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
Assessment
individual
portfolio
individual
interview
individual
poster
group
poster
assessment
group
report
group
presentation
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 timescales!)
• 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!