Abstract:
Immersion experiences for undergraduate students in biomedical engineering are key contributors to their ability to identify medical needs. Despite this, as few as 25% of surveyed programs report providing such opportunities. Since 2010 when the National Institute of Health began its R25 grant mechanism to support curricular development toward team-based design, several institutions have established programs for immersion experiences, which provide precedent for their implementation. Published results from such immersion experiences highlight successes in structure and changes in student perspectives after these experiences. As more institutions expand their biomedical engineering curriculum with new immersion-focused programs, it is important to learn from these precedents while also considering opportunities to improve. For newly funded groups that are developing and implementing programs, they may find improved success by strategic use of unique partnerships. However, these partnerships may not be immediately evident to program organizers. Our objective is to discuss two institutions that recently established programs for immersion experience. In the comparison of our two immersion programs, we found five overlapping core features that include: immersion partner collaboration, team-based immersion experiences, needs-finding emphasis, team-based engineering design experiences, and immersion assessment and evaluation. Both programs developed collaborative partnerships with nearby medical schools. Additionally, one program partnered with a community resource (i.e., Human Development Institute). Despite nuanced program differences, we found that students at both programs self-reported increased knowledge or confidence in aspects of the design process (e.g., identifying and refining user needs, concept generation). Our results also highlight student gains unique to their programs - UK students self-reported gains on disability topics and IUPUI students self-reported gains on socioeconomic awareness. In summary, immersion partner collaboration, or partnership, surfaced as a core feature for both programs, and students in both immersion programs endorsed enhanced knowledge or confidence in engineering design.
摘要:
生物医学工程本科生的沉浸体验是他们识别医疗需求能力的关键贡献者。尽管如此,只有25%的受访项目报告提供了这样的机会。自2010年美国国立卫生研究院开始其R25资助机制,以支持面向团队设计的课程开发以来,一些机构已经建立了沉浸体验计划,为其实施提供了先例。这种沉浸式体验的发布结果突出了这些体验之后在结构和学生观点变化方面的成功。随着越来越多的机构通过新的沉浸式课程扩展其生物医学工程课程,重要的是要从这些先例中学习,同时还要考虑改进的机会。对于正在开发和实施计划的新资助团体,他们可以通过战略使用独特的伙伴关系来获得更大的成功。然而,这些伙伴关系可能不会立即对节目组织者显而易见。我们的目标是讨论最近建立沉浸体验计划的两个机构。在我们两个沉浸式程序的比较中,我们发现了五个重叠的核心功能,包括:沉浸式合作伙伴协作,基于团队的沉浸体验,需要寻找重点,基于团队的工程设计经验,以及沉浸评估和评价。这两个项目都与附近的医学院建立了合作伙伴关系。此外,一个程序与社区资源(即,人类发展研究所)。尽管程序存在细微差别,我们发现,这两个项目的学生都自我报告了对设计过程方面的知识或信心(例如,确定和完善用户需求,概念生成)。我们的结果还突出了学生在他们的课程中独特的收获-英国学生自我报告了残疾主题的收获,IUPUI学生自我报告了社会经济意识的收获。总之,沉浸式合作伙伴协作,或者合伙,作为两个程序的核心功能浮出水面,两个沉浸式课程的学生都认可了对工程设计的增强知识或信心。