Board 33: Work in Progress: A Hybrid Engineering Course Combining Case-based and Lecture-based Teaching
- Conference
- Location
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Salt Lake City, Utah
- Publication Date
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June 23, 2018
- Start Date
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June 23, 2018
- End Date
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July 27, 2018
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Biomedical Engineering
- Page Count
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4
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--30011
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/30011
- Download Count
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400
Paper Authors
Neda Melanie Bassir Kazeruni Columbia University
Neda Bassir Kazeruni received her bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from ENSTA ParisTech, France, in 2012, an MSc in Bioengineering from Imperial College London, United Kingdom, in 2013, and an MSc in Systems Production and Management from ENSTA ParisTech, France, in 2014.
She is currently pursuing her PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University where her research interests include nanobiotechnology, the study of wear and fatigue at the nanoscale, as well as education.
Henry Hess Columbia University
Henry Hess received the Dr.rer.nat. in Physics from the Free University Berlin, Germany, in 1999.
He is currently a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University, New York, a member of the External Advisory Board of Nano Letters since 2010, and serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on NanoBioscience since 2014.
Abstract
Traditional engineering and business school courses have different pedagogical emphases. Engineering courses are perceived as technical, dense and require students to provide definitive, black or white answers to problems. On the other hand, business school courses aim to increase students’ knowledge by confronting them with real-world cases and by encouraging both in-class and out-of-the-classroom teamwork, group thinking and problem solving. In such courses, the teaching is directed towards the thought process rather than the final answer itself. These two approaches to learning are both valuable and give the opportunity to develop complementary skills. Combining both approaches in a single course is challenging and has not been implemented yet. Our objective was to tackle this challenge by designing an engineering course that would incorporate key elements of business schools’ case study classes, while essential elements of the traditional engineering approach to learning, as well as the class-time, would remain untouched. In collaboration with Columbia University’s Center for Teaching and Learning, we designed the semester-long “Introduction to Nanobiotechnology and Nanobioscience” course for senior undergraduate and first year graduate students as a hybrid class, where case studies and case histories were making up more than half of the course’s class time. Lecture classes were included, but they were partially recorded and watched outside of the classroom in order to open up time for in-class discussion and teamwork. As a result, students were more involved in the learning process, and they were more engaged and active both in and outside of the classroom. As a result, the course was able to both address a broader range of learning objectives and deepen the students’ learning.
Bassir Kazeruni, N. M., & Hess, H. (2018, June), Board 33: Work in Progress: A Hybrid Engineering Course Combining Case-based and Lecture-based Teaching Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--30011
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