Is the CDIO journey worth it? : an analysis of European intermediate CDIO members

Abstract

The CDIO initiative started in 2000 with four institutions. Since then the number of institutions has increased and today there is more than 160 using CDIO in their programs. This increase shows that the CDIO initiative provides something that the engineering programmes, schools, faculties, and institutions are seeking. When institutions apply for membership in the CDIO initiative, they submit an application where they answer several questions reflecting their situation, aims and goals. In the application phase, they look into the future and try to elaborate on the effects they think CDIO might provide and on the effects that they hope CDIO will bring. Furthermore, the universities do a CDIO self-evaluation as part of the application procedure. The authors of this paper have application data of more than 60 institutions starting from 2010 until today. The data is available as both authors act as regional leaders of CDIO in Europe. As the application phase is more or less a description of dreams towards a CDIO future, the authors wanted to study how well the dreams have come true and what have happened after the introduction of the CDIO approach. For this research, we selected six case universities and asked them to reflect on their journey from the application phase to today. The cases represent different countries within the CDIO European region, and they have been members of CDIO over three years. The research focused on three areas: fulfilment of expected outcomes of joining the CDIO initiative, barriers and enablers for changes and usability of CDIO self-evaluation. The results show that universities have fulfilled their expectations very well, and the CDIO approach has benefited them in various ways, and the CDIO journey is worth doing.