Teaching conceptual design to a heterogeneous group: A workshop method

Master of Engineering Management program at United Arab Emirates University recruits students from multiple backgrounds and has product design as its main theme. The pedagogy employed uses Instructivism to teach the theoretical part to the students and permits them to use constructivism approach to build competence. A workshop method was designed and used for the students to gain competence in more than ten conceptual design methods. The students produced the designs in two steps: first as small groups producing the design and presenting to the peers and a panel of judges for critiquing and in the second rectifying the shortcomings identified from the presentations and feedback from judges. In the subsequent examination, majority of the students performed well in the question relating to the activities surrounding the workshop. The results obtained from this study suggest that Workshop method can be an effective method to teach large number of conceptual design methods to a heterogeneous group of students.