Home / About STRIPES / Participating Modules / Case 5
2 disciplines
250+ students
Structured group project
Mimics Reality
Case 5
Module 7: Discrete Structures & Algorithms
Module 7: Discrete Structures & Efficient Algorithms is a 2nd year, 3rd quartile module bringing together technical computer science and applied mathematics students. Discrete structures for modelling and problem solving in mathematics and computer science are taught through theoretical study as well as practical implementation of algorithms, that ultimately feed into the team project. In the team project, students apply their knowledge to implement their own algorithm for solving a notorious graph isomorphism problem.
The STRIPES intervention for this module was first exploratory in the form of a master’s thesis study from January to April 2020, then in February – April 2021 an intervention as a means to mitigate some of the noted issues raised from the thesis, was applied. After finding that both academic staff and students perceived interdisciplinary education as valuable, it was noted that there was minimal facilitation to enhance an effective interdisciplinary experience. Also, mainly due to high student numbers, no personal tutors were available to coach teams with process type issues. Additionally, the staff showed low internal coherence and received minimal support on interdisciplinary education, therefore was not able to fully support the students. Consequently, it was recommend that implementing interdisciplinary learning outcome(s) and ensuring constructive alignment could formally set better interdisciplinary support in motion. The intervention trialed self-directed teams skill resources and the BuddyCheck application as a means to monitor progress within the collaborating teams.
What we learned
- The arrangement of the project being 20% of the total score, meant that the priority to enhance ID skills is understandably low.
- Substituting team skills coaching in a self-directed learning format is not useful.
- Imbalance in disciplinary ratios (e.g. 3 to 1) makes planning the balance of project responsibilities complicated.
