Collaborative teaching of integrated product development: a case study

This paper presents a case study of a successful collaborative effort to design and implement a multidisciplinary course entitled integrated product development. It demonstrates that cross-college collaboration among faculty is possible with little outside support or incentives. In this instance, the desire of colleagues from different disciplines to learn from each other was a prime motivator. In addition to developing an actual product that satisfies an identified need, an important part of the course involves providing feedback to both the team and the individual as to how they are functioning and interacting. One way this is accomplished is through an exercise called “crises design.” A post-mortem of this impromptu problem quickly introduces students to positive and negative aspects of their team dynamic while providing metrics for evaluating future team interaction. Individual team member metrics are provided throughout the semester by summarizing the results of two peer reviews with the student. Specific examples of both these concepts are discussed.