This document discusses a multidisciplinary teaching approach that pairs law students with engineering students. The law students interview the engineering students about their master's projects and provide legal advice on any intellectual property issues. This gives the law students real-world experience with skills like fact-finding, written advice, and client interactions. It also increases the engineers' awareness of intellectual property protections. The approach benefits both students' employability and has led to deeper learning through an authentic project. Challenges include coordinating the different students' schedules, but benefits include highly engaged students and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

1. Multidisciplinary pairing: a win-win
employability enhancing teaching
experience.
Claire Howell 2nd April 2014

2. Employability: definition one.
A set of:
• achievements
• skills
• understandings and
• personal attributes
that makes graduates more likely to gain employment and be
successful in their chosen occupations,
which benefits themselves, the workforce, the community and
the economy.
• (ESECT based on Yorke 2006)

3. Employability: definition two
Employability is more than about developing attributes,
techniques or experience just to enable a student to get a
job, or to progress within a current career.
It is about learning and the emphasis is less on ‘employ’ and
more on ‘ability’.
In essence, the emphasis is on developing critical, reflective
abilities, with a view to empowering and enhancing the
learner.
• (Harvey 2003)

4. How can we do this?
How can we best
integrate and
balance different
ways of teaching
and learning that
promote both
effective learning
and employability for
students?
How can we
encourage students
to become confident
learners and
individuals capable
of making a full
contribution to
society?
Pedagogy for employability 2012

5. Real world activities
I am
educating my
students for
jobs that do
not yet exist

6. What is the approach?
Each law student is
paired with an
engineering student.
LLB students tasked with
identifying any IPR that
the engineering students
had in their live Msc
projects.

7. LLB Coursework
50% of the marks
for the module
a) submit an
individual advice
letter [800 words ]
addressed to their
engineering student
based on interviews
conducted
concerning their
project work .
b) a legally argued
analysis of the IP
issues of the project.
1,700 words.

8. Who is involved?
Second year LLB
undergraduate Law
and Management
students.
Msc Engineering
and Design
students

9. The learning aims and objectives.
Law students
A deep learning experience.
They gain practice in
• Fact finding
• Advice writing
• Interpersonal skills used in the
interview procedure.
• They have complete ownership of
their work and undertake research
in a live context.

10. Aim for the engineers
It shows the students
how in Industry they
will be expected to
understand the
• Importance of early IP
protection.
• Have an awareness of the
strategic value in:
• income generation
• market advantage.

11. Objectives
For the academic
• Both sides win.
• It cost little in the
academics time.
• No preparation of an
innovative case study.
• Little need to motivate
the students as they
motivate themselves.

12. How we do it at Aston
First term
• Law students learn about the different IP rights.
Second
term
• Masterclass
• Meet with a Patent Attorney and member of the BPU
• the function of the BPU
• what they should do if a registrable idea was discovered.
• the procedures the office would undertake with any innovation.

13. This was serious
Confidentiality
agreement.
There might be a
REAL invention!

14. The pairing
The students
swap e-mail
addresses
At that point
I loose
control

15. My role
Tutorial slot
every week
I was
available via
e-mail
Virtual
leaning
resource
[Blackboard,]

16. Outcome for engineers
In some cases IP
knowledge has changed
the direction of the
project of the engineer.
With IP knowledge they
recognised a slightly
different approach could
result in something new.

17. Outcome for engineers-employability
They are ready and able to
contribute to future economic
growth with knowledge, skills
and creativity in new
business environments.
They have acquired
knowledge, skills and
attributes to support
continued learning and
career development.
Pedagogy for employability 2012

18. Outcome for law students-employability
Self -management
Communication and literacy
application of literacy, ability to produce clear, structured
written work and oral literacy – including listening and
questioning.
Business and customer awareness
the need to provide customer satisfaction and build customer
loyalty.
Problem solving
analysing facts and situations and applying creative thinking
to develop appropriate solutions.

19. Preparation-the right academic
Enthusiastic
engineering
lecturer
Understands the
importance of
• obtaining IP
• retaining IP
• exploiting IP

20. Preparation- the right students
Phd students ??
• Time -not committed
to a timetable
• Reluctant to pause
before publishing

21. Preparation-timing
Timing-the most
difficult thing to
dovetail.
Msc project was
in the third
semester
Msc project may
still be a vague
idea

22. What went wrong?
Can’t guarantee the
quality of either
advisor or client
Some clients or advisors
let partner down by not
making contact or even
appearing

23. What went right?
They
love it
• Practical and
relevant
knowledge.
• Deep and
practical learning
of professional
skills through a
real project.
• High and
enthusiastic
participation
leading to better
marks.

24. Learning by doing
Most studies suggest that ‘active learning by doing’ is
what works in relation to many employability skills,
particularly for communication, working with others,
time and personal management and problem solving.
This method allows students to work in
interdisciplinary teams and to integrate their learning
experiences across levels and subjects of study.
Pedagogy for employability 2012

25. The outcome
Deeper and practical
learning of professional
skills through a real
project
Increased level of enquiry-
based learning
Higher, more enthusiastic
participation leading to
better marks.
Benefit to industry as
engineering graduates will
have practical and relevant
knowledge about how to
integrate their work within
the business enterprise
Reduced cost of training.
Increased levels of
employability.

26. Conclusion
Experience of working in multi-disciplinary
teams on realistic projects. The lawyers are
learning to talk to engineers and the
engineers are learning to talk to lawyers.
Any course must stimulate and motivate the
students and I think this method of live
teaching does.