CURRENT AND FUTURE VALUE OF BEING IN CDIO – CDIO COMMUNITY IDEAS

CDIO started as a project in 2000 and in 2004 CDIO initiative was formed as a worldwide collaboration in engineering education. The collaboration is built on professional networking, shared knowledge, and practices. Its members come from all over the world and share a common goal of enhancing teaching and learning in higher education. As the community grows, it is essential that we understand the expectations of the CDIO community so that the CDIO initiative, framework, community etc. can be enabled to keep itself interesting and valuable. This paper reports on a series of engagements with CDIO collaborators at the CDIO International Conference, International Working Meetings and Regional meetings that explored the rationale of working with CDIO, how we can improve the CDIO initiative, and how to keep it valuable for our collaborators. It reflects the value of being in CDIO from the viewpoint of current and potential CDIO collaborators. There is broad consensus amongst the members that CDIO provides a valuable framework for enhancing the quality of engineering education; opportunities to share, learn and benchmark their curriculum; and network with an international community of educators with similar challenges and goals. As the landscape of higher education continues to evolve, members recognize the importance of CDIO keeping up to date with changes in the world and the needs of employers. The paper will also report the challenges faced to active participation in CDIO and to communicating the value of CDIO to colleagues, decision makers, and potential collaborators. It will discuss possible steps CDIO could take to continuously develop and to be of value to both existing and potential collaborators.