Implementing Guided Design in a Medical Instrumentation Course

I converted a medical instrumentation course to an experiential system called Guided Design. This is a teaching-learning system that is based on a set of open-ended problems. These establish the basis for both the student's study of subject matter, which is done outside of class, and decision-making work which is done in class. The classroom work is organized around printed "Instruction-Feedback" material which guides the students, who work in small groups of 4 to 7, in their decision-making efforts. Each instruction asks the students to make a decision about one step in the solution of an open-ended problem. The students agree on an answer before they compare their thinking with the ideas provided in the Feedback, which models the way an experienced decision-maker would have done the work. I include my experiences in taking Guided Design, which was developed at another institution, and transferring it to my situation. The characteristics of this transfer should be of interest to other developers of educational innovations, who desire to promote successful transfer.