Comparing the CDIO educational framework with University West’s WIL certification: do they complement each other?

• Higher education institutions (HEIs) need to continuously improve their quality to prepare the students to the society of the 21st Century. They need to develop efficient ways of collaborating with various partners in the surrounding community. Close ties with business and industry, and diversity among staff and students are necessary, especially within engineering education. An engineering degree should prepare students to develop a wide range of knowledge and skills. These range from technical, scientific, and mathematical knowledge but also soft skills such as teamwork, business skills and critical analysis, which are also central sustainability competences. It is vital that learning for engineers takes place in the context of authentic engineering problems and processes to develop these skills and to put theory into practice. Several initiatives focused on incorporating these skills in higher education exists. CDIO (Conceive, Design, Implement, Operate) is one of the most prominent initiatives within engineering education. CDIO targets the typical tasks an engineer performs when bringing new systems, products and services to the market or the society. The CDIO initiative was created to strengthen active and problem-based learning and improving students' communication and professional skills. CDIO focus on improving practical and work-related skills to better prepare engineering students for their future professional life.University West employs another initiative, Arbetsintegrerat lärande (AIL), which “roughly” translates to Work Integrated Learning (WIL). WIL shares much of the same philosophy as CDIO. All programs at University West are currently undergoing an AIL-certification process. For engineering programs, that have been working with CDIO, it is interesting to compare them. It is currently unclear how they differ. In this study we compare the CDIO educational framework with the WIL-certification through a series of workshops to identify in which areas they overlap and which areas they differ. Would a program that has adopted the CDIO educational framework automatically fulfill the WIL-certification? 

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Arbetslivsstudier (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Work Sciences (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Lärande (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Learning (hsv//eng)

Keyword

work integrated learning

WIL

CDIO

engineer

student

Work Integrated Learning

Arbetsintegrerat lärande

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)