Teamwork and communication in scenario-based learning: a case study in Biomedical Engineering

Scenarios are week-long intensive projects encouraging problem-solving and strengthening previously taught theoretical knowledge by its practical application. They also provide a unique pedagogic opportunity to train students to take ownership of their education, by encouraging reflection, efficient communication and teamwork. For this transfer of responsibility to empower the learners and lead to a more positive experience of education (and more efficient use of lecturer's contact time), several critical skills must be developed. These include the ability to assess honestly one's own knowledge, recognise where it needs developing and appropriately use available resources to achieve this. This March, Biomedical Engineering students took part in a scenario during which a mix of creative initiatives were implemented, including presenting the project in terms of learning outcomes to be demonstrated rather than tasks to be undertaken. Aside from the technical skills, two particularly novel aspects of this scenario are (1) cross disciplinary teamwork and (2) pushing students to reflect on the most effective time for input from staff. We did this by splitting each group of four students into pairs, working on separate, parallel, subtasks, assessed via “cross-presentations”: pair A presents the results of pair B and vice-versa. Additionally 1 to 1 tutorials with staff could be ‘bought’ with “consultation tokens”, shifting the onus of responsibility on to the students in deciding when external help should be sought. In this presentation we reflect on the outcomes of that week, from the view points of both the organisers and the students.