Abstract:

This paper presents the design and implementation of Advanced Frameworks in Biomedical Engineering, an online course in a Biomedical Engineering degree of the University of Deusto. The course is delivered by three faculty members and conceived for final-year undergraduate students undertaking international placements developing their Bachelor’s Thesis projects. Most of the students are geographically distributed across different countries and institutions (USA, Canada, Poland, France or UK) while, the course is fully remote and structured around a detailed Learning Guide available through the Moodle platform, which organizes objectives, milestones, synchronous sessions (max. 2 per month), and asynchronous activities.

The course is built around three highly innovative thematic areas within Biomedical Engineering, selected for their scientific relevance and emerging impact on healthcare systems: pharmaceutical advances, environmental health and mental health. Each module is designed and delivered by a subject-matter expert, ensuring depth of content and exposure to frontier developments. The pedagogical approach combines structured online lectures with guided discussions and applied activities contextualized in real-world scenarios, fostering critical analysis and interdisciplinary integration.

Despite the careful instructional design and the relevance of the topics, sustaining student engagement and consistent attendance has emerged as a significant challenge. The particular context—students simultaneously immersed in international internships and research projects—demands flexible yet motivating learning strategies that compete with intensive local commitments.

To address this issue, a narrative-based motivational framework has been implemented in the Environmental Health module. In this thematic strand, students metaphorically “walk” the Camino de Santiago from Pamplona to Santiago de Compostela, progressing through diverse environmental contexts—urban, rural, and coastal settings. Along this virtual journey, they encounter and analyze real-world environmental health challenges, including pollution, climate change, and ecosystem degradation. This experiential storyline situates theoretical concepts within tangible scenarios, promoting continuity, curiosity, and reflective engagement.

Preliminary observations in our students, suggest that embedding content within a coherent narrative structure enhances perceived relevance and fosters deeper conceptual connections. The course thus represents an exploratory model of how online biomedical engineering education can integrate academic rigor, international flexibility, and innovative motivational strategies in contexts characterized by high student mobility.

Keywords:

Online learning, scenario based learning, biomedical engineering.