Embedding interdisciplinarity: the evolution of an undergraduate EBL module

Over the three-year history of this project, the Enquiry-Based Learning (EBL) course unit under consideration in this case study has evolved considerably. It has been run annually but it is the most recent version (2005/06) that is the main focus of this article. The eleven-week, credit-rated unit is unusual in that it provides undergraduates from a number of different Schools with an opportunity to collaborate in interdisciplinary enquiry. In its most recent incarnation, students from Geography, Medicine, Education, Modern Languages and Biology undertook desk research and pooled their disciplinary knowledge in developing strategies for addressing complex societal and environmental problems. The article provides brief background about how the unit came about and how its design has evolved. A large number of conference papers, publications and in-house presentations have arisen from the project, and some of these are detailed in the references section. Throughout the three years of the project, the evaluation strategy has combined the collection of quantitative and qualitative data. The
methods and the findings from the most recent set of data are put forward and
further project developments proposed.