Applying narrative to the delivery of the ill-defined domain of manufacturing systems to undergraduate students

Abstract

The use of narrative is common in many liberal art, medicine, law and education courses but not, a literature review suggests, in engineering. This paper outlines the benefits that narrative was found to bring to the delivery of engineering undergraduate courses in ill-defined domains. The narrative rich learning intervention described in this paper was designed to increase levels of student engagement, motivation, and ability to accept the validity of non-optimal solutions to indeterminate engineering problems. The outcomes were qualitatively evaluated using student feedback from questionnaires and personal interview supplemented with researcher observations. The results indicated that the intervention was successful in raising levels of student engagement with the course material (Manufacturing Systems) and students' motivation to complete assignments, with an additional benefit of increasing students' appreciation of the interconnections between the various topics covered in the course.