Developing Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) projects in Engineering Education

Meredith Blumthal; Luis Rodriguez; James Stubbins; Brian Woodard; Gretchen Forman; Molly Goldstein; Hannah Dougherty; Ernest-John Ignacio; Dawn Owens

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: International Division Technical Session 1: Looking at Study Abroad through an enhanced lens
Page Count: 19
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41392
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/41392
Download Count: 372

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Paper Authors

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Meredith Blumthal

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Meredith Blumthal became the Director of International Programs in the Grainger College of Engineering in 2017, and has 15 years of experience in international education. She collaborates with faculty members across the college to create international education opportunities for engineering students, including semester, short-term faculty-led and summer research experiences. Meredith has doubled faculty led programs since her start, and was instrumental starting COIL courses in engineering, and developing a community of practice of faculty around global virtual learning and short-term faculty led programs. Meredith is involved with the management of the double degree and exchange program with the ZJUI-UIUC Joint Institute, hosting over 200 Chinese exchange students each year. Meredith and her team recently launched a Global Engineering Ambassador Program, helping Grainger Engineering exchange students connect with local students during their time as well as serve as a resource for promoting study abroad across the college. Meredith is also collaborating with the Grainger First Year Experience to implement the Cultural Intelligence assessment into the first year curriculum, allowing engineering students to understand their capabilities to function in multicultural interactions. Meredith has undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As a student, Ms. Blumthal studied abroad in the Netherlands and had a Foreign Language Areas Fellowship (FLAS) where she studied Quechua and conducted field research in Ecuador during her graduate program.

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Assistant Director, Grainger Engineering First-Year Experience

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Molly Goldstein University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign

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Dr. Molly H. Goldstein is a Teaching Assistant Professor and Product Design Lab Director in Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering. Dr. Goldstein’s research focuses on student designer trade-off decisions through the study of their design actions and thinking. Her studies often involve educational and professional contexts with cross-disciplinary collaborations. She has a B.S. in General Engineering (Systems Engineering & Design) and M.S. in Systems and Entrepreneurial Engineering, both from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Goldstein earned her Ph.D. in Engineering Education at Purdue University in 2018. Prior to pursuing her Ph.D., she worked as an environmental engineer specializing in air quality, influencing her focus in engineering design with environmental concerns.

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Hannah Dougherty University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign

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Ernest-John Ignacio University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign

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Dawn Owens University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign

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Abstract

Background: With increasing awareness of the importance of undergraduate students having a global experience, institutions and educators have teamed up to provide opportunities for students to collaborate with their peers around the globe. Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) is not new, but it has recently gained traction because of the pandemic, as a promising pedagogical method to deepen the global engagement of students without requiring travel abroad. The COIL pedagogical model connects professors and students around the world in an online learning environment to explore subjects, themes, issues, and ideas in a project-based learning experience. Although COIL has gained tremendous attention since the pandemic as a solution to the absence of student mobility, it has the potential to serve in a much larger capacity moving forward and benefit a larger student population. COIL projects present the opportunity to connect students with limited means or time to a global experience to combine their skills their skills to solve existing problems and gain cross-cultural knowledge without the need for travel. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of a pilot of COIL courses run in fall 2020, spring 2021, and fall 2021 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Grainger College of Engineering. Methodology/approach: In a pilot study run in the fall of 2020 and spring 2021, 31 students across five COIL courses completed pre- and post-surveys to understand cross-cultural competency. In the fall of 2021, six COIL courses were surveyed both before and after. Survey instruments used included an existing tool and engineering-specific learning outcomes. For the cultural competency measures, we used a scale where students were asked to rate their level of agreement with a set of 12 statements. Additionally, we measured the following learning outcomes with a post-course survey based on a set of 20 questions; Intellectual Reasoning and Knowledge (IRK), Creative Inquiry and Discovery (CID), Effective Leadership and Community Engagement (ELCE), Social Awareness and Cultural Understanding (SACU), and Global Consciousness (GC). We ran statistical analyses to understand the gains in student cultural competencies.

Findings: Early results indicate statistically significant improvements toward University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus-level learning outcomes, specifically students improved ability to think logically and critically, improving their ability to consider a variety of perspectives, Social Awareness and Cultural Understanding and, Global Consciousness. There are variations between the individual courses as not all have equal improvements in all areas.

Citation
Format

Blumthal, M., & Rodriguez, L., & Stubbins, J., & Woodard, B., & Forman, G., & Goldstein, M., & Dougherty, H., & Ignacio, E., & Owens, D. (2022, August), Developing Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) projects in Engineering Education Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41392

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Background: With increasing awareness of the importance of undergraduate students having a global experience, institutions and educators have teamed up to provide opportunities for students to collaborate with their peers around the globe. Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) is not new, but it has recently gained traction because of the pandemic, as a promising pedagogical method to deepen the global engagement of students without requiring travel abroad. The COIL pedagogical model connects professors and students around the world in an online learning environment to explore subjects, themes, issues, and ideas in a project-based learning experience. Although COIL has gained tremendous attention since the pandemic as a solution to the absence of student mobility, it has the potential to serve in a much larger capacity moving forward and benefit a larger student population. COIL projects present the opportunity to connect students with limited means or time to a global experience to combine their skills their skills to solve existing problems and gain cross-cultural knowledge without the need for travel.
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of a pilot of COIL courses run in fall 2020, spring 2021, and fall 2021 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Grainger College of Engineering. 
Methodology/approach: In a pilot study run in the fall of 2020 and spring 2021, 31 students across five COIL courses completed pre- and post-surveys to understand cross-cultural competency. In the fall of 2021, six COIL courses were surveyed both before and after. Survey instruments used included an existing tool and engineering-specific learning outcomes. For the cultural competency measures, we used a scale where students were asked to rate their level of agreement with a set of 12 statements. Additionally, we measured the following learning outcomes with a post-course survey based on a set of 20 questions; Intellectual Reasoning and Knowledge (IRK), Creative Inquiry and Discovery (CID), Effective Leadership and Community Engagement (ELCE), Social Awareness and Cultural Understanding (SACU), and Global Consciousness (GC). We ran statistical analyses to understand the gains in student cultural competencies.

Findings:  Early results indicate statistically significant improvements toward University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus-level learning outcomes, specifically students improved ability to think logically and critically, improving their ability to consider a variety of perspectives, Social Awareness and Cultural Understanding and, Global Consciousness. There are variations between the individual courses as not all have equal improvements in all areas.



AU  - Meredith Blumthal
AU  - Luis Rodriguez
AU  - James Stubbins
AU  - Brian Woodard
AU  - Gretchen Forman
AU  - Molly Goldstein
AU  - Hannah Dougherty
AU  - Ernest-John Ignacio
AU  - Dawn Owens
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Developing Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) projects in Engineering Education
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/41392
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--41392
ER  -