic understandings of teaching and learning engineering design, many areas of common perceptions between participant groups, congruence with design concepts in the literature, and areas where students' perceptions and experiences did not correspond to instructors' intentions. Teaching implications include the importance of instructors' transparency and integration in teaching and the need to explicitly prepare students for a different kind of learning experience in the Design Trilogy.

Keywords: design, qualitative research, course trilogy

I. INTRODUCTION

Like other professions, engineering faces the challenge of preparing graduates for professional practice through an undergraduate curriculum framed largely on theory and analysis [1, 2]. In the engineering education context, "design" has become a catchword for many of the professional competencies that complement a solid understanding of engineering science fundamentals and engineering theories and methods [3, 4]. Used in this sense, design has been described as the creative, open-ended, and experiential components that characterize problem-solving. It includes skills that engineering employers identify as critical to successful engineering practice: the design process, practical skills, and skills of communication, team orientation, cultural awareness, and leadership [5-7].

Calls to integrate design into the undergraduate engineering curriculum come from industry and are written into program accreditation requirements in Canada and the United States [2, 4, 8]. Funding agencies in both countries fund design research and the development of design curricula. In Canada, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Chairs in Engineering Design are the most visible of such initiatives [9, 10]. Individual engineering schools are also re-examining their undergraduate curriculum and experimenting with ways to increase students' exposure to design and to better integrate design elements into current curricula.

To support the design curriculum development process in one Canadian university, an investigation was undertaken to examine the teaching and learning experiences and perceptions of students, faculty, and industry participants involved in three design courses [7]. This paper is based on a cross-sectional, qualitative study that critically analyzes a sequence of three courses called the Design Trilogy (DT) that forms the design education backbone in an undergraduate Biosystems Engineering program. The 2002-2003 study examined students', instructors', and industry cooperators' views of design concepts, critical goals for design education, effective teaching and learning strategies in design education, student learning outcomes in the DT, and strengths and challenges of the DT model in order to develop an understanding of participants' experiences in the courses.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature contains numerous descriptions of individual design courses in undergraduate engineering programs, in which design education is facilitated by some combination of small-scale projects, full-scale projects, case studies, competitions, and design exercises that range from reverse engineering, re-designs, and new designs [11, 12]. Less is written about design education models in which multiple courses are brought together to provide a design focus in the curriculum. Multi-course models that are described may be profiled on a continuum of lesser to greater integration between courses, and include:

* models that treat design in incremental approaches, with students exposed to different tasks of increasing complexity across the curriculum [13];

* models that use a variety of approaches, combining a single design project in second and third year, a year long group project in fourth year, and individual design projects in fourth year [14];

* models that emphasize vertical and/or horizontal integration of design education in selected courses [15-17]; and

* a four-year curriculum project that threads one common comprehensive design theme and design project through all courses in a program [18].

Some models of design education are built around industry involvement, in which industry partners provide projects that students work on over one or more years in the curriculum [19-21]. Other models are built around interdisciplinary integration, in which engineering and design courses are partnered with other engineering disciplines and/or communication, management, architecture, science, and art courses [21-24]. Overriding themes in the literature include a focus on design projects with meaningful buy-in potential, collaborative teamwork, industry collaboration, multi-disciplinary elements, communication elements, and leadership experiences [7]. However, the unique concept of a course trilogy was not specifically identified in the literature review.