Combining CDIO and Case Study Methodologies in Flipped Classroom Strategies

Abstract

Case Study methodology has been successfully applied in many teaching areas, as business administration, economics, law or medicine, where the implementation and operation of different solution alternatives is risky and/or expensive. It is an excellent tool for allowing students to experience real life problems, with no explicit questions and subjected to multidisciplinary restraints, letting them theoretically test different solutions through the teacher assistance. Furthermore, student activities associated to this teaching methodology (teamwork, creativity, multidisciplinary work, self-learning, class participation, presentations, etc.) greatly foster the acquisition of transversal competences, which can be enhanced through the simultaneous use of other teaching strategies as flipped classroom or gamification. A clear parallelism between the learning objectives and outcomes can be observed between case study and CDIO teaching methodologies. However, case studies usually focus on the “C”, “D” and sometimes “I” phases, rarely executing the “O” phase because of the reasons described above. We think that case study methodology can be fully (that is, including the “O” phase) and successfully applied as component of the CDIO methodology for the teaching of specific engineering concepts and methodologies, improving the teaching outcomes reached by the students, especially those related to the acquisition of theoretical knowledge and methodologies. The use of rapid prototyping techniques allowing to develop demonstrators, in combination with the development of additional teaching and learning resources, as online tests, non-supervised study documentation, teaching guides and case texts, allows for the full integration of the case study and CDIO methodologies, taking also advantage of flipped classroom techniques, which in turn allocates more time for the discussion of alternatives in class, by transferring the teaching of theoretical concepts to out of class student activities. We have tested this hypothesis in our “Machine Element Design” and “Vibrations in Machinery” courses. In this work, we will describe the full methodology, give examples of the demonstrators and teaching resources developed, and describe our particular thoughts about the implementation and outcomes of this combined methodology.