Engineering Spotlight
Chris Bazett
Chris Bazett
Students help design UBC learning—Engineering Curriculum
By Lissa Cowan
Reprinted with permission from
UBC Reports | Vol. 55 | No. 9 | Sep. 8, 2009
In December 2008 as Chris Bazett finished up his undergraduate coursework in civil engineering, he heard his department would be redeveloping its curriculum the following month. “I told them this was a subject that fascinated me and I was soon hired to administer the revamp,” he says.
But not just any revamp. Bazett’s task was to engage the entire department in the redevelopment, while also seeking collaboration from the student body. He describes his full-time role as “bridging the gap” between students and faculty. “This level of activity, and support at the faculty level, has not been seen before,” he says. He adds past redevelopment activities were driven from the sides of people’s desks with no sustained focus.
“Students are really happy we are doing this,” says Barb Lence, Bazett’s supervisor, civil engineering professor and associate head of undergraduate programs who has been given a temporary release from teaching to oversee the revamp. Lence was instrumental, along with Reza Vaziri, department head, in recognizing the importance of the curriculum reform and in creating an opportunity for Bazett to help out. “We are so fortunate to have him as the middleman between faculty and students because he can see outside the box and bring a deeper level to our discussions,” adds Lence.
Other duties Bazett is engaged in include making recommendations about the curriculum redevelopment process, and facilitating coordination and communication among committee members.
Part of the restructuring is focused on filling in the gaps by offering more electives for students and more integrative design courses at second, third and fourth years. These courses will allow students to draw on what they learned from other courses, see interrelationships between courses, and understand their relevance to real-world engineering problems.
This focus was echoed by students at the end of last term, when they filled out a detailed survey developed by Bazett. The survey sought to capture their experience and generate ideas about ways to make the program’s curriculum more student-centred, so there is a shift from a traditional emphasis on the subject matter itself to what is being learned.
“Students like coming to me because although I am no longer a student, the student experience is still fresh in my mind,” he says. “The students can relate to me and feel comfortable relaying their views, anecdotes, and sometimes they express a concern about things that worked or didn’t.”
In May, the department conducted its annual two-day retreat. This year the focus was on curriculum redevelopment. “I had at hand ready examples to share with faculty during the retreat,” says Bazett. “These real-life experiences help professors to better understand the student perspective.”
