ABSTRACT
Vanderbilt University, Northwestern University, the University of Texas and the Harvard/MIT Health Sciences Technology Program have collaborated since 1999 to develop means to improve bioengineering education. This effort, funded by the National Science Foundation as the VaNTH Engineering Research Center in Bioengineering Educational Technologies, has sought a synthesis of learning science, learning technology, assessment and the domains of bioengineering in order to improve learning by bioengineering students. Research has shown that bioengineering educational materials may be designed to emphasize challenges that engage the student and, when coupled with a learning cycle and appropriate technologies, can lead to improvements in instruction.
Subject(s)
Biomedical Engineering/education , Computer-Assisted Instruction/methods , Curriculum , Education, Distance/methods , Education, Professional/methods , Internet , Teaching/methods , United StatesSubject(s)
Biomedical Engineering/education , Curriculum , Education, Professional/methods , Information Storage and Retrieval/methods , Learning , Teaching Materials , Biomedical Engineering/methods , Biomedical Engineering/organization & administration , Cooperative Behavior , Education, Professional/organization & administration , Interinstitutional Relations , Models, Educational , Teaching/methods , Teaching/organization & administration , United StatesSubject(s)
Biomechanical Phenomena/education , Biomedical Engineering/education , Computer-Assisted Instruction/methods , Curriculum , Education, Professional/methods , Learning , Problem-Based Learning/methods , Problem-Based Learning/organization & administration , Biomedical Engineering/methods , Biomedical Engineering/organization & administration , Cooperative Behavior , Education, Professional/organization & administration , Educational Measurement/methods , Educational Technology/methods , Models, Educational , Teaching/methods , Teaching/organization & administration , Teaching Materials , Thinking , United States , UniversitiesABSTRACT
Education in biomedical engineering offers a number of challenges to all constituents of the educational process-faculty, students, and employers of graduates. Although biomedical engineering educational systems have been under development for 40 years, interest in and the pace of development of these programs has accelerated in recent years. New advances in the learning sciences have provided a framework for the reexamination of instructional paradigms in biomedical engineering. This work shows that learning environments should be learner centered, knowledge centered, assessment centered, and community centered. In addition, learning technologies offer the potential to achieve this environment with efficiency. Biomedical engineering educators are in a position to design and implement new learning systems that can take advantage of advances in learning science, learning technology, and reform in engineering education.