Browsing by Author "Feng, Xiaoqi"

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    Challenges in internationally distributed co-teaching: A comparison of an online and blended project-based course
    (2022) Santhakumar, Samyukta; Feng, Xiaoqi; Santos Figueiredo, Sara; muo; Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu; School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Björklund, Tua
    Context : Globally distributed projects are prevalent in the contemporary educational domain and are successful with the prerequisite of efficient collaboration between partnering teaching teams. These distributed teaching teams plan and execute the learning materials in blended and virtual media, which is a combination of the traditional face to face education with the more neoteric virtual learning. A successful partnership requires empirical knowledge for effortless co- planning and execution of learning in mixed modalities. This is essential for ensuring an uncomplicated and time optimised co-teaching process, which provides educators the opportunity to focus on building curriculums and teaching strategies. While there are multiple studies on understanding the challenges of co-teaching and blended media separately, there is much to be discovered about the complexities which plague practical co-teaching. Objective : To analyse the challenges impairing the co-teaching process in globally distributed teams, I chose to work in association with Design Factory Global Network (DFGN) which is a network of 37 universities, spanning five continents and engaging in numerous globally collaborative projects. For this research, two case studies were chosen to gather comprehensive results. The first case study is the International Product Development Project (iPDP), a collaboration between Design Factory Mannheim and Häme University of Applied Sciences Design Factory in Germany and Finland, respectively. The second case study is the Korean Product Development Project (K-PDP) which is coordinated amongst six Design Factories of DF Hannam (Seoul, South Korea), Porto DF (Portugal), DF Javeriana (Bogota, Columbia), DF Cali (Cali, Columbia), DF Shenkar (Israel) and DF Korea (Yonsei, South Korea). Whilst iPDP follows a blended approach with the educators employing both physical and online media for teaching, K-PDP on the other hand is conducted entirely in an online enviornment. Both case studies are evolving projects which use Aalto Design Factory’s Product Development Project (PDP) course as a foundation for establishing course content and structure. Methods : Keeping these two case studies as the reference point, eight participants with varying skill sets and experience levels were chosen from the above listed Design Factories and interviewed using a semi-structured approach. A qualitative research based approach has been chosen for this study and thematic analysis is employed to analyse the results. Furthermore, the findings have been categorised into both theoretical and practical categories. Results : The results of this study can be used by educators in the DFGN network to become more cognizant of barriers surrounding the co-teaching pipeline. The results highlight a mix of behavioural, administrative and technological themes besides providing a comparison of impediments in both blended and virtual media.
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    Finding Common Ground : Comparing Engineering and Design Graduate Students' Conceptualizations of Interdisciplinary Education Across Two Institutions
    (2024-06-23) Webb, Margaret; Feng, Xiaoqi; Aarnio, Hanna; Sundman, Julia; Bilow, Felicity; Taka, Maija; Paretti, Marie C.; Keskinen, Marko; Department of Built Environment; Water and Environmental Eng.; Virginia Tech; Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
    For decades, scientific and academic organizations have called for engineering graduate students who are capable of addressing complex and seemingly intractable problems in an interdisciplinary manner [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]. Several educational researchers across the globe [6], [7], [8] have sought to distinguish terms such as multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and recently, their convergence. However, in practice, distinctions between these terms are often fuzzy. Across academic disciplines, institutions, and geographies, terms like interdisciplinary are often understood and used interchangeably. Even though interdisciplinary education is increasingly practiced across different academic levels and extensive research has examined its benefits, little is known about how students perceive such efforts, and this gap is especially salient in the context of graduate education, even as this context is a primary focus. Additionally, while definitions of interdisciplinarity and interdisciplinary education depend on disciplinary cultures and academic institutions [9], [10], we know little about how graduate students' perceptions of these terms might differ across institutions globally. This lack of coherent conceptual definitions can hinder educators' abilities to design relevant strategies for cultivating a global interdisciplinary workforce capable of addressing complex challenges worldwide. Thus, this study explored engineering graduate students' conceptualizations of interdisciplinary education at two international study sites - one located in Finland and one located in the United States- since previous comparative research has primarily focused on disciplinary and institutional comparisons rather than global ones. These two countries were also selected because of known cultural and pedagogical differences between their approaches to interdisciplinary engineering education. Our dataset included 21 semi-structured interviews with graduate students, focusing on their conceptualizations and expectations of interdisciplinary education. Interviews were conducted separately at these two institutions. There were seven engineering and design graduate students from Finland and fourteen engineering graduate students from the U.S. Analysis was conducted through a comparative thematic analysis [11], focusing on the perspectives of Finnish versus U.S. graduate interdisciplinary engineering and design students. The findings of this study shed light on similarities and differences among engineering and design graduate students' conceptualizations of interdisciplinary education. By gaining these insights into these conceptualizations, we inform international engineering educators seeking to provide support for interdisciplinary graduate students across global contexts. Furthermore, our broadened understanding of students' perspectives supports the need for a conceptual and terminological alignment in the interdisciplinary education research field.
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    Looking beyond your own speciality: student and faculty perceptions of collaboration opportunities
    (CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research, 2022-12-21) Feng, Xiaoqi; Björklund, Tua; Department of Mechanical Engineering; Design Factory; Product Development
    This study examines engineering faculty and students’ views of collaboration beyond their own field, based on 12 engineering faculty interviews and a survey with 101 mechanical engineering students. Our analysis shows that faculty members’ views on collaboration exhibit more diversity in terms of crossing disciplinary, functional, organisational, and geographic boundaries, and they view this collaboration as more integrated into engineering work, professional practices, and problem-solving. Students, in turn, report a narrower scope of collaboration, primarily focusing on multidisciplinary collaboration to utilise engineering output. Our study helps inform engineering educators to integrate diverse collaboration more effectively with course design.
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    Multidisciplinary education through faculty members’ conceptualisations of and experiences in engineering education
    (Taylor & Francis, 2023) Feng, Xiaoqi; Ylirisku, Salu; Kähkönen, Elina; Niemi, Hannele; Hölttä-Otto, Katja; Design Factory; Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering; Keijo Nikoskinen Group; University of Helsinki
    Engineering education has become increasingly multidisciplinary in order to prepare future experts to transcend disciplinary boundaries and to co-construct solutions to solve grand challenges. However, faculty members’ perspectives and experiences have been largely ignored in the literature. To understand and support faculty members, the present study investigated faculty members’ conceptualisations of multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary education. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 13 faculty members from engineering, business, art and design with varied experiences with multidisciplinary teaching, course design, and programme management. We found that while some faculty members conceptualised multidisciplinary education as an encompassing concept, most used disciplinary integration to distinguish multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary education. However, their conceptualisations of the differences between multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary education were nuanced. Summarising the perceived nuances in different aspects of course design, we propose a typology to demonstrate the variety of types in faculty members’ course design. By identifying the diversity and complexities of faculty members’ conceptualisations, this study attempts to help faculty members achieve an in-depth understanding of their conceptualisations and practices, as well as support engineering educators in designing courses with disciplinary integration.
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    To Withdraw, Investigate, Negotiate Or Integrate? Students' Coping Strategies With Disorienting Dilemmas In Interdisciplinary Project Courses
    (2023) Feng, Xiaoqi; Sundman, Julia; Aarnio, Hanna; Taka, Maija; Keskinen, Marko; Varis, Olli; Department of Built Environment; Department of Mechanical Engineering; Reilly, Ger; Murphy, Mike; Nagy, Balazs Vince; Jarvinen, Hannu-Matti; Water and Environmental Eng.; Materials to Products
    In today's rapidly changing and increasingly interconnected world, engineering educators are required to implement active pedagogical approaches to support students' interdisciplinary problem-solving processes. However, interdisciplinary and experiential learning may evoke situations where students question their past learnings and even existing values, beliefs, or assumptions. Our study examined the emergence of “disorienting dilemmas”, a central concept to transformative learning theory, and students' experiences in coping with them in engineering education. We interviewed ten students from two interdisciplinary project courses at School of Engineering in Aalto University, Finland, and conducted thematic analysis to identify the types of disorienting dilemmas and the coping strategies that students employed. Our study found that students experienced disorienting dilemmas related to self-beliefs, approaches to real-world challenges, teamwork, and disciplinary differences. To cope with these dilemmas, we identified four key strategies that reflected different levels of cognitive-behavioral responses: withdrawing, investigating, negotiating, and integrating. Our study contributes to transformative learning theory by extending the understanding of disorienting dilemmas in the context of interdisciplinary project-based education. We also provide practical implications for engineering educators seeking to develop students' competencies to effectively address complex challenges in working life. Effective interventions, such as critical reflection, open discussion, and resolving conflicting perspectives, can help students navigate disorienting dilemmas and enhance their interdisciplinary and transformative learning. Future research can explore how students' team characteristics may affect the emergence of coping strategies identified, as well as investigate the impact of scaffolding on students' learning outcomes.
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    Towards Radical Creativity
    (Aalto University, 2022) Björklund, Tua; Eriksson, Vikki; Feng, Xiaoqi; Klenner, Niko; Kuukka, Anna; van der Marel, Floris; Design Factory; Design Factory; Conceptualizations of Radical Creativity in Transdisciplinary Networks; Factoryt; Factories
    The ’Toward Radical Creativity’ report is a part of interdisciplinary research project integrates the study of technological innovation, organizational psychology and design thinking to explore alternative conceptualizations of radical creativity and organizing of radical creativity in networked collaborations. We believe that the dialog between diverse definitions and conceptualizations for creativity across disciplines is a strength for Aalto operations. However, scholarly understanding of such conceptualizations is lacking and, as such, this shared project across Aalto ENG, BIZ, ARTS and SCI aims to strengthen the scientific basis for developing Aalto strategy and operations in radical creativity. We investigate how radical creativity is conceptualized and framed in different emergent transdisciplinary contexts, and what implications these have for organizing for creativity in emergent transdisciplinary networks. The report is based on 54 interviews with faculty members across the university between April and June 2022.