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Overcoming the Challenges to Launch a Successful Initiative of an Engineering Faculty-led Travel Course While Boosting Interdisciplinary Collaborations

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Conference

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual On line

Publication Date

June 22, 2020

Start Date

June 22, 2020

End Date

June 26, 2021

Conference Session

Study Abroad Experiences Intl Div Tech Session 9

Tagged Division

International

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

15

DOI

10.18260/1-2--35026

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/35026

Download Count

410

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Paper Authors

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Yanjun Yan Western Carolina University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-5152-6614

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Yanjun Yan is an Associate Professor in Engineering and Technology at Western Carolina University. Her research interests include engineering education, swarm robotics, statistical signal processing, and swarm intelligence.

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Nelson A. Granda Marulanda Western Carolina University

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Nelson A. Granda Marulanda is an Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering + Technology at Western Carolina University. Nelson has a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, a Masters in Manufacturing Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico and a Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Before becoming a professor, he worked for several years in the Eolic and Aerospace industry. Nelson’s research interest revolved around Sustainable Development looked through the lens of the triple bottom line and a system thinking approach. Nelson believes that education is the key to achieve a sustainable world.

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B. David Tyler Western Carolina University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-2189-2920

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David is an associate professor in the College of Business at Western Carolina University. His research focuses how fans consume sport, particularly around rivalry and fan communities.

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Hugh Jack P. Eng. P.E. Western Carolina University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0003-4299-8561

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Dr. Jack is the Cass Ballenger Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Department Head of the School of Engineering and Technology within Western Carolina University. His interests include robotics, automation, and product design.

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Lauren R. Bishop Western Carolina University

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Lauren Bishop has served as the Chief Sustainability Officer at Western Carolina University since 2014. Prior to this she was the Energy Manager and has been working at WCU for 14 years. She received her M.A. in Industrial Technology, Building Science, and B.S. in Business Administration, Real Estate & Urban Analysis from Appalachian State University. Her focus includes taking a holistic approach to integrating sustainability and waste reduction systematically across the campus community. It is a dynamic goal that includes utilizing campus as a living learning laboratory for student engagement, research, and high impact learning.

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Abstract

The benefits to students in achieving learning outcomes through faculty-led travel courses have been studied in the literature, and yet a new faculty member, who has no experience in offering a travel course, may be either deluded by the vacation mentality or daunted by the trip-planning logistics and hence loses out on the opportunity to incorporate this practice. This paper presents a case study on an initiative to encourage and mentor faculty members to offer faculty-led trips enhanced by interdisciplinary collaborations. From the instructor’s point of view, we provided our timeline, collaborative relationship development, backward course design driven by learning outcomes, and the transferrable strategies to overcome the challenges along the way. From the students’ learning effectiveness point of view, we provided student reflections using the DEAL model [5] to demonstrate the obtainment of student learning outcomes. A significant contribution of this work is our approach to, and the outcomes of, interdisciplinary collaboration for faculty-led travel courses. Further, through extensive reflections to transmute their travel experiences to learning, the students uncovered valuable practices that have been consciously enacted into their daily lives at home.

Yan, Y., & Granda Marulanda, N. A., & Tyler, B. D., & Jack, H., & Bishop, L. R. (2020, June), Overcoming the Challenges to Launch a Successful Initiative of an Engineering Faculty-led Travel Course While Boosting Interdisciplinary Collaborations Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--35026

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