One of the challenges in modern engineering education is the demand for teaching of high quality where the subject is presented in an interesting and engaging way. By integrating and involving the students in the teaching process, the learning can be increased. At the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), the CDIO approach was started in the autumn of 2008 in the process of reforming the engineering education in order to educate the students to become more effective engineers. One of the goals is to effectively implement CDIO practices and reduce time for implementation. One of the ways to do this is to evaluate the students’ view on the CDIO learning environment.
In order to get a high response rate from the students, it was decided to make the first student evaluation of the CDIO learning environment as a two page inquiry form with 16 questions on the front page and possibilities for individual comments on the reverse side of the page. In addition to the paper inquiry form there was the traditional electronic inquiry at the CampusNet. The two forms show significant difference in response rate since the paper inquiry form gave a response rate of 84% (=100% of all students attending the presentation day) compared to only 45% at the electronic inquiry at the CampusNet – giving the paper inquiry form a far more representative value.
Altogether, this material has given the CDIO staff very good material for the evaluation of the CDIO Design Build course and input for improvement and effective practices. In general the results show a very high satisfaction with the Design Build course and the students like the practical approach in the CDIO concept. The students are very committed and the course motivates them for added interest in studying constructional engineering.