Lessons learnt from a CDIO-based curricular reform of the computer science program at the Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, Chile

ABSTRACT

We present the lessons learnt in the process of adopting the Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate (CDIO) approach for the curricular reform of the Computer Science program at the School of Engineering of the Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, Chile. These lessons were gathered through a participatory and iterative process involving members of the Computer Science program’s curricular committee in charge of the CDIO implementation and self-evaluation processes, and members of the program’s national accreditation self-evaluation committee. They are presented in response to the following questions: what actions effectively aid standards implementation, and what factors must be considered in order to successfully implement CDIO. We share them in the hope of aiding other institutions that are evaluating the adoption of the CDIO approach.

KEYWORDS:

• CDIO initiative
• program evaluation
• engineering education
• curricular reform

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Marcia Muñoz studied Computer Science at the University of Concepción and obtained her M.C.S. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Currently, she is a faculty member in the Computer Science department at the Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, where she also serves as the director of the undergraduate program. She leads the curriculum reform project for the Computer Science program. Her research and consulting interests are software engineering, machine learning and engineering education.

Claudia Martínez studied Computer Science at the University of Concepción and obtained her Master in Educational Informatics at the Universidad de la Frontera. Currently, she is a faculty member in the Computer Science department at the Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción. Her research and interest areas are related to information retrieval and the semantic web. She is currently the Director of the School of Engineering at UCSC.

Cristian Cárdenas studied Port Maritime Engineering at the Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, Chile. He obtained his MBA at the Universidad del Bío-Bío, Chile, specialising in International Business. He has served as the Industrial Engineering Department head and also as the director of the undergraduate program. He is currently the University Registrar at UCSC.

Mario Medina studied Electronics Engineering at the Universidad de Concepción, Chile. He obtained his Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Currently, he is a faculty member at the Department. of Electrical Engineering at the Universidad de Concepción, where he also serves as the director of the undergraduate program.

Notes

1 http://www.cdio.org

2 http://www.cnachile.cl

3 http://www.mifuturo.cl/index.php/informes-sies/retencion-de-pregrado