Staff Experiences of Leading Large-Scale Multi-Departmental Project-Based Learning for Year 1 Engineering Students

There is increasing consensus that Engineering programmes need to include space for skills learning, particularly in interdisciplinary contexts. Active learning methods, such as project-based learning, are the gold standard for teaching interdisciplinary skills. However much of the literature on these approaches focuses on relatively small class sizes, making the application in larger contexts seem unfeasible. The Integrated Engineering Programme (IEP) at University College London (UCL), is one of the most comprehensive and largest applications of active learning methodologies within undergraduate engineering curricula in the UK. A key part is the cornerstone module, Engineering Challenges. This first-year undergraduate module aims to introduce students to project work and key skills such as teamwork and communication through undertaking an interdisciplinary project. Taken by close to 1000 students across seven departments, this is a complex undertaking and we have had to develop approaches to delivering large-scale interdisciplinary project work. Team teaching is central to this; with the Engineering Challenges teaching team led by a faculty-level Module Lead, with one to four academics from each department. This paper focuses on the role of the Module Lead in this unusual situation, how this role differs from a more typical role and how this links to module success.