Industry Focused Courses Utilizing Collaborative Learning Approach

Industry focused, full semester Courses A “Industry and Information Systems” and B “Overview of the Market and Introduction to Marketing” are lectured by the lead author at Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Technology (TMIT). In these courses, overview of the global and Japanese economies and trends of each industry sector are introduced by the lecturer. Students are assigned to write a report on a specific industry sector, a specific market and other related topics of his or her interest, and opportunities for presentation and discussion on their draft reports with their classmates and the lecturer are given toward the end of the semester. Apart from these courses, a full semester Course C “Evolution of Industry, Business and Engineering Practice in the Global Economy,” utilizing collaborative learning approach, was proposed by the lead author in 1998, and was partially taught at American and Japanese universities, utilizing the Proceedings of the ASME Engineering & Technology Management Group Symposia at IMECE 2000–2002.^1)–3) The surveys were conducted concerning the student’s interest of industry sectors, lecture topics, and international topics both at the beginning and at the end of the semester. In addition, surveys to sense students’ new discovery from lectures for all course modules and those to sense useful knowledge in their career planning and in general were conducted at the end of all classes. The results of surveys show that students found the discussion opportunities valuable to gain broader perspectives and insights into their own subject of study when writing their reports, by learning what their classmates are studying and from classmates’ comments. This paper also discusses what motivates students in learning, what influences students’ general, specific, and career interests, and how students’ interests may change from the beginning to the end of the semester for which these courses are given.