Teaching design through international teams Hilary Grierson, Design Manufacture & Engineering Management, University of Strathclyde Peter Ball Department of Manufacturing Cranfield University

Hilary Grierson Design Manufacture & Engineering Management Peter Ball Department of Manufacturing Teaching design through international teams Why do it? Case study 1: Operations Management –Overview –Teaching module that emerged –Closing remarks Case study 2: Global Design –Overview –Findings –Closing remarks Summary

Hilary Grierson Design Manufacture & Engineering Management Peter Ball Department of Manufacturing Why do it? To reflect how operations management and design is carried out in practice To broaden student experience To learn from others

Hilary Grierson Design Manufacture & Engineering Management Peter Ball Department of Manufacturing Two case studies Operations management (Peter) –Penultimate honours year students –With Iowa State University, USA –Haggis production and sales –… learning on behaviour Global design (Hilary) –Undergraduate 5 th year students (some from ops mgt!) –With Stanford University and Olin College, USA –Design of coffee cup holder –… learning on nature & management of distributed design

Hilary Grierson Design Manufacture & Engineering Management Peter Ball Department of Manufacturing What is haggis?

Hilary Grierson Design Manufacture & Engineering Management Peter Ball Department of Manufacturing Operations management global teams To understand practice of operations management –Sharing, working across time zones, rarely meeting, etc. Collaborators –Iowa State (+ Mexico & China) –Initiated by Iowa State to introduce global teaching Teaching in parallel –Students independently taught –Collaboration on assignment –30 teams of 4 students –6 weeks student activity (3 weeks intense) –25% of module (12 modules/year) Resources –Problem Solving Learning Portal –Case data (reasonably complete!) SuppliersCustomersCustomers’ customers Suppliers’ Supplier DeliverSourceMake Sour ce Deliv er Your company Plan Deliv er Sour ce Deliv er Sour ce Make

Hilary Grierson Design Manufacture & Engineering Management Peter Ball Department of Manufacturing The model that emerged … BALL, P.D., GRIERSON, H., MIN, J., JACKMAN, J.K. & PATTERSON, P. “Working on an assignment with people you'll never meet! Case study on learning operations management in international teams”, International Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 23, No. 2.

Hilary Grierson Design Manufacture & Engineering Management Peter Ball Department of Manufacturing Case study 1 closing remarks … Students –Initially exciting –Hard work managing –Rewarding outcome Staff –Fun –Time consuming to set up first time –Need to follow the same rules given to students!!

Hilary Grierson Design Manufacture & Engineering Management Peter Ball Department of Manufacturing To understand practice of distributed design: –nature & management of distributed design and how technology can support this –prepare students with the knowledge, skills and experience to become competent members of global design teams Case study 2: Global Design Collaborators: –Stanford University, CA and Olin College, MA, USA –DIDET Project funded by JISC/NSF –Undergraduate 5 th PDE students at Strathclyde; Masters & PhD students at Stanford; Undergraduate students at Olin College

Hilary Grierson Design Manufacture & Engineering Management Peter Ball Department of Manufacturing Teaching: –Students taught independently at each institution –8 weeks: 3 weeks lectures/tutorials/case studies; 3 weeks intense project; 2 weeks reflection –10 credit class at Strathclyde (120credits/year) –Collaboration on project; design of coffee cup holder –6 teams of students (UK/Stanford and UK/Olin) –Assessment: reflective reports and examination based on project experience –Evaluation: reflective session, confidence logs, final design presentation, staff feedback Case study 2: Global Design

Hilary Grierson Design Manufacture & Engineering Management Peter Ball Department of Manufacturing Resources: –1 academic, 1 researcher; 1 learning support staff –Digital Design Laboratory –Communication, Collaboration & Information Storing technologies: ………………but free to chose their own. –Class/project resources on Learning Environment –Team homepages using wiki technology –Access to digital library containing project resources Case study 2: Global Design FlashMeeting (+ webcam)PolyCom VC LauLima Learning Environment (shared workspace & digital repository) YouTube

Hilary Grierson Design Manufacture & Engineering Management Peter Ball Department of Manufacturing Findings Teaching and Learning: –Confidence logs showed students’ development –Relating theory to practice was positive –New people and experience of different design methods and approaches –More time for team bonding; technologies; and feedback –Different expectations and assessment at each institutions caused issues

Hilary Grierson Design Manufacture & Engineering Management Peter Ball Department of Manufacturing Findings Collaboration: –Smaller teams of equal numbers of UK/USA students were more successful –Strathclyde-Olin collaboration was more successful than Strathclyde-Stanford collaboration –Time difference was challenging –VC supported across-team collaborative work most successfully –High percentage of work outside these sessions were across local sides of teams

Hilary Grierson Design Manufacture & Engineering Management Peter Ball Department of Manufacturing Findings Tools and Technologies: –More tutorial time on tools and technologies –Students found other easier tools e.g. Googledocs, SocialText, Box.Net, Campfire, Flickr –Difficult to locate information in several places –PolyCom VC was preferred method of collaborative working –Access to video conferencing equipment at Strathclyde was sometimes problematic

Hilary Grierson Design Manufacture & Engineering Management Peter Ball Department of Manufacturing Case study 2 closing remarks … –Positive experience for students and staff –Exchange educational ideas, share resources and experience distributed design working –Valuable preparation for future employment –High maintenance but reusable

Hilary Grierson Design Manufacture & Engineering Management Peter Ball Department of Manufacturing Teaching and Learning Benefits: students International Experience –Different cultures and approaches to work, formality/informality –Better appreciation of language (terminology) –Exposure to different design methods –Getting students used to working in wider networks Managing Work/Planning –Experience of working at distance - across different time zones, with unfamiliar people/disciplines –Timely exchange of information and work –Management of project or assignment resources in a virtual space –Getting students to understand how to work with others who may have different expectations and priorities

Hilary Grierson Design Manufacture & Engineering Management Peter Ball Department of Manufacturing Teaching and Learning Benefits: students Tools and Technologies –Greater understanding of the variety and power of IT to support project work and communication Personal Development –Practical experience of international teamwork –Prepare students to become competent members of global design teams; future employment

Hilary Grierson Design Manufacture & Engineering Management Peter Ball Department of Manufacturing Teaching Benefits: staff Teaching Practice –Greater depth of understanding of how others teach by working with them closely (leading to new ways of teaching) –Opportunity to teach "in context" – practically…………… …..opportunity to do something new and different, which in turn motivated the students.

Hilary Grierson Design Manufacture & Engineering Management Peter Ball Department of Manufacturing Further information Peter Peter & Hilary’s paper on team working in International Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 23, No. 2. Hilary JISC/NSF DIDET project LauLima is downloadable from website