Team and Research Based Learning Methods Applied in Multidisciplinary Marine Engineering Education

This paper presents an integrated team-based, and research-based learning approach utilized in lecturing multidisciplinary marine engineering courses. The approach is exemplified during one month Ocean Engineering Summer School program at the Marine Technology Department, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, for a group of students from different universities across Japan. Students with engineering background, but not necessarily marine, joined to learn fundamentals of marine technology, including structure, hydrodynamic and dynamic response analysis presented through offshore structures, subsea equipment, pipelines, offshore wind energy, marine machinery and marine operations. The marine industry has moved toward digitalization and this aspect was an important part of the curriculum, both in terms of tools and methods lectured and employed for each discipline and industrial examples for instance simulation-based design and operation demonstration. An integrated team-based (TBL) and research-based (RBL) learning approach was employed. The outcomes and positive feedback from students and the Nippon Foundation Ocean Innovation Consortium demonstrated that RBL integrated with TBL shifts the students from being “audiences” in the classroom to “active participants”. The program was enriched with a rich cultural program which was found very helpful in learning process by the students. Moreover, the industrial insights added value for implementing the TBL and RBL. The marine engineering development and needs to adopt engineering education for modern marine industry, call for innovative and adaptive educational methods and this article presents some of the innovative methods which can be employed.