Enhancing Student Experience While Modernizing the Curriculum
Creators: name: Lanzafame, Robert
name: van Woudenberg, Tom
name: Verhagen, Sandra
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024

description: This is the abstract from the original event webpage, followed by the post-presentation write-up by the Teaching Academy:

A recording of the talk can be viewed via Collegerama here.

Enhancing Student Experience While Modernizing the Curriculum - Lessons Learnt During the Evolution of a Large MSc Module - 

with Robert Lanzafame, Sandra Verhagen, and Tom van Woudenberg

Rewind two years ago and imagine the task at hand: combine 300 students with diverse backgrounds and prior knowledge, a mix of exam and group project assessments on more than a dozen topics covered by 50 teachers and assistants, all mixed together with a healthy dose of programming---a recipe for disaster? Perhaps. But after two years our students are happier than ever---how did we do it?

The talk is based on the first-year MSc module CEGM1000: Modelling, Uncertainty and Data for Engineers (MUDE); a 12 ECTS requirement for all MSc students in the faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences. Speakers include Robert Lanzafame, Sandra Verhagen and Tom van Woudenberg.

During this Meet & Eat, the MUDE Team will share their perspectives from the last few years, with a particular focus on decisions made to improve the learning experience of students. Topics include the way in which feedback was obtained as well as organizational changes made to the teaching team and module websites. We will show how we incorporated digital tools in an innovative way, but the talk focuses more on sharing experiences to support other teachers and/or administrators who may find themselves in similar situations now or in the future. Visit the MUDE website and interactive textbook to learn more.

 

Formatting removed from Teaching Academy email (sent April 2, 2024).

 

MEET & EAT – WRAP UPTeaching Academy…It’s all about Education!

 

Robert Lanzafame, Sandra Verhagen, & Tom van Woudenberg

Enhancing Student Experience While Modernizing the Curriculum- Lessons Learnt During the Evolution of a Large MSc Module -

 

A BIG THANK YOU!

Last week, we had an inspiring Meet & Eat session on the evolution of the (entirely new) MSc MUDE module and lessons learnt during this process. Needless to say, a special thank you goes to our speakers: Robert Lanzafame, Sandra Verhagen and Tom van Woudenberg. Also, we want to say thank you to everyone who attended the session and participated in the Q&A! For those of you who signed up but were not able to join, below you will find some takeaways of the session.

 

Takeaways

During their session, Robert, Sandra and Tom shared with us their experiences in developing an entirely new MSc Module, namely Modelling, Uncertainty and Data for Engineers (MUDE); a 12 ECTS requirement for all MSc students in the faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences. Their task was to develop a course on more than a dozen topics covered by 50 teachers and assistants, intended for cohorts of approximately 300 students with diverse backgrounds and prior knowledge. As you can imagine, this was no easy feat, but the MUDE team pulled it off!

The idea behind the MSc redesign was originally top-down (faculty management). One of the key goals is to educate T-shaped engineers in a multi- and interdisciplinary environment. MUDE was designed to be a landing zone for students from all three CEG MSc programmes – namely, Civil Engineering, Applied Earth Sciences and Environmental Engineering, offering fundamental engineering knowledge (in modelling, uncertainty and data) and skills (such as programming in Python and computer skills in general) over an extended period of time (not one, but two quarters).

Designing, organizing and implementing the MUDE module came with many challenges. To name but a few: getting all colleagues on the same page during the redesign process, the difficulty of accommodating both educators’ and students’ wishes and the question of how to deal with the diversity of students, not only in prior knowledge but also in competencies such as programming in Python. Since 2020 the team has been able to tackle these challenges while continuously evolving and reinventing itself – and there is still plenty more work to be done.

Robert, Sandra and Tom shared with us four essentials that contributed to the success of the team. First of all, they stressed the importance of a small(er) team with highly motivated members and good communication. Secondly, talking and listening to students played a key role. Because the team invested much time and energy in collecting and processing student feedback, there quickly emerged a relation of trust; students approached the team with issues and patience. Thirdly, the team proactively created the materials they needed for the module, such as their own website and interactive textbook. Fourthly and lastly, the support the team received from the faculty played a key role.

During the Q&A with the audience, Robert, Sandra and Tom discussed questions such as the added value of working in a team (which is immense!), the needs and composition of an effective teaching team that is passionate about education and how to improve lectures in order to increase student attendance.

 

Recording and slides from the session

In case you were not able to join the session or in case you want to share it with colleagues, please find the link to the recording here, and/or have a look at the presentation attached.

 

On a last note… 



Do you have any questions or do want to know more about MUDE? Get in touch with the MUDE team by sending an email at R.C.Lanzafame@tudelft.nl

Do you want to know more about the MUDE website, you can find it here.

Do you want to learn more about the MUDE interactive textbook, you can access it here.

Even more MUDE resources and references can be found on the last slide of the attached presentation.


Thank you again for joining. We hope to see you again soon in the Teaching Lab.

Kind regards,

Teaching Academy Facilitation Team

The Teaching Academy welcomes lecturers and educational support staff to experiment, share, and discuss educational initiatives with peers. Visit the Teaching Academy website for more information.