A CASE STUDY DESIGNING TRAINING CURRICULA TO SUPPORT IMPLEMENTATION OF CDIO

Abstract

For trainers and faculty developers, helping instructors learn to design and deliver constructively aligned courses that integrate authentic, higher-order learning tasks is fundamental to implementing the CDIO framework. Encouraging instructors to change their practices and attitudes about teaching and learning, however, can be a formidable and ongoing challenge at many universities where teacher-centered instruction and passive, rote learning is common. This paper addresses this problem by sharing a case study of an ongoing VietnamCanada project at Thu Dau Mot University (TDMU) and Tra Vinh University (TVU), two schools that set out in 2015 to create a comprehensive set of faculty development curricula with the goals of changing teaching and learning practices and supporting the implementation of various frameworks and standards like CDIO.

Since becoming a member of the CDIO community in 2015, TDMU has been designing faculty training programs to promote active, authentic, and practical learning to support implementation of CDIO. To date, TDMU and TVU have designed an integrated framework of instructor competencies and training interventions, including seven intensive multi-day training workshops focusing on various core topics like course design, assessment design, online design and instruction, presentation skills, facilitation skills, and so on. Modeled after the Instructional Skills Workshop, a faculty training program from Canada, the training workshops analyzed in this case study were designed to help new and experienced faculty practice and authentically apply various theories, tools, and strategies that can help them implement active learning and higher-order learning-by-doing tasks.

Based on program evaluation surveys with workshop trainers and participants, this case study explores the problem of how universities can better support faculty in adopting new learningcentered practices that align with CDIO by answering several core questions, including: • What competencies should faculty meet to be able to effectively implement CDIO in their courses? • What training curricula best serve the needs and competencies of faculty in implementing CDIO? and • What attitudes towards teaching and learning do faculty have, and how must these attitudes change to implement CDIO?