The ‘Real' Effects of Collaborative and Interdisciplinary Teaching on Your Time and Student Development

Roger Lewis

Mechanical Engineering

Outline

• Introduction• The Need for Collaborative Teaching• Mech Eng DMM Teaching Group• Interdisciplinary Collaboration (Holbeck (now

Neepsend!) Interdisciplinary Project)• Lessons Learnt/Hurdles• Student and Staff Benefits• How Can You Successfully Team-Teach?

The Need….

• Increasing student numbers….

• Reduce individual workload on modules

• Support new staff

• Use the right expertise

• Enhance not assure quality

• Broaden student experience

Design, Management and Manufacturing Teaching Group• Mech Eng split into four teaching groups

• DMM the largest – most core modules to teach – lots of students – group work etc.

• Streams of design, manufacturing and management teaching – all independent – culminate in Group Design Project in semester 6

DMM Group Evolution• We used to meet twice a year to discuss exam papers

and quality assurance but this was insufficient

• Conscious decision by the group to become a true team

• Weekly meetings between sub-groups

• Fortnightly meetings with all the members

• Days of quality assurance had gone; the days of quality enhancement had begun

What did we do?

• Looked at streams and content

• Benchmarked – UK and International

• Team building

• Made links

• Shared best practise

New Team Activities• Engineering applications (EA)

• 1st and 2nd year design modules – involvement in each other’s modules

• Group Design Project (GDP)

• and now collaboration in teaching design in the Integrated Design Skills Module

GDP in the Past…

• Organised by one academic

• No real customer; fictitious design brief

• Students were not getting the kind of experience they should be on such a critical module

• Decided to deliver the Group Design Project as a team

GDP Now…

• All DMM group contribute – 1 lecture (on their area of expertise); mentor a group

• Real customers; real design brief (Siemens, Bergman Direct, Sunrise Medical…)

• Staff time optimised

• All academic staff involved in final assessment day along with industrialists

Assessmentgroup poster

group report

group presentation

individual portfolio

individualinterview

individual poster

assessment

Case Study• Design and development of

wheelchairs and assistive technologies

• Invited guest speakers with expertise in issues related to disability and old age

• Reverse engineering sessions

• Workshop where students were able to dress up in third age suits

Interdiscplinary Collaboration – Sustainable Design Teaching

• Introduce teaching on Design for Sustainability across a number of faculties (developed in collaboration with Arup and VP)

• Introduction of the basic concepts in early years

• Building to an Interdisciplinary Group Project in years 3 or 4

RAEng Visiting Professor in Engineering Design for Sustainability Scheme• 3 year scheme (initially)

• Industrial partner Arup

• Departments involved:− Civil and Structural Engineering− Mechanical Engineering− Town and Regional Planning− Architecture− Landscape

Interdisciplinary Group Project• Civil Engineering, Architecture,

Landscape and Town and Regional Planning

• Case study site – Holbeck Urban Village (now Neepsend)

• Mixed groups work on plan to redevelop Holbeck

• Site visit• Introductory lectures – industry

experts• 3 interaction days to do work

Holbeck Urban Village

Holbeck Site

Module Assessment

• Interim assessment – site layout

• Final poster and presentation

Student Feedback• “I did enjoy learning about the other disciplines, what

they do and what they put into a project”

• “the project taught me to listen more and respect other discipline views”

• “working with students from other departments was long overdue”

• “you can sit back and look at your notes and revise for an exam, and forget about it after a month, but with this, you’ll remember it when you go into a job”

Lessons Learnt/Hurdles

• Work needed to build a collaborative team

• Champions are needed (particularly for interdisciplinary work)

• Good co-ordination required

• Rules on communication with students critical

• Teaching space hard to find….

Staff Benefits

• Feedback on teaching

• Sharing good practice (internally and between disciplines)

• Social side

• Ultimately time saved

• Contributions to the university’s LTAS and developing the ‘Sheffield graduate’

Student Benefits

• Enriched module

• Range of teaching and assessment styles

• Real world experience – industrial projects, cross-discipline working

• Real experience of pressure (very short time-scales!)

• Increased employability

How can You Successfully Team Teach?• Assess what you want do (scale!)

• Set-up regular formal and informal dialogue with colleagues

• Allow people into your modules (don’t be too possessive of your teaching)

• Look for opportunities where large scale team-teaching could be applied with real benefits:– Big modules, lots of students

– Range of course material, learning objectives, assessment methods

• Support is available

• Eng Faculty now looking at possibility of all students participating in a project!