A team-oriented course development experience in distance education for multidisciplinary engineering design

Abstract

Based on the multidisciplinary needs of today's complex and innovative technology, accreditation bodies of engineering demand proof of multidisciplinary teamwork in undergraduate engineering curricula. This article reports the design and conduct of a Multidisciplinary Engineering Design (MED) course initiated as a result of accreditation process requirements. The course, which consists of multidisciplinary lectures, practice sessions, and various phases of a multidisciplinary team project, was conducted online because of the COVID-19 pandemic by a multidisciplinary team of instructors using multiple software tools to enhance collaboration. In general, the course outcomes were satisfied under the current design, and several points for further improvement and elaboration were collected via quantitative and qualitative evaluations. Accordingly, the results show that the project-based and team-based MED course, in terms of multidisciplinary course management and its outcomes, can benefit from the use of software tools in creating a multidisciplinary team in distance education by means of enhanced cooperation and motivation among the participants.