Just-in-time Learning Product Design and Development through Gamification

Solving design problems is a core activity in the engineering field. Design teaching is often project based and follows a cycle from idea to implementation, which perfectly fits the Conceive Design Implement Operate (CDIO) approach. However, it is challenging to design teaching using problems that resemble those found in real engineering practice in a single course. Real problems are typically complex and multidisciplinary, requiring the course to cover both the general design content and the content from each specific discipline. Indeed, to support their work during the design process, the diverse engineering disciplines use different tools and techniques, which must be effectively combined. This multidisciplinary content must also be meaningfully linked and delivered in a way that prevents students from losing their interest when dealing with content from a different discipline. This paper proposes an approach to solve this challenge, which combines gamification and just-in-time learning in a flipped-classroom and project-based learning setting. The gamified project creates a scenario (set of specific tasks/problems) for the just-in-time pulling of learning content, which is made available online. The students learn as needed to play the game in class and are assessed according to their reflections on their game choices and results, rather than whether they win or lose the game. This paper explains the proposed approach’s background, describes its gamification elements and dynamics, shows its use in a mechanical engineering master’s course intervention, and reflects on the results from the intervention implementation. The students’ feedback shows that the approach was able to bring awareness on how the different engineering disciplines contribute to the design problem solution while keeping the students motivated and engaged in the course’s activities.