On Knowledge Creation and Learning at the Intersection of Product Development and Engineering Education

Abstract: Today’s demands on higher engineering education given the rapid transformation of society are, to say the least, multifaceted. Rapidly increased complexity of technology as well as adaptation to sustainability requirements are causing major transformations and mergers of whole domains of technology that strongly impact current and future engineering workforces within these domains, in particular, the need for new competencies. To adapt to industry demands for engineering competence that fits new constellations of technology domains, providers of advanced engineering training – i.e., engineering faculties – need to inventory their toolbox for ways to support knowledge creation processes.  Product development theory is a central part of many types of academic engineering programs. However, as the product development process itself is a process of knowledge creation, it also has strong relations to theories of learning. This thesis explores the idea that some of the tools of engineering that are also taught at engineering faculties and therefore are familiar to their members can beneficially be applied to the development and management of engineering curricula. This thesis explores the domains of product development theory, engineering education and learning analytics in search of overlapping approaches to knowledge creation.  The outcome of this search, which are also the result of this thesis, is a set of proposed tools, measures, and approaches for the development, management, content, and arrangement of engineering curriculum. The main contributions focus on the use of physical artifacts and their contribution to engineering educational frameworks, such as the Conceiving – Designing – Implementing – Operating (CDIO) initiative. For this purpose, the thesis picks up on a previously developed concept of low-cost demonstrators for the establishment of a formalized learning and enabling platform that promotes implementation and execution of the CDIO framework. Furthermore, by adopting a similar approach to product development and learning theory, additional tools are identified and developed for curriculum adaptation, enhancement, and management. In particular, by examining the curriculum from previously unexplored perspectives followed by establishment of novel measurements, this thesis demonstrates how curriculum developers and program managers can increase their insights into the outcomes of their decisions.