CDIO, Networking and Collaboration in a Cross-Border Context

CDIO, Networking and Collaboration in a Cross-Border Context

Soili Mäkimurto-Koivumaa and Juha Kaarela

Today’s turbulent and multicultural working environment is a huge challenge for every engineer. Moreover, this challenge must be considered also in engineering education which has to be renewed continuously. In addition, it has to look for new ways to offer experimental learning situations and environments. Students need to be able to develop their personal CDIO skills and attitudes in different learning situations. In this process the role of the university is to enable different learning experiments and support teachers to utilize their knowledge, skills and personal networks.

This article describes experiences gained during efforts for developing engineering education to support students’ personal and networking skills which are considered as an essential element of CDIO skills. The data has been collected during a study project organized in two HEIs operating in northern Sweden (Luleå) and Finland (Kemi).

Totally 23 students from the two countries are divided in four multicultural teams. The teams consist of students with various major: Finnish students study engineering and Swedish students social sciences and economics. All the teams receive a common assignment for studying the networking and collaboration activities of local companies. The main purpose of the study project is to study how Swedish and Finnish companies form networks, are their network partners international and what challenges they have encountered. Each student team has to interview at least 20 companies and visit at least four of them. Only the starting and closing dates of the project have been pre-defined. Thus the student teams have to organize their timetable and working methods. Due to the geographical distance of 150 km, students are not able to meet but have to use virtual learning environments during their collaboration.

During this study project students are expected to develop personal skills and attitudes such as ability to take risks, creativity and critical thinking, awareness of personal knowledge, time and resource management. Student teams have to report and introduce the final result in a common event. They have to deliver a report to the companies they have worked with as well. For implementing the project students need to network themselves with several companies. In addition they have to learn to collaborate in different cultural and educational settings.

Specifically, the article covers the survey data collected from student teams. The purpose is to analyze their networking experiences and awareness of developed CDIO skills in a cross-border context. Also, relevant scientific literature is going to be analyzed to form an adequate theoretical basis. The study project is a part of the northern Scandinavian Innopreneurship 21-project which aims to create entrepreneurial learning competence center in each partner HEI. The purpose is to enhance development of entrepreneurial behavior and entrepreneurship by utilizing a virtual learning environment which is going to be available for all HEIs willing to join the network later.

Proceedings of the 10th International CDIO Conference, Barcelona, Spain, June 15-19 2014

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