PUTTING THE ‘TECH’ BACK INTO TEACHING TECHNICAL FUNDAMENTALS – UTILISING THE CDIO APPROACH

The integration of practical skills with engineering theory are the foundation of the CDIO approach. However, challenges lie in rolling this out effectively in a university setting to large cohorts of students. This paper sets out to address how these challenges can be reduced to achieve CDIO standards 7, 9 & 10. Advancement of integrated learning experiences and enhancement of faculty competence and teaching competence requires input from staff members with extensive practical experience. As the changing landscape of engineering education moved towards prioritising an education based on maths, science and theory came at the cost of the fundamentals of practice. In addition, this caused a shift in the university faculty to a staff of academics with mostly research backgrounds and little industry experience. Academics who want to incorporate more CDIO elements to their modules must consider the practicalities of providing large numbers of students with safe and beneficial practical learning environments. This is where technical staff can bridge the gap in staff numbers and expertise. Technical staff possess the know-how and expertise of the skills being taught, alongside the health and safety awareness to get students involved in a safe and supportive way. While it is often argued that technical staff do not have any recognised teaching qualifications, the reality is that in the process of designing, developing and delivering practical workshops for large cohorts of students, technical staff are in effect undergoing teacher training through the very delivery of these modules in collaboration with academic staff. If this is viewed in a CDIO learning context as illustrated in this paper, the true potential of technical staff as educators could be realised. This could provide engineering faculties with more experienced, trained staff and serve to increase their compliance with CDIO Standards 7, 9 & 10.