Mentoring the project coach: Effective propagation of pedagogical techniques, resources, and know-how

• Autores: R. Keith Stanfill, Oscar D. Crisalle
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 27, no. Extra 6, 2011, págs. 1246-1258
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • A common obstacle faced by faculty serving as coaches for student teams in multidisciplinary capstone design courses is the lack ofteaching paradigms that can serve as a guide when making pedagogical and team-management decisions. We have addressed thischallenge by creating a document entitled IPPD Coach Guide—A Resource for Mentoring Project Teams that compiles a set ofbest practices and catalogs resources available in our Integrated Process and Product Design program, with the goal of enhancingthe coach’s effectiveness in directing the evolution of the design project and assisting students in reaching all learning objectives.The guide serves as a tool that enables the propagation of pedagogical techniques, identifies available administrative and materialresources, and archives the program’s historically acquired know-how. This paper describes the mechanics followed to arrive at thegeneration of the guide, including the methodology used for harvesting collective knowledge from the most experienced facultycoaches, using techniques ranging from a directed faculty-retreat event to systematic idea mapping exercises, and includingmanagement approaches such as a challenge-question environment and the adoption of affinity-group analysis. The guide can alsobe used to recruit and train new coaches, to establish policies, and to serve as a contextual framework for extramural programreviews. A brief overview of the contents of the guide is provided including succinct representative examples of the material. Theguide may serve as an example tool that could be of utility to other capstone design courses interested in promoting improveduniformity in quality of pedagogical delivery and increased coach effectiveness.