Integration of topics such as entrepreneurship and leadership within CDIO-based engineering education is a challenging task for teachers, program leaders and coordinators. At the division for Project, Innovation and Entrepreneurship we give courses in entrepreneurship and new venture development, innovation, organization, leadership and project management. Our courses are included in most of the engineering programmes given at Linköping University, either as mandatory or elective, and engage about 1700 students on an annual basis. Today, we have more than ten years of experience in designing our courses with inclusion of a variety of learning activities. This variety is based on our apprehension that learning should be student focused and that students have varying individual learning preferences (i.e. Kolb, 1984 – reflectors, theorists, pragmatists and activists). We also argue that relevance, passion and “fun factor” enhance learning. Alongside traditional lecturing, we therefore work with sharp live cases, experiential learning exercises, flipped classrooms, and theory-based practical exercise material: - Sharp live cases: In e.g. the entrepreneurship courses the students work in groups making feasibility analyses for externally recruited active entrepreneurs and idea owners. The ideas can for example be applied research projects aiming at commercial products, independent inventor ideas, non-core development ideas from established firms. The ideas are recruited from our business networks. - Experiential learning exercises: In e.g. organization courses we use exercises where students in groups solve problems with given resources and prerequisites (e.g. “the organisation game”, “paint book factory” and “value creation forum” etc). - Flipped classroom: Students are presented with a “smorgasboard” of readings, films and downloadable exercises dedicated to the different subjects of the course. These are provided through our digital learning platform Lisam where we can make webpages for different subjects or parts in the courses. - Theory-based practical exercises: To help students utilise theories and tools we use (or develop) exercise material. This could be in case of e.g. Business model canvas, Needs-Approach-Benefits-Competition, Product/market matrix, Porter five force analysis, Pitch generators etc.
These methods are useful for CDIO-based teaching and learning within areas such as entrepreneurship and leadership where development of skills, attitudes and making sense of context are integral parts of the learning process. Exercises, cases and flipped classroom methods enable learning of a wider range of skills and the integration of thinking, feeling, perceiving and behaving within the learning experience. In this paper we describe the activities in detail, share how they are used and combined in our courses, and discuss students’ experiences.
Proceedings of the 10th International CDIO Conference, Barcelona, Spain, June 15-19 2014