Measuring the Impact of a Study Abroad Program on Engineering Students’ Global Perspective

Tahsin Mahmud Chowdhury; Homero Murzi; Karen Dinora Martinez Soto; Andrea Schuman

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Conference: 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual Conference
Publication Date: July 26, 2021
Start Date: July 26, 2021
End Date: July 19, 2022
Conference Session: International Division Technical Session 2
Tagged Division: International
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 16
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--37494
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/37494
Download Count: 247

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Paper Authors

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Tahsin Mahmud Chowdhury Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

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Tahsin Mahmud Chowdhury is a Ph.D. student in Engineering Education and an M.S. student in Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech (VT). Tahsin holds a bachelor's degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and has worked as a manufacturing professional at a Fortune 500 company. As an Engineering Education researcher, he is interested in enhancing professional competencies for engineering workforce development in academia and beyond. He is actively engaged in different projects at the department focusing on teamwork and leadership competencies in engineering. Tahsin’s long term goal is to bridge the engineering competency gap between industry demand and academic fulfillment.

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Homero Murzi Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University orcid.org/0000-0003-3849-2947

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Homero Murzi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech with honorary appointments at the University of Queensland (Australia) and University of Los Andes (Venezuela). He holds degrees in Industrial Engineering (BS, MS), Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Engineering Education (PhD). Homero is the leader of the Engineering Competencies, Learning, and Inclusive Practices for Success (ECLIPS) Lab. His research focuses on contemporary and inclusive pedagogical practices, emotions in engineering, competency development, and understanding the experiences of Latinx and Native Americans in engineering from an asset-based perspective. Homero has been recognized as a Diggs Teaching Scholar, a Graduate Academy for Teaching Excellence Fellow, a Global Perspectives Fellow, a Diversity Scholar, a Fulbright Scholar, and was inducted in the Bouchet Honor Society.

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Karen Dinora Martinez Soto

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Andrea Schuman Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

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Andrea is a first-year PhD student in Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. She holds a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Oklahoma. Her research interests include accessibility and learning in ECE, integration of liberal arts communication in engineering, and culturally relevant pedagogy.

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Abstract

STUDENT Paper Keywords: Study Abroad, Global Perspective, Undergraduate Engineering As we move towards the new industrial revolution, the engineering workforce is becoming more global, diverse, and complex. With the increasing demand of engineers that have global competencies, students more than ever, are required to be creative and critical thinkers when solving complex problems. To prepare engineering students for successfully transitioning to the globally connected workforce, engineering educators need to explore different ways to help develop students’ understanding of global perspectives. One of the tools to develop these skills is through study abroad programs which are designed to help undergraduate students achieve learning outcomes pertinent to global engineering. This study describes students' global learning gains in one study-abroad program with the goal of increasing students’ understanding of the global perspective. Data were collected using the Global Perspectives Inventory (GPI) survey to measure global perspective of students participating in the program. GPI was collected across three different points: At the beginning of the semester when students take a global engineering practice class, at the end of the semester when the class finishes, and after the international travel.

The research question guiding this study is: How do students’ Global Perspective score change between pre-course, post-course and post-trip administration of the Global Perspective Inventory (GPI)? The study abroad program in this study is located at a large research university in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The participants are first year engineering students in their second semester and are part of the general engineering program in the university. Our study involved a total of 245 students who enrolled in the 2018 and 2019 cohorts of the program. A longitudinal survey was conducted where students completed the GPI via an online survey with the aim of measuring and comparing students’ Global Perspective scores at three different points in time. We analyzed data quantitatively using two different tests, Paired T-tests and Repeated Measures ANOVA to answer our research question. The results from our study had several practical significance. Overall there was a significant increase in the GPI scores in most of the dimensions for both the T-test and Repeated Measures ANOVA from pre-course to post-course and post-trip. Overall, the program had a positive influence on the students’ understanding of global perspectives and further implications are discussed.

Citation
Format

Chowdhury, T. M., & Murzi, H., & Martinez Soto, K. D., & Schuman, A. (2021, July), Measuring the Impact of a Study Abroad Program on Engineering Students’ Global Perspective Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37494

TY - CPAPER
AB - STUDENT Paper
Keywords: Study Abroad, Global Perspective, Undergraduate Engineering

As we move towards the new industrial revolution, the engineering workforce is becoming more global, diverse, and complex. With the increasing demand of engineers that have global competencies, students more than ever, are required to be creative and critical thinkers when solving complex problems. To prepare engineering students for successfully transitioning to the globally connected workforce, engineering educators need to explore different ways to help develop students’ understanding of global perspectives. One of the tools to develop these skills is through study abroad programs which are designed to help undergraduate students achieve learning outcomes pertinent to global engineering. This study describes students&#39; global learning gains in one study-abroad program with the goal of increasing students’ understanding of the global perspective. Data were collected using the Global Perspectives Inventory (GPI) survey to measure global perspective of students participating in the program. GPI was collected across three different points: At the beginning of the semester when students take a global engineering practice class, at the end of the semester when the class finishes, and after the international travel.

The research question guiding this study is: How do students’ Global Perspective score change between pre-course, post-course and post-trip administration of the Global Perspective Inventory (GPI)?

The study abroad program in this study is located at a large research university in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The participants are first year engineering students in their second semester and are part of the general engineering program in the university. Our study involved a total of 245 students who enrolled in the 2018 and 2019 cohorts of the program. A longitudinal survey was conducted where students completed the GPI via an online survey with the aim of measuring and comparing students’ Global Perspective scores at three different points in time. We analyzed data quantitatively using two different tests, Paired T-tests and Repeated Measures ANOVA to answer our research question.

The results from our study had several practical significance. Overall there was a significant increase in the GPI scores in most of the dimensions for both the T-test and Repeated Measures ANOVA from pre-course to post-course and post-trip. Overall, the program had a positive influence on the students’ understanding of global perspectives and further implications are discussed.
AU - Tahsin Mahmud Chowdhury
AU - Homero Murzi
AU - Karen Dinora Martinez Soto
AU - Andrea Schuman
CY - Virtual Conference
DA - 2021/07/26
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Measuring the Impact of a Study Abroad Program on Engineering Students’ Global Perspective
UR - https://peer.asee.org/37494
DO - 10.18260/1-2--37494
ER -