Designing a Hybrid Engineering Course combining Case-Based and Lecture-Based Teaching.

Abstract

Traditional engineering and business school courses have different pedagogical emphases. Engineering courses are perceived as technical, dense and require students to provide definitive 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- and out-of-the-classroom teamwork, thinking in groups and problem solving. In business school 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 however challenging. We tackled this challenge by designing the semester-long "Introduction to Nanobiotechnology and Nanobioscience" course for senior undergraduate and first year graduate students as a hybrid class. Our objective was to design an engineering course of standard length, which incorporates key elements of the business schools' case study approach to learning while retaining essential elements of the traditional engineering education.