WPI Curriculum Features Intergration and Problem-Based Learning

Worchester Polytechnic Institute's Project-Based Curriculum Sets High Standards and Connects Science and Technology with Humanities and Social Sciences.

"In a learning centered institution, students are guided in constructing knowledge for themselves" says Robert Shoenberg, Senior Fellow at the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) and Director of AAC&U's project Greater Expectations for Student Transfer. Worcester Polytechnic Institute, one of the 16 schools selected to be part of AAC&U's Greater Expectations Consortium on Quality Education, provides a sophisticated model for this method of learning and curricular organization, combining theory and practice in team-based problem solving.

"Most institutions claim to be learner centered." Shoenberg continues. Worcester, as other institutions selected to be part of the Greater Expectations Consortium, however, demonstrated a particular commitment to "innovative, learning centered undergraduate education" rather than traditional instructor-directed methods of teaching. Curriculum "anchored in the liberal arts" is another criteria for an institution to be included on the Consortium. Although WPI is a technical institution, its strong emphasis on students' understanding of the "societal impact of technology, on team-centered projects, and on the required proficiency in a traditional liberal arts discipline" make this school a model of learning centered education practices grounded in the values of liberal learning.

Richard F. Vaz, associate dean of interdisciplinary and global studies division and associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at WPI, explained the institution's project-based curriculum in AAC&U's journal Liberal Education (vol. 86, no. 1):

In 1970, the faculty of Worcester Polytechnic Institute adopted a new project-based curricular structure for its undergraduate programs of study in engineering, science, and management. In a departure from traditional engineering and science curricula, the WPI Plan specifies degree requirements primarily in the form of three project experiences.

One project experience, the Sufficiency, takes form as […] a thematic course of study in a specific area of the humanities and arts. Conducted as an independent study under the guidance of a faculty member, this project requirement is akin to a minor.

A second undergraduate degree requirement, the Major Qualifying Project (MQP) is designed to provide a professional-level application of the students' knowledge in their major fields. Equivalent in credit to three courses and completed in small teams under the guidance of one or more faculty members, the MQP typically involves the design, synthesis, and realization of a solution to a real-world technical problem.

The third of these requirements, the Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP), serves to connect students' work in technical studies to their work in the humanities and social sciences. By asking students to address a problem with both technical and societal aspects, the IQP challenges them to examine how science and technology interact with societal structures and values. Equivalent in credit to three courses, this project is also done in small teams under faculty supervision. However, the student and faculty teams are multidisciplinary, and the project topic is not necessarily related to students' major fields of study or to the faculty's disciplinary area. Instead, students are expected to develop an understanding of concepts and techniques from the social sciences and humanities in order to solve a real-world, interdisciplinary problem, typically for some external agency or organization. The overriding objective of the IQP is "to enable WPI graduates to understand, as citizens and professionals, how their careers will affect the larger society of which they are part."

Taken together, these degree requirements form the basis for degree programs that emphasize critical and contextual thinking, written and oral communication, integration and synthesis, and interdisciplinary collaboration. In particular, the IQP, with its broad focus and experiential nature, is intended to help students learn how to apply their skills and knowledge across disciplinary and spatial borders. WPI's conscious decision to educate "technological humanists" has shaped the institution's development since the WPI Plan was adopted, and no aspect of this development has been more in concert with these educational objectives, nor broader in impact, than the expansion of student and faculty project activity into the wider world.

Greater Expectations: The Commitment to Quality as a Nation Goes to College is AAC&U's multi-year initiative to define the aims of a twenty-first century undergraduate education and to disseminate the best strategies for achieving those aims. The 16 schools chosen to participate in the Consortium on Quality Education have made significant and comprehensive commitments to providing a learning centered environment for students. These schools represent a wide variety of institutions and serve as models of best practices in undergraduate education.

For more information on Greater Expectations, see
www.aacu.org/Initiatives/greatexp.html
or call 202/387-3760.

For more information on Worcester Polytechnic Institute, see www.wpi.edu.