Interdisciplinary team based learning (ITBL): A case study

Educational institutes should utilize information technology (IT) advancements to improve their delivery methods. However, the implementation of technology in education requires innovation by teachers & the institute the appropriate employment of the type of technology, as well as the organizational culture to support such implementation. Advances in the technology lend itself to delivery methods such as independent learning, e-learning and project based learning. The authors' experiences in these methods triggered the desire for a more integrated approach to learning. Projects, especially real life ones, are multidisciplinary by nature. For example, to work on an e-commerce website, you need to integrate an interdisciplinary team of IT, Business and Media students, to name few, to work together. This paper proposes the Imaging Technology Center (ITC) as an example of how to: 1) facilitate independent and project based learning methods; 2) Allow for transparent formation of interdisciplinary teams; 3) Deliver integrated learning; & 4) Improve organizational learning and culture.