“To the Boards”: Team-Based Design for Student-Centered Learning

Abstract

Engineering design is a complex subject that is often a challenge for students to learn. Heuristic-based design, design that primarily utilizes “rules of thumb” or best practices, can be even more challenging for students to learn when they do not yet have the experience to choose between competing design guidelines. Faculty of Manufacturing Engineering at Western Washington University sought to improve the students’ learning in a senior-level, undergraduate course in Design of Tooling, a heuristic-based design discipline. The faculty worked to answer the question “How can team-based active learning approaches be effectively utilized for students learning a heuristic-based design topic?” In answering this question, the faculty developed and implemented a team-based, student-centered design activity called To the Boards. This activity, where small groups of students simultaneously develop tooling designs at whiteboards around the room, has improved the students’ retention of key concepts and helped students learn to analyze and apply competing design parameters. Performing the work on white boards encourages participation by all members of the group and enriches the design evaluation experience through a collaborative analysis of the many different design solutions developed by all the groups. Use of To the Boards, in conjunction with out-of-class reading, short lectures, and five large projects, has proven to be an effective tool for engaging students in learning, helping them to evaluate and apply competing design goals in the solution of complex engineering problems, and enabling collaborative design through communication of engineering concepts using sketches. Results of this activity have been measured through student performance and student feedback. Student performance on projects demonstrated the appropriate utilization of knowledge and skills learned in class with all students performing at satisfactory or exemplary levels when evaluated against ABET learning outcomes for design. Student feedback has been largely positive with the students recognizing the value of the knowledge and tooling design skills and also of the communication and teamwork skills that are acquired through the activity.