Huber Justin, Higbee Steven, Espinosa Christina, Bazrgari Babak, Miller Sharon
University of Kentucky, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Lexington, KY 40506, USA.
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Biomedical Engineering, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA.
Int J Eng Educ. 2023;39(4):961-975.
Immersion experiences for undergraduate students in biomedical engineering are key contributors to their ability to identify medical needs. Despite this, as few as 25% of surveyed programs report providing such opportunities. Since 2010 when the National Institute of Health began its R25 grant mechanism to support curricular development toward team-based design, several institutions have established programs for immersion experiences, which provide precedent for their implementation. Published results from such immersion experiences highlight successes in structure and changes in student perspectives after these experiences. As more institutions expand their biomedical engineering curriculum with new immersion-focused programs, it is important to learn from these precedents while also considering opportunities to improve. For newly funded groups that are developing and implementing programs, they may find improved success by strategic use of unique partnerships. However, these partnerships may not be immediately evident to program organizers. Our objective is to discuss two institutions that recently established programs for immersion experience. In the comparison of our two immersion programs, we found five overlapping core features that include: immersion partner collaboration, team-based immersion experiences, needs-finding emphasis, team-based engineering design experiences, and immersion assessment and evaluation. Both programs developed collaborative partnerships with nearby medical schools. Additionally, one program partnered with a community resource (i.e., Human Development Institute). Despite nuanced program differences, we found that students at both programs self-reported increased knowledge or confidence in aspects of the design process (e.g., identifying and refining user needs, concept generation). Our results also highlight student gains unique to their programs - UK students self-reported gains on disability topics and IUPUI students self-reported gains on socioeconomic awareness. In summary, immersion partner collaboration, or partnership, surfaced as a core feature for both programs, and students in both immersion programs endorsed enhanced knowledge or confidence in engineering design.
本科生参与生物医学工程沉浸式体验是他们识别医疗需求能力的关键因素。尽管如此，在接受调查的项目中，只有25%的项目报告提供了此类机会。自2010年美国国立卫生研究院启动R25资助机制以支持基于团队设计的课程开发以来，一些机构已经建立了沉浸式体验项目，为其实施提供了先例。此类沉浸式体验的已发表结果突出了其结构上的成功以及学生在这些体验后的观点变化。随着越来越多的机构通过新的以沉浸式体验为重点的项目扩展其生物医学工程课程，在借鉴这些先例的同时考虑改进的机会非常重要。对于新获得资助并正在开发和实施项目的团队来说，通过战略性地利用独特的合作伙伴关系可能会取得更大的成功。然而，这些合作伙伴关系可能对项目组织者来说并非立竿见影。我们的目标是讨论两所最近建立沉浸式体验项目的机构。在比较我们的两个沉浸式项目时，我们发现了五个重叠的核心特征，包括：沉浸式合作伙伴协作、基于团队的沉浸式体验、需求发现重点、基于团队的工程设计体验以及沉浸式评估和评价。两个项目都与附近的医学院建立了合作关系。此外，一个项目与社区资源（即人类发展研究所）建立了合作关系。尽管项目存在细微差异，但我们发现两个项目的学生都自我报告在设计过程的各个方面（例如，识别和完善用户需求、概念生成）知识有所增加或信心有所增强。我们的结果还突出了每个项目学生的独特收获——肯塔基大学的学生自我报告在残疾主题方面有所收获，印第安纳大学普渡大学印第安纳波利斯分校的学生自我报告在社会经济意识方面有所收获。总之，沉浸式合作伙伴协作，即合作关系，成为两个项目的核心特征，并且两个沉浸式项目的学生都认可在工程设计方面知识有所增加或信心有所增强。
