Evaluation of interdisciplinarity and benefit to society

Illustration is developed and designed by Elli Verhulst  

By Elli Verhulst, Sigrid Westad Brandshaug, Nina Haugland Andersen, Thomas Christian Espenes, Benjamin Toscher and Marte Konstad, NTNU

This exercise helps teams assess how well their ideas use interdisciplinarity and benefit society, which are key elements in EiT. It is most useful after brainstorming, when teams have several ideas to compare. The goal is to support decision-making before selecting a final project idea. It promotes convergent thinking by narrowing and evaluating options. Facilitators should consider whether to run it in plenary or only with selected teams.

  • Duration:
    About 30 minutes
  • Focus:
    Evaluating ideas for interdisciplinarity and societal benefit.
  • Activity:
    Group
  • Keywords:
    Interdisciplinarity, Societal benefit, Idea evaluation, Team engagement

About the exercise

This exercise helps the team to better assess how well their ideas will make use of the team’s interdisciplinarity and benefit society. These are key elements in EiT, and the students will later be writing about and evaluating them in their final report.

The exercise is best suited for teams that have generated many ideas through brainstorming activities and want to compare the ideas with each other. The exercise helps the teams to choose which ideas they want to explore further before they make a final choice. First, think about where the teams are in the process. Is the exercise suitable for all teams so that it should be done in a plenary session, or is it most relevant for specific teams? This is an exercise that supports convergent thinking. 

Interdisciplinarity: This exercise links interdisciplinarity with the potential for using and integrating the competence of each student in developing project ideas. This means that the teams must evaluate (not in depth at this stage) which methods, procedures, theories and perspectives from students’ subject areas, but also which practical skills and personal characteristics (see the competence triangle) might be relevant in the various project ideas.

Benefit to society: In this exercise, the teams assess (not in depth at this stage) the value that the ideas may have for others (outside the team itself). These may be other individuals, groups, organisations, and society, and may be related to the following values: value for individuals, intellectual value, economic value, social value and value for the environment. .

Learning objectives

  • Evaluate project ideas based on their potential societal benefit.
  • Identify how team members’ interdisciplinary skills contribute to each idea.
  • Use structured tools to support collaborative decision-making.
  • Reflect on personal and team engagement with project ideas.
  • Refine ideas through iteration based on new insights and feedback.

Preparation

Students must have the project ideas they want to evaluate in front of them. Print two copies of the exercise sheet “Evaluation of interdisciplinarity and benefit to society” for each team, preferably in A3 format, or ask the teams to draw a figure with benefit to society on the x-axis and interdisciplinarity on the y-axis. Hand out Post-it notes and markers (red, blue and green) to each team. You can refer to the example of the figure in the PowerPoint presentation available digitally. This will make it easier to do the exercise. Read the points on this page and the next two pages so that you are prepared for the exercise and for questions from the students. We recommend using PowerPoint to present the exercise (to be made available before the semester starts).

Implementation

Inform the students that they will now choose which project ideas (after brainstorming) might be relevant for their final choice of project. To get a better decision-making basis for choosing an idea, they need to look more closely at which projects they think will have the greatest benefit to society, as well as in which projects they think that they can make the best use of the interdisciplinary potential in the team. Benefit to society and interdisciplinarity are two key elements of the project delivery, and students can read more about the expectations for the project report in the formal framework for the course (available on the EiT website).

  • Ask the teams to write ideas that they want to consider after brainstorming (if they have not already done this). Write the ideas on Post-it notes, one note per idea.
  • Ask each student to look at the project ideas and choose two ideas that, based on what they know today, they believe will provide the greatest benefit to society. Later, these ideas will be marked with a green dot. In teams with four students, each student can use three dots in each colour. For the moment, they should write down their choice. Individual exercise in silence (three minutes).
  • Ask each student to look at the project ideas and choose two ideas that, based on what they know today, they believe will make the best use of the interdisciplinary potential in the team. Later, these
    ideas will be marked with a blue dot. For the moment, they should write down their choice. Individual exercise in silence (three minutes)
  • Inform the students that only the projects that get dots will be included in the further assessments. To make sure that project ideas that students are motivated to work with are included in the further process, each student must now look up project ideas and choose two ideas to which they personally feel a strong commitment. Later, these ideas will be marked with a red dot. For the moment, they should write down their choice. Individual exercise in silence (three minutes).
  • Ask the students to make their choices visible by marking the ideas on the Post-it notes with green, blue and red dots. They then insert the Post-it notes in the figure “Interdisciplinarity– Benefit to society”. Ideas with both green and blue dots are inserted at the top right, ideas with only green dots are inserted at the bottom right, ideas with only blue dots are inserted at the top left, and ideas with only red dots are inserted at the bottom left (see illustration at the top).
  • Ask the students to look at the figure, especially at the ideas in the top right. In the team’s assessment, this idea/these ideas satisfy the criteria for interdisciplinarity and benefit to society. If the team also has a sense of engagement in the idea(s), this has great potential to become the team’s final project idea. 
  • If no idea in the Interdisciplinarity–Benefit to society figure has been given blue, green, and red dots, this is a good starting point for assessing the idea’s potential in more detail. First, ask the students to pay extra attention to ideas that have been given many red dots, but few green and blue dots. Can any of these be developed further to increase their benefit to society and/or to take better advantage of the interdisciplinary potential in the team? It is important for the team to have a sense of engagement in the idea they choose for further work. Ideas that have received many blue and green dots, but no or few red ones, should also be discussed: What is necessary to achieve greater engagement in the team? One aim of EiT is that the project has some sort of benefit for society, and that the students make use of the interdisciplinary potential in the team. Students can now consider whether any of the ideas can/should be adjusted, so that they can be moved to other parts of the figure (30 minutes).

Tip

If the students feel strongly motivated with respect to one particular idea and want to choose it (without considering other ideas in greater depth), you can challenge them to create different variants of this idea. After this, they can consider the different variants of the idea in greater detail in the next step of the exercise

Your Role

You will be the process leader and keep track of the time. If needed, feel free to provide spontaneous facilitation for the teams when they are working on point 7

Continuation of the exercise:

As the teams gradually gain more knowledge about the competence available in the team and about the ideas, they can go back to the figure and see whether any of the ideas should be placed somewhere else. Do they see the social usefulness of an idea to a greater extent (for example, after doing the exercise “Create value for others”)? Had they thought that a project idea would make good use of the interdisciplinarity in the team, but new information has now caused them to see it differently? Have they gathered information that has led to greater/less engagement with the idea? Ask the students to do a new assessment before deciding on which idea they will continue working on in EiT.

Theoritical foundations

The exercise is inspired by the Action Priority Matrix (Mulder, 2012) and the Innovation Matrix (Verktøjskassen,no date) and adapted to the EiT context by Elli Verhulst, Sigrid Westad Brandshaug, Nina Haugland Andersen, Thomas Christian Espenes, Benjamin Toscher and Marte Konstad, through a pilot project supported by the Engage Centre of Excellence in Higher Education. This suggestion for carrying out the exercise in the village was designed by Sigrid Westad Brandshaug, Elli Verhulst, and Mette Mari Wold Johnsen in the Experts in Teamwork Academic Section and the Engage Centre of Excellence in Higher Education at NTNU.

Key takeaways

  • Interdisciplinarity and societal benefit are essential criteria for project selection in EiT.
  • Structured evaluation helps teams compare and prioritize ideas effectively.
  • Team engagement is crucial and should be considered alongside impact and interdisciplinarity.
  • The exercise supports informed, collective decision-making in the early project phase
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