Teaching Undergraduate Students to Think Like Real-World Systems Engineers: A Technology-Based Hybrid Learning Approach

TL;DR

This paper presents a hybrid teaching approach combining Project Based Learning and Team Based Learning to enhance undergraduate engineering students' real-world systems thinking and collaborative skills, with positive survey and grade outcomes.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hybrid teaching method for engineering education that effectively integrates real-world problems and collaborative learning, demonstrated over five years.

Findings

64% of students felt it broadened their design perspective

84% found the module valuable for their degree

Improved integration of control, image processing, and embedded systems skills

Abstract

A hybrid teaching approach that relied on combining Project Based Learning with Team Based Learning was trialled in an engineering module during the past five years. Our motivation was to expose students to real-world authentic engineering problems and to steer them away from the classical 'banking' approach, with a view to developing their systems engineering skills via deeper and more collaborative learning. Our third year module was called Team Design and Project Skills and was concerned with 320 students dividing themselves in teams to develop a smart electronic system. We reveal module design details and discuss the effectiveness of our teaching approach via analysis of student grades during the past five years, as well as data from surveys that were completed by 68 students. 64% of surveyed students agreed that the module helped broaden their perspective in electronic systems design. Moreover, 84% recognised that this module was a valuable component in their degree programme. Adopting this approach in an engineering curriculum enabled students to integrate knowledge in areas that included control systems, image processing, embedded systems, sensors, as well as team working, decision making, trouble shooting and project planning.