DESIGN OF CDIO CURRICULUM FOR UNDERGRADUATE ENGINEERING PROGRAMME: INDIAN CONTEXT

Autonomous institutions in India have the freedom to design and develop innovative curriculum, content delivery, and assessment methodologies. In 2013, the Outcome-Based Education (OBE) framework was made mandatory for accrediting undergraduate engineering programs in India by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA). However, in reality, cognitive aspects are addressed to a greater extent than the affective and psychomotor aspects of learning. After attending the 11th International CDIO conference, we realized that the CDIO framework would be highly suitable for improving the undergraduate engineering curriculum in addressing all 12 graduate attributes of the International Engineering Alliance (IEA). As a pilot study, Engineering Design and Capstone courses were introduced in the OBE curriculum at our institute to emphasize hands-on practices, personal and interpersonal skills. These courses helped us to strengthen the mapping between course outcomes and 12 graduate attributes/program outcomes.  This motivated us to adapt the CDIO curriculum for all undergraduate engineering programs at our institution in 2018. The major challenge was in the introduction of new courses in the curriculum such that all four sections of the CDIO syllabus are addressed within the framework given by the regulatory authorities in India. This paper presents the methodology followed in adapting the CDIO syllabus at our institution, satisfying the requirements of regulatory authorities in India. In the proposed CDIO curriculum, a specialized new course was introduced at each semester of the program to improve the personal, interpersonal, and system building skills of the students, in addition to disciplinary knowledge and reasoning.  The courses are, namely, Engineering Exploration, Lateral Thinking, Design Thinking, Project Management, System Thinking, Engineering Design Project, Capstone Design Project, and Major Project. The course outcomes of all the courses in the curriculum are articulated by combining the knowledge, skill, and attitude domains of learning.  A model CDIO curriculum designed for Electronics and Communication Engineering program is presented in this paper.