Interdisciplinary Capstone Research Articles

Transformative but Not Easy: Students’ Experiences of an Interdisciplinary, Project-Based Capstone Course

In this study we explored the experiences of students who completed a project-based, interdisciplinary capstone course that was offered at a large university in Southern Ontario, Canada. To do so, we interviewed students after they completed the course, adopting a constructivist perspective and a phenomenological approach. Interview transcripts were analyzed, resulting in four themes: (1) communication, (2) group dynamics, (3) successes, (4) differences between program requirements. In addition to revealing tension between fostering student autonomy and providing students with support, our findings also demonstrate that students valued the capstone course for the knowledge and experience gained from learning to work as an interdisciplinary unit rather than the tangible output of a given project.

Facilitating epistemic fluency of undergraduate students during the interdisciplinary research process

IntroductionIn this article we show how students share knowledge when integrating disciplinary insights in an interdisciplinary research project. More specifically, this research looks at how students communicate to create a shared mental model during moderated sessions with use of CoNavigator as an interdisciplinary collaboration tool or Miro as an online mind map tool. The study focuses on the interdisciplinary capstone of the Liberal Arts and Sciences bachelor program at Utrecht University (LAS), where students collaborate in multidisciplinary groups by going through the interdisciplinary research process (IRP).This process asks students to define an interdisciplinary research question, to define disciplinary insights and combine each other’s disciplinary insights to create a more comprehensive understanding of their research question. The integration of disciplinary insights requires working with different perspectives and acknowledging uncertainty, thereby requiring epistemic fluency and higher modes of knowledge. This research looks at how a structured session with CoNavigator or Miro can help students use these processes when integrating insights.MethodsSeven groups participated in this research, with whom we moderated a session using either CoNavigator or Miro at the start of the integration phase with the purpose of sharing disciplinary insights and finding common ground. We observed each group, looking at communication related to construction, constructive conflict and co-construction. In addition, we looked at evaluation of the tool immediately after the session and the assessment of the integration chapter of all groups.ResultsWe found that each phase of the moderated session elicited different responses in terms of constructive conflict and co-construction, thereby helping students to actively work with different ways of knowing and to define and connect disciplinary differences. In their communication, students show examples of epistemic fluency and higher modes of knowledge, although this did not directly translate into a better assessment of their integration chapter.DiscussionThese results show that discussing disciplinary differences and finding common ground through a session with CoNavigator or Miro gives students a structured way to start with their interdisciplinary integration. We argue that LAS-students exhibit epistemic fluency when working with the tools, but also develop this throughout the session. It appears that the epistemic fluency students already possess prior to the IRP can be further developed by the epistemic fluency expressed by teammates during the tool session. The practice and development of epistemic fluency will always involve uncertainties, but facilitating interdisciplinary integration in this way is valuable as it provides an opportunity to work with these uncertainties and offer students space to speak and integrate freely.

Design thinking competence as self-perceived by nursing students in Taiwan: A cross-sectional study

BackgroundCompetence in design thinking plays a pivotal role when undertaking innovative problem-solving. Our knowledge on nursing students' self-perceived design thinking competence, however, is noticeably lacking, particularly in Taiwan. ObjectTo examine Taiwanese nursing students' self-perceived competence in design thinking. DesignDescriptive, cross-sectional, quantitative study. ParticipantsOne hundred and one nursing students enrolled in the interdisciplinary capstone courses, which were jointly offered to industrial design students, as part of a 4-year nursing program at a science and technology university in northern Taiwan. MethodsSelf-reported questionnaire data were collected from students, including their demographics and self-perceived competence in design thinking as measured by the Creative Synthesis Inventory and the Design Thinking Traits Questionnaire between January 2020 and January 2021. ResultsDistinctive and reliable individual differences were found in nursing students' self-perceived competence in design thinking. In addition, students perceived a significantly higher creative synthesis skill of discovery in developing an understanding of potential users and a significantly lower design thinking trait of optimism, not backing down from challenging problems. Finally, greater perceived competence in creative synthesis skills were significantly correlated with greater perceived competence in all design thinking traits, except the trait of optimism. ConclusionsResults indicated that significant individual differences exist in Taiwanese nursing students' self-perceived design thinking competence, suggesting opportunities for helping students with lower perceived competence. Overall, Taiwanese students believed themselves to be less skilled in visualization, prototyping, and evaluation as well as lacking an attribute of optimism when encountering challenging problems. Therefore, as informed by the design thinking framework, nursing schools should focus on developing strategies through training and practice to foster creative synthesis skills and designer traits in students, particularly targeting those who self-perceived as less competent and those skills and traits self-perceived as weaknesses.

An idea to explore: Interdisciplinary capstone courses in biomedical and life science education.

While biomedical and life science research have embraced interdisciplinarity as the means to solving pressing 21st century complex challenges, interdisciplinarity in undergraduate education has been more difficult to implement. As a consequence, disciplinary rather than interdisciplinary capstones have become ubiquitous. Disciplinary capstones are valuable for students because they enable them to integrate knowledge and skills within the discipline, but they are also limiting because the integration is within rather than across disciplines. In contrast to a capstone, which involves a single discipline, interdisciplinary capstones require two or more disciplines to combine and integrate across disciplinary boundaries. Interdisciplinarity, where two of more disciplines come together, is difficult to implement in the biomedical and life science curricula because student majors and finances are administered in ways, which reinforce institutional organization of schools and faculties and prevent collaboration. Here in this "idea to explore" we provide an interdisciplinary capstone model where students enroll in disciplinary courses, but then these disciplinary courses and students collaborate on interdisciplinary real-world problems. This interdisciplinary capstone model was implemented across two diverse and large biomedical and life science schools within two faculties in a research intensive, metropolitan university. This approach allows for integration of the biomedical, social and ethical perspectives required when solving problems in the real world, such as COVID-19. Interdisciplinary learning also better prepares students for higher degree research and future careers. Overcoming disciplinary curriculum silos and faculty barriers is critical if we are to meet expectations of acquiring interdisciplinarity as a key competency.

Cultivating an Authentic Culminating Experience for Adult Learners in an Interdisciplinary Studies Senior Capstone

As a concept for preparing and promoting adult student success in an undergraduate, Interdisciplinary Studies degree program with an online senior capstone, this article analyzes how the senior capstone serves as the penultimate component in the students’ degree completion. To capitalize on student success, academic advisors and faculty members initiate steps to create student buy-in and discovery of the intersection of academic interests, previous life and work experiences, and future goals. Discussions of the senior capstone begin with initial advisement and ultimately lead to the completion of their undergraduate degrees and beyond. Faculty and academic advisors must impress upon students the benefits of an interdisciplinary senior capstone and its usefulness to student endeavors after graduation. More than just a barrier to getting their diplomas, the senior capstone enables students to visualize and connect the practicalities of the interdisciplinary degree program.

NeuroStudies: A Model of an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Studies Minor.

With nationwide demand for neuroscience programs increasing, faculty and administrators at a public institution with a liberal arts curriculum sought to develop a distinctive program building on existing strengths that would best fit our primarily undergraduate population. The creation of an interdisciplinary Neuroscience Studies minor was the result of collaborations with university stakeholders. Students taking Longwood University's Neuroscience Studies minor are trained to incorporate neuroscience into their areas of interest. Students take three core courses in neuroscience, including an introductory course, laboratory course, and interdisciplinary capstone experience. Additionally, students select three neuroscience-related courses from their major discipline. To gain broad support, the program was intentionally designed to support the university's mission, academic strategic plan, and several key university initiatives. Importantly for our smaller institution, the minor was implemented using existing university faculty, university resources, and a single hire. Since starting in 2015, the minor has quickly become the third largest on campus with increasing popularity among honors students. Program graduates have applied their training to careers paths as neuroscience Ph.D. candidates, master's degrees in a range of fields such as counseling, speech pathology, nursing, education, and neuropsychology, and others have benefited upon entering the workforce. Longwood's success developing an interdisciplinary Neuroscience Studies minor represents a blueprint for smaller institutions with limited resources, to provide students with an opportunity to learn about neuroscience and prepare for the future job market.

Moderating effects of task interdependence on interaction behaviours and creativity for nursing students on interdisciplinary teams.

AimsNursing students in Taiwan often study in interdisciplinary teams that must create healthcare products. Creativity is imperative for the students’ success, but studies have not explored the relational precursors to team creativity in nursing education. Therefore, the relationship was examined between task interdependence, interaction behaviours (constructive controversy, helping behaviours and spontaneous communication) and creativity for nursing students on interdisciplinary teams in Taiwan to investigate whether high task interdependence moderates the correlations between interaction behaviours and creativity.DesignDescriptive, cross‐sectional, quantitative study.MethodsParticipants were nursing students (N = 99) attending interdisciplinary capstone courses in 2‐ or 4‐year nursing programmes at a university for science and technology in Taiwan. Self‐report questionnaires were used to collect the students’ demographics and perceptions of their teams’ task interdependence, interaction behaviours and creativity between January 2018 and January 2019. Pearson's correlation coefficient revealed variable associations. SPSS PROCESS macro displayed moderating effects.ResultsTask interdependence had significant positive correlations with all three interaction behaviours and team creativity. Each interaction behaviour also had significant positive correlations with team creativity. High task interdependence negatively moderated the relationships between team creativity and (a) constructive controversy, and (b) spontaneous communication, but not (c) helping behaviours.ConclusionThe empirically validated moderation model and study results suggest that nursing educators can foster creativity in their students by encouraging task interdependence and helping behaviours, and teaching students to build constructive controversy and spontaneous communication into their collaborative plans.ImpactIn Taiwan, nursing students must demonstrate creativity in interdisciplinary capstone courses. Their ability to do so requires them to cooperate with students in other disciplines who have unique skills or knowledge. This study provides insights into the relational factors that may improve creativity for nursing students on interdisciplinary teams.

Application of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) in an Interdisciplinary Capstone: The AISC Steel Bridge Competition

Seven West Point Cadets recently competed in the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) Steel Bridge Competition for their capstone project. West Point capstones allow cadets to demonstrate their practical, innovative, and hands-on solutions to complex problems, serving as an opportunity to demonstrate characteristics required of Army leaders. For purposes of meeting guidelines established by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), the capstone serves as a culminating major engineering design experience in at least two civil engineering contexts. It incorporates engineering standards and allows students to apply knowledge and skills from previous coursework. Historically consisting of all civil engineers, this year’s interdisciplinary Steel Bridge Team included a systems engineer major for the purposes of improved project management. As tomorrow’s leaders are asked to solve complex problems and win in an uncertain tomorrow, the need for graduates to have the skills required to organize chaos, manage risk, establish a schedule and plan, and adapt to change are more important than ever. This paper, organized by the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Process Groups of Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring and Controlling, and Closing, documents the implementation of project management principles towards the West Point Steel Bridge Team’s success and their development as future leaders.

Improving Classroom Engagement to Maximize Learning in an Interdisciplinary Dual Faculty Capstone Experience at the University of Manitoba

One of the most effective and efficient ways for an engineering program to facilitate compliance with the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) accreditation criteria is through capstone design projects and courses [2]. Currently, The University of Manitoba Faculty of Engineering has several capstone design courses; however, each is independently focused on its own respective discipline. The resulting educational experience for students, though rigorous and challenging, is maintained within the boundaries of the students’ engineering discipline, thereby neglecting to provide the opportunity for students to work with people from multiple disciplines and across different faculties. This method of education, where students work in isolation, arguably does not reflect real world engineering. Through internal focus group meetings, program representatives from the Faculty of Engineering at The University of Manitoba agree that the capstones should be more reflective of real life situations. Interdisciplinary courses are most important because they “…articulate the difference between educational problems and workplace problems” [1]. Hence, to allow “(students) persons from different disciplines to work collaboratively and are integrated to combine their knowledge to solve a problem” (sic)[4], interdisciplinary capstone courses are essential to a rounded engineering education. Furthermore, teaming with the Faculty of Architecture will provide several benefits for both facilities such as: develop lifelong learning patterns; foster cooperative and collaborative team relationships; and, allow both facilities to learn the other’s cultures and technical languages.Since 2016, The University of Manitoba has presented research papers at the Canadian Engineering and Education Association (CEEA) conferences on the development and future assessment of an interdisciplinary capstone course. These papers have shown the evolution of the course from a multidisciplinary engineering program to an interdisciplinary Engineering and Architectural dual faculty offering. The course was launched in January, 2018, and will be evaluated through the winter session and into the fall.This paper, will explore, define, and explain how the proposed new engineering/architecture interdisciplinary capstone and dual faculty course will be developed, highlight the early stages of its initiation, describe the ongoing implementation, outline how the performance of the new course will be evaluated, delve into how the new course will be improved to make it more meaningful and practical to both faculties and students, and; discover how engagement can improved student learning.

DESIGN OF A CONSISTENT INTERDISCIPLINARY AND DUAL FACULTY CAPSTONE EXPERIENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA

Abstract - One of the most effective and efficient ways for an engineering program to facilitate compliance with the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) accreditation criteria is through capstone design projects and courses, [1]. Currently, the University of Manitoba Faculty of Engineering has several capstone design courses; however, each is independently focused on its own respective discipline. The resulting educational experience for students, though rigorous and challenging, is maintained within the boundaries of the students’ engineering discipline, thereby neglecting to provide the opportunity for students to work with people from multiple disciplines and across different faculties. This style/mode of education, where students work in silos, arguably does not reflect real world engineering. Program representatives from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Manitoba agree that the capstones should be more reflective of real life situations. 
 For this paper, we were hoping to present the research results of a pilot interdisciplinary capstone that was to be launch in the winter of 2017. Unfortunately, the pilot course was not offered because of low student enrollment. So we decided to take an innovative and creative approach to the research. Since, at the University of Manitoba, the Dean of Engineering is also the Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, rather than team with an outside industry focus group, we decided to develop a holistic course with the Faculty of Architecture. The Dean supports this strategy. Interdisciplinary courses are most important because they "…articulate the difference between educational problems and workplace problems" [2]. And allow "(students) persons from different disciplines to work collaboratively and are integrated to combine their knowledge to solve a problem"[3].
 This paper explores and explains how that Engineering/Architecture Multidiscipline Capstone and Dual Faculty course will be developed, touches on the early stages of its initiation and implementation, and outlines how the success of the new course will be evaluated.

Exploring Topic Defining Patterns of Students in Interdisciplinary Capstone Design Class

Exploring Topic Defining Patterns of Students in Interdisciplinary Capstone Design Class

DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A CROSS DISCIPLINE CAPSTONE DESIGN EXPERIENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA

One of the most effective and efficient ways for an engineering program to facilitate compliance with the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) accreditation criteria is through capstone design projects and courses. Currently, the University of Manitoba Faculty of Engineering has several capstone design courses; however, each is independently focused on its own respective discipline. The resulting educational experience for students, though rigorous and challenging, is maintained within the boundaries of the students’ engineering discipline, thereby neglecting to provide the opportunity for students to work with people from multiple disciplines and across multiple fields. This style/mode of education, where students work in silos, arguably does not reflect real world engineering. Program representatives from the Faculty of Engineering agree. An interdisciplinary capstone course would provide a more rounded engineering education for students. Exposing students to other disciplines and facilitating their learning of the knowledge, skills and behaviours required to work in a multidisciplinary capacity will more effectively prepare students for the real world. Thus, to better comply with CEAB requirements and to increase the breadth and depth of students’ engineering education, an interdisciplinary capstone pilot course will be launched at the University of Manitoba.This paper explains how this multidisciplinary capstone pilot program has been developed, and touches on the early stages of its initiation and implementation.

Interdisciplinary Community-Connected Capstone Courses: A Model for Engaging Undergraduates with Public Policy

Interdisciplinary Community-Connected Capstone Courses: A Model for Engaging Undergraduates with Public Policy

A Multi-spectrum Framework for Characterizing Interdisciplinary Capstone Design Experiences

At the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) and many other engineering schools, the culminating experience prior to award of a degree is a capstone design experience. The desired outcomes for such a capstone design experience are very similar across engineering programs. Each program or discipline has freedom in how they achieve these outcomes, so long as it is a deliberate and traceable approach back to the desired outcomes. This freedom allows each discipline to tailor their capstone design experiences to those appropriate to their domains. When students are developed fully within a single discipline program that also offers their capstone, the structure promotes alignment of the student, instructor, and advisor expectations. However, as students are assigned outside of their core discipline to support other capstones, misunderstanding of how their unique skills support the capstone outcomes increases. The ability to then compare capstones beyond the top-level outcomes becomes difficult. This is the case for systems engineering (SE) majors at USAFA where they are allocated to other engineering capstones. In order to trace these distributed students’ capstones back to a common set of outcomes, a framework for understanding the full spectrum of their experiences is needed. This paper will review previous work in characterizing capstone experiences, present the method used to frame USAFA's capstones, and show a proposed a set of key characteristics and associated rubrics that will be used in future research.

Engineering Management In An Interdisciplinary Senior Design Project

AbstractInnovation in the changing undergraduate engineering curriculum mandates efficient management of interdisciplinary capstone senior design projects. This effort requires collaboration and management of students and faculty from multiple disciplines, and provides students an opportunity to learn from other engineering disciplines. In addition, this approach will i) emphasize problem solving and creative thinking skills; ii) provide students first-hand experience in generating a management plan; iii) expose students to multiple engineering disciplines, and work in diverse, multi-cultural teams; and iv) prepare students with an in-depth understanding of the interdisciplinary skills necessary for success. The senior design project (SDP) presented is based on the interdisciplinary collaboration of electrical, computer, and mechanical engineering students and faculty to design an integrated high altitude balloon system that would reach an altitude of 100,000 feet and return safely to earth. This paper presents methods by which all the above issues are addressed, results obtained over the recent years.

Bridging didactic, interdisciplinary service learning and practice in health professions education

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an integrated model of didactic, practice and interdisciplinary service learning in healthcare education, and determine the students’ perceptions on the benefits of this integration. Design/methodology/approach – A pre and post survey design was utilized to examine health professions students’ perspectives with respect to learning outcomes relevant to professional benefits of a service learning capstone. The surveys consisted of 36 items for measuring the interdisciplinary course characteristics and perceived benefits of the integrated approach. The required interdisciplinary (used interchangeably with interprofessional) course was constructed as an integrated didactic, practice interdisciplinary service learning model. The sample consisted of undergraduate students (n=53) who completed the interdisciplinary senior seminar capstone course taught by one faculty member in one of three course sections. Structural equation modeling based on partial least squares was used to analyze the significance of constructs. Students’ reflections on interdisciplinary service learning were also collected and summarized. Findings – The study demonstrated the significance of interdisciplinary course and team preparation on perceived professional benefits and positive community service learning experience. Research limitations/implications – Further studies are needed and being pursued to address practitioners’ perceptions of interdisciplinary education. To fully complete the assessment of interdisciplinary education, longitudinal studies must be pursued with graduates and their employers. A larger sample size could be used to repeat this study. Practical implications – The model employed in this study may be utilized as a component of practice education and clinical practice to address accreditation requirements, quality patient-centred care, and engaging students in valuing interprofessionalism and service. Originality/value – This study presents an integrated model of didactic, practice and interdisciplinary service learning in health professions education, and demonstrates the benefits of the model with health profession students’ perceptions of interprofessional education (IPE). This study contributes to professional learning research as the impact of IPE has been questionable due to lack of rigorous evidence.

Managing the Interdisciplinary Approach to Engineering Design

Rapid advancement in technology leading to re-structuring of undergraduate engineering curricula, necessitate interdisciplinary capstone projects as part of an engineering teaching and learning programme. Proper management of such projects requires collaboration from both students and faculty from the involved disciplines and a willingness by students to learn from, and about, engineering disciplines not theirs. It should also be the case that interdisciplinary projects will enhance and expand students' problem solving, creative thinking skills and project management skills, and attune them to working with other disciplines in their future professional careers. The case study here concerns the development of a prototype lithium-ion battery pack capable of thermal management. Collaboration is between mechanical, chemical and electrical engineering students and faculty and mathematics and computer science faculty. The paper presents suggestions and reflections on how the foregoing issues are addressed.

A study on conflicts during an interdisciplinary capstone design experience

When teams are formed there is often conflict that arises. However, not all conflict is detrimental to the final deliverables of the team. Conversely, extreme presence of conflict or the wrong type of conflict is counterproductive. We studied two types of new teams. One type of new team was composed solely of students majoring in engineering, while the second type was composed of students majoring in engineering and students majoring in management. Models were fit with a superset of variables to determine the causes of task, relational, and process conflict. Our overarching goal is to understand the factors which each of the student groups perceive to cause conflict such that we can tailor our instruction toward helping the two different groups to work together as a successful project team. Among the findings are that the variables influencing the types of conflict between the two types of students are distinct.

INTERDISCIPLINARY CAPSTONE DESIGN STREAM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO: IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

An interdisciplinary design approach is a collaborative effort involving team members from different engineering disciplines to solve a problem. An opportunity for interdisciplinary education exists in the fourth year capstone design project. Interdisciplinary capstone courses are offered at other Canadian universities but, at the University of Waterloo (UW) the co-operative undergraduate engineering program poses a logistical barrier to students interacting with students in other disciplines for capstone design projects. Currently, students can form their own interdisciplinary team but differences in course structure, project deliverables, and design terminology and method between engineering disciplines is challenging for students and instructors. An investigation into the feasibility of a new interdisciplinary capstone design course at UW is undertaken. A possible home for the interdisciplinary capstone course could be under the Chair of Design Engineering. Overall, receptivity among departments is positive but a more comprehensive analysis is required.

Moral Philosophy in a Social Scientific Age: A Proposal to Reintegrate the Undergraduate Curriculum

American higher education has been in almost perpetual crisis for several generations, with students experiencing fragmentation and loss of coherence across the curriculum. Most liberal arts colleges in the 19th century had a required senior course in “moral philosophy” to integrate the curriculum and prepare students for future leadership, but over a century ago the new science and social science disciplines ended these courses. Students now are trained in disciplinary silos, with little opportunity to integrate their studies after freshmen year general education courses. This paper proposes to reintegrate a student's undergraduate experience by having a required interdisciplinary senior capstone course, modeled on the old moral philosophy course but without its elitist and authoritarian methods. This new course would incorporate university values and the disciplines within it, in small interdisciplinary seminars designed around contemporary problems, which would provide students an opportunity to develop a moral framework for future service.