Moving from Pedagogy to Andragogy in Biomedical Engineering Design: Strategies for Lab-at-Home and Distance Learning
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Biomedical Engineering Education (Ó 2020) https://doi.org/10.1007/s43683-020-00043-8
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Moving from Pedagogy to Andragogy in Biomedical Engineering Design: Strategies for Lab-at-Home and Distance Learning PHILIPP GUTRUF ,1 URS UTZINGER ,2 and VIGNESH SUBBIAN
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Department of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, BIO5 Institute, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA; 2Department of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, BIO5 Institute, and College of Optical Sciences, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA; and 3Department of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Systems & Industrial Engineering, BIO5 Institute, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA (Received 30 June 2020; accepted 16 November 2020)
Abstract—Engineering design courses are particularly challenging to deliver in online or distance modalities because of the hands-on, collaborative nature of the design process and the need for physical resources and work spaces. In this work, we describe how we rapidly transformed two design courses in the middle two years of the biomedical engineering (BME) program to an online format during the 2019 coronavirus pandemic. In addition to time and safety constraints, we identified access to design spaces with biochemistry, computing, electronic, computing, and manufacturing tools, and team-based learning as major challenges to distance learning in BME design courses. To this end, we mapped and translated various course and design activities to an online environment using a combination of customized athome laboratory kits and distributed team structures. Drawing upon our pilot experience as well as principles from online and adult learning theories, we offer an overview of strategies to retain hands-on and team-based activities and rapidly implement BME design courses in online or distance modalities. Keywords—Distance learning, Engineering design, Online education, Virtual teams.
Address correspondence to Vignesh Subbian, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Systems & Industrial Engineering, BIO5 Institute, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA. Electronic mail: [email protected] Philipp Gutruf and Urs Utzinger are Joint First Authors.
CHALLENGE STATEMENT Design is inherently a crucial and distinguishing engineering activity.3,5 It characterizes how engineers think and what they do: engineers ‘‘scope, generate, evaluate, and realize ideas’’.9 Accordingly, engineering design education emphasizes (a) the ability to define problems through an iterative inquiry process; (b) recognize the systems context (i.e., systems thinking and systems design); (c) reason about and address uncertainties, (d) make design decisions, (e) function effectively as a part of team, and (f) communicate in multiple languages of design, including verbal, textual, graphical, computer-aided, and mathematical representations.4 While the majority of these skills m
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