Aaron Eng Seng CHIA
Department of Industrial Systems Engineering and Management,
College of Design and Engineering (CDE)
Chia, A. E. S. (2023). Teaching a large-class transdisciplinary course—Challenges and enablers [Paper presentation]. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, 7 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/teaching-a-large-class-transdisciplinary-course-challenges-and-enablers/
SUB-THEME
Interdisciplinarity and Education
KEYWORDS
Transdisciplinary, interdisciplinary, large-scale systems engineering, systems thinking
CATEGORY
Paper Presentation
INTRODUCTION
A master’s elective, IE5404 “Large Scale Systems Engineering (LSSE)” was converted into a core course this year. As such, the class size ballooned from about 30 students to 82 students. This requires rethinking on how to teach already challenging systems concepts to large classes. This paper describes the challenges and enablers of conducting such a course.
LSSE deals with the complexities of large-scale systems using systems approach and systems engineering to understand and conceptualise the planning, design, and management of large-scale systems. Large-scale systems are inherently transdisciplinary/interdisciplinary. For example, an economic system is not just about business, but politics, technology, people, environment, the legal system, and so on. In addition, students learn about interconnections between different parts of the system, stakeholder’s behaviours, ecosystems, decision making and unintended consequences, cost analysis, and so on.
CHALLENGES AND ENABLERS
A large part of an engineer’s education is often technical/analytical in nature, and this makes teaching systems concepts challenging (Azad & Moore, 2022). Moreover, systems concepts cover organisations, behaviours, and dynamics, topics that engineers are often not familiar. In previous courses, the pedagogy includes lectures, cases, stories, role play, videos, class discussions, e-forum, assignments, group projects, examinations, readings, and self-reflection. With smaller classes, lectures took up about 50% of the time, with cases, stories, role play, and discussions taking the remaining time. However, it will not be possible to engage students well, given the same amount of time and almost triple the class size. Hence, questions to myself were:
- Which pedagogy needs to be modified/ changed to engage large classes?
- How to use student and lecturer’s time more effectively in class and assessments?
Teach Less Learn More
The concept of teaching less is doing things differently (Blankenship, 2019). Hence, the lecture materials were reduced, giving more time for discussions and questions. This was supplemented by more reading materials for students to learn by themselves. For master’s courses, the amount of tutorial time is either reduced or non-existent. A 30-minute tutorial was introduced for each session. This allowed time to work on difficult problems or concepts. It also allowed students to work on their projects. The project was structured such that students could carry out one part after each session. Students applied immediately what they have learned and clarify any doubts they have. This would also reduce their time to meet up for discussions later—important for part-time students where time is a premium.
Assessment as Pedagogy
The use of assessments in promoting deep learning in higher institutions have been advocated by many (Masuku et al, 2021). In the past, students did an individual assignment and comments/ feedback were given to the students. In the large class, students carried out a group assignment by watching a video (e.g., poverty) before answering questions. They got to discuss and learn from one another. It was also found that feedback to the group assignments were less than the individual assignments. This also reduced the amount of marking required.
Another new element introduced was a peer review of each other’s interim group project. Previously, groups presented their projects at the end of the semester. Students were able to get more formative feedback on their learning through their peers (although this introduced more work for the lecturer).
With large classes, there would not be enough time for all the groups to present during class time. Here, students made a video of their group presentation. In this way, they could improve their presentations and the lecturer had more time to evaluate them. The drawback was that there was no question-and-answer (Q&A) from the lecturer and class. This was mitigated by the earlier peer reviews and lecturer feedback via the report.
Student Feedback
The students like the concepts learned and the case studies. The common feedback given (even in previous courses) was that while they understood the need to cover diverse topics, the scope was wide, and some topics (especially non-engineering ones) were difficult to understand. More than half of the feedback respondents (57) for the large class nominated the lecturer for teaching awards (first time this has occured).
SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
The axiom ‘Teach Less, Learn More” is often true. Students can obtain facts from the Internet and even answers from CHATGPT. Hence, class time is best spent teaching metacognitive thinking. Assessment as a pedagogy is even more important now.
REFERENCES
Azad, A., and Moore, E. (2022). Lessons learned from teaching systems thinking to engineering students. Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA-ACEG22) Conference Proceedings.
Blankenship, S. (2019). Teach Less Learn More. Kreatif Beats. https://kreatifbeats.com/2019/03/16/teach-less-learn-more/
Masuku, M. M., Jili, N. N., & Sabela, P. T. (2021). Assessment as a pedagogy and measuring tool in promoting deep learning. International Journal of Higher Education, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v10n2p274
