Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011 - rees2009

Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) Página 918 de 957
The dynamic nature of the engineering industry creates a set of circumstances that make it
extremely difficult to obtain this level of experience before technology becomes out-dated.
Therefore there is a need for the re-development of the school engineering pedagogical
curriculum and educational system to reduce the skill gap between the industry demands
and what is delivered. However it is difficult to find resources necessary for staying
technologically up to date as well as to correctly forecast what is needed coming years.
And many schools do not have the expertise or resources needed to improve their
engineering education system.
Therefore, it is necessary to create teams of curricula designers, where experts of the field
can cooperate to create adequate curricula. Figure 1 shows an example of a team of
curricula designers.
Figure 1: A team of curriculum designers
Designers for curricula are either subject matter experts in their particular field of the
curriculum with deeper knowledge of learning theories, learning taxonomies, or they are
industrial experts with a good background in their own fields but with little knowledge of
how to teach it to others. Teachers also can contribute to MindBook by creating their own
content. In this way the content and skills being taught in the courses can be aligned with
what industry needs, but it is also important that the quality level of these skills should be
at a satisfactory level. Where specific skills are currently being taught, evaluation should
be conducted once the students have completed the course prescribed by the industrial
expert.
However when specialists work together there are communication problems. Thus, it is
crucial to introduce tools that facilitate cooperation to develop the curriculum together. In
order to account for this, MindBook was created using mindmap techniques and web
technologies which supports Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) to enhance
Proceedings of Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011
Madrid, 4 th - 7 th October 2011