THE NATURE OF PROGRESSION BETWEEN YEARLY PROJECT COURSES

This study focuses on the progression between courses in a programme, meaning that the learning experiences build upon and reinforce the previous ones. The idea of mutually supporting courses is a cornerstone of the integrated curriculum, and hence of the CDIO approach. However, despite much use of the term, there is a lack of work to conceptualise progression. The aim of this paper is, accordingly, to provide a richer theoretical conceptualisation of progression and to apply this in analysing the implementation in a programme. In this case, we focus specifically on the progression through a series of courses based on authentic engineering projects. Such courses, called Design-implement Experiences, are a prominent feature of the CDIO framework; Standard 5 recommends at least two project courses with progression through the curriculum. The context for the study is the 5-year Electrical Engineering programme at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. It contains a series of yearly project courses starting in the first year and ending with the master thesis project. The purpose is to support students to synthesise and consolidate their learning in previous and parallel subject courses, and to develop professional engineering skills. Here, the progression between the three first project courses is described with detailed elaboration of three themes: communication, project planning and management, and ethics. The questions guiding our investigation are: What is the nature of progression across these project courses? In particular, along what dimensions is progression planned, and how is that implemented in the course design?