Research-based enquiry in Product Development education: Lessons from supervising undergraduate final year projects
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.23055/ijietap.2012.19.1.457Keywords:
Product development, research-based enquiry, project-based learningAbstract
This paper presents an interesting perspective on enquiry-based learning by engineering students through a project and research-based course. It discusses the lessons learned from coordinating and supervising undergraduate research-based project courses in Product Development engineering, at Massey University in New Zealand. Research is undertaken by students at the start and throughout the development project in order to understand the background and trends in the literature and incorporate them in their projects. Further research is done regarding the product’s technologies, problem and motivation behind the development, as well as a thorough knowledge of the context and user environment are undertaken. The multi-disciplinary nature of product development, requires students to research widely across disciplinary borders, and then to integrate the results for the goals of designing a new product and journal-style research papers.
The Product Development process is a research-based decision-making process and one that needs an enquiring mind and an independent learning approach, as often the problems are open-ended and ill-defined. Both explicit and tacit knowledge are gained through this action-research methodology of learning. Tacit knowledge is gained through the hands-on project experience, experimentation, and learning by doing.
Several implications for educators are highlighted, including the need for a greater emphasis on self-learning through research and hands-on practical experience, the importance of developing student research skills, and the value of learning from peer interaction.
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