Anchoring the Experience of Highly Diverse Students on the EMship+ Master: All Aboard!

Abstract

The prestigious Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degrees capitalize on diversity to achieve academic excellence; this is the case of the EMship+ Master in Ship Design. The highly varied cultural and academic background of the students however raises a learning and teaching challenge. Firstly, I assessed the diversity of the student cohort with an evidence-based approach to identify the dominant learning styles, and align the teaching to promote student engagement. Secondly, I created a more technology-enhanced learning environment thanks to an innovative use of lecture capture. The research ascertained the success and evidence of the positive impact of the refined teaching style and integration of technology using the quantitative data collected. Here, I outline the strength and limitations of the innovative solutions adopted to alleviate the difficulty of teaching highly disparate groups of students, demonstrating the need to gain knowledge of the students to construct an engaging learning environment.