LEARNING DESIGN
MEMBER EXPERT
Engineering Design Thinking Could it be useful to the NTEU? In my role as Learning Designer at the University of Adelaide, I work with academic staff to support and enhance teaching in online and blended environments. I try to take a collaborative, problem-solving and evidence-based approach to my work in course, program and activity design. This often includes advising on the use of new technologies. I also have a university teaching background in Education (Sociology and Digital Media). Over the past five years – in my now continuing role – I have worked closely with academic staff at the Faculty of Engineering, Computer and Maths Sciences (ECMS). This has given me an insight into engineering design thinking – which has got me asking whether this approach could be of use to the NTEU in our problem-solving. Engineering design thinking is defined by Dym et al (2005) as 'a systematic process to generate, evaluate, and specify concepts .. (to)
John Murphy University of Adelaide
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Image: istock
Sentry
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JUNE 2021
achieve clients’ … needs under a set of constraints' (p. 104). Each Semester, Bachelor of Engineering students at the University of Adelaide are presented with a real world design challenge. Initially I have heard it explained as an analogy (Davey, Yong et al, 2018). If you wanted to buy a dream car, what factors would you consider? How would you weight them by priority? How would that change, if you had budget and time constraints?
