The field of biomedical engineering (BME) is progressing rapidly into new areas, demanding the BME students to develop multidisciplinary skills, knowledge and a possibility for life-long learning. Changing the educational arena from teacher-centered to studentcentered-learning is a challenge in the BME domain. CDIO (Conceive Design Implement Operate) design-build courses, starting at the freshman year, makes laboratory and research environment enhance student-centered-learning resulting in communicative skills and teamwork. BME specialization, student-centered-learning and design-build experiences are introduced as an integrative part during the third and fourth academic year. Student-centeredlearning is often recognized as a situation where the learning possibilities are relevant to the students and where the students themselves determine the short-term goals. The expert or authority teaching has to be replaced by mentorship and facilitators. This is recognized in design-build courses. BME cases without a known solution can be treated and solved through integrative thinking and problem identification. The cognitive tasks require the acquisition and synthesis of information. It prepares students to participate in research laboratories as undergraduates and it prepares them for time-constrained problem-solving in the real world. For research studies and developments in working life, skills including dynamic group processes and awareness of the affective domain are necessary.
BME education has three years experience of design-build courses from the freshman to the last academic year. Directives for the projects are based on clinical settings or demands engaging students to solve real world problems. Interaction with real customers or experts in the field encourages, stimulate and enhance all parts of the CDIO framework. To get a prosperous and successful work throughout the project cycle the project teams as we believe should be built on heterogeneous skill, age and gender, the affective domain all harmonized using a team contract. Project groups have also been enrolled with exchange students creating international groups. Feedback of the group process is given throughout the design-build project but especially after completion. Theoretical parts supplement the project and the group both in-depth but also to focus and harmonize the group towards the designbuild project outcome. Experts working in the field validate and test the project. Assessment is conformant to a student-centered-learning process as an integrative part of the course. Development of assessment protocols and strategies as an integrative part of the learning process must be stimulated and emphasized.
2nd International CDIO Conference, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden, 13 – 14 June 2006