Product-based learning: Bundling goods and services for an integrated context-rich industrial engineering curriculum

Abstract

This work-in-progress paper reports on the redesign of the undergraduate Industrial Engineering (IE) curriculum at The Pennsylvania State University around a set of complex products that bundle goods and services together to facilitate an integrated product-based learning approach. Unlike the relatively disjointed silo-style approach to learning individual topics that has been the cornerstone of engineering programs nationwide, this approach enables students to learn technical content in an integrated manner, providing a common thread throughout core courses. Ultimately, the goal is to improve student motivation and learning as they understand, discover and practice the connectedness and mutual dependencies of core subjects in the successful realization and delivery of goods and services. A description of how the faculty team worked together to envision and implement product-based learning throughout the curriculum is provided, along with examples of implementation in the first few courses, student feedback and early lessons learned.