Problem Solving in a Multidisciplinary Environment: Observations from a Newly Developed Program

Abstract

Some of her previous research has focused on software designers' formal and non-formal educational experiences and use of precedent materials, and experienced instructional designers' beliefs about design character. These studies have highlighted the importance of cross-disciplinary skills and student engagement in large-scale, real-world projects.Dr. Exter currently leads an effort to evaluate a new multidisciplinary degree program which provides both liberal arts and technical content through competency-based experiential learning. Dr. Mark Shaurette, Purdue University, West LafayetteMark Shaurette has a MS in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a PhD in Technology from Purdue University. He is currently an associate professor at Purdue University, was a 2012 Fulbright Scholar in Ireland, and has work experience that includes 30+ years of senior construction management practice as well as work as a research engineer for the National Association of Home Builders Research Foundation. He is active in research, education, and community outreach in the areas of building retrofit for energy conservation, sustainable construction practices, management of the demolition process, material reuse and recycling, as well as instructional design in technology education.c American Society for Engineering Education, 2015Page 26.1254.1 Problem solving in a multidisciplinary environment: observations from a newly developed programThis paper examines how students deal with problem solving in a multidisciplinary environment, during the development of their final project for the semester. Problem solving is considered an important skill for both professionals and students. The paper analyzes one of two courses created for a new multidisciplinary program; this course uses a design studio model. Students attending this course come from disciplines as diverse as computer and network technology, computer graphics technology, electrical and mechanical engineering technology, building construction management, exploratory studies and others. This study is based on the experiences of one of the course instructors, as well as class observations conducted during the final month and a half of the Fall 2014 semester. The findings indicate that students are motivated by opportunities to look at each other's work, and they are engaged by the process of providing feedback during presentations. On the other hand, some issues were observed, such as females being quieter in groups than male students. Regarding problem solving strategies, the groups of students were found to engage in developing one solution as opposed to first considering a range of options and then narrowing down to the best option to further develop. Alternate solutions were considered only when a problem was detected. This corroborates with research on novice problem solving.

Moving Towards Individual Competence From Group Work in Transdisciplinary Education

“…While students had been asked to work on ill-structured problems in previous semesters 33 , including receiving specific instruction on problem framing, many were not able to express their disciplinary interests and passions in a way that informed an appropriately scoped problem frame. This lack of capability reflected students' strong desire to focus on building physical prototypes.…”