Develop an Interdisciplinary Course using the Interdisciplinarity Toolbox

The ability to engage in interdisciplinary research and problem-solving are essential skills for contemporary engineers, however designing and delivering effective learning opportunities to reach these ideals, is often not straightforward [1]. Educators are often faced with a plethora of challenges, and interdisciplinary courses often do not run as smoothly as disciplinary ones. In this workshop, the primary goal was to stimulate participants to consider a few common design scenarios modeled on real-life cases and to apply some of the main design concepts and questions employed by a new online platform the Twente Toolbox which aims to assist instructors with interdisciplinary course design. Participants were asked to make certain design choices in response to the cases within teams. The toolbox, funded by the Netherlands Initiative for Education Research (NRO) and developed by researchers at the University of Twente (interdisciplinary-education.utwente.nl) maps out different interdisciplinary course design structures, skill targets and learning goals. These are linked to specific in-class student tasks and assessment tools, which help students achieve those learning goals. In the session, participants were directed to relevant sections within the toolbox that would help inform design decisions of participants.