A Collaborative International Active Learning Workshop for Engineering Education in India – An Experience Report

Bhuvaneswari Gopal; Byrav Ramamurthy; Prasad Edamana

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Conference: 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Publication Date: June 22, 2025
Start Date: June 22, 2025
End Date: August 15, 2025
Conference Session: International Division (INTL): Case Studies and Trends
Tagged Division: International Division (INTL)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 21
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/55343

Paper Authors

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Bhuvaneswari Gopal University of Nebraska - Lincoln orcid.org/0000-0002-1796-2789

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Dr. Bhuvaneswari (Bhuvana) Gopal is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the School of Computing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she teaches Software Engineering, Software Security in Practice, the industry internship course, and leads the Learning Assistant Program that serves several computing courses at the School of Computing. Dr. Gopal has extensive experience in the software industry, where she spent 14 years in various roles, including Software Architect and Lead software engineer positions before switching to full time academia. She is also a Microsoft certified professional, with an MCPD certification. Her research work is focused on evidence-based, active learning pedagogies to improve software engineering education. She has published papers specifically on Peer Instruction and Process Oriented Guided Inquiry-based Learning-like pedagogical approaches in the undergraduate software engineering classroom, both in person and virtual. She holds a Bachelors degree in Physics from the University of Madras, Chennai, India. She holds two Masters degrees - one in Computer Science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and one in Medical Physics from Anna University, Chennai, India. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

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Byrav Ramamurthy University of Nebraska - Lincoln orcid.org/0000-0002-4104-7513

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Byrav Ramamurthy is currently a Professor in the Department of UNL School of Computing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). He is the author of the book "Design of Optical WDM Networks - LAN, MAN and WAN Architectures" and a co-author of the book "Secure Group Communications over Data Networks" published by Kluwer Academic Publishers/Springer in 2000 and 2004 respectively. He served as the Chair of the IEEE Communication Society's Optical Networking Technical Committee (ONTC) during 2009-2011. He served as the IEEE INFOCOM 2011 TPC Co-Chair. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief for the Springer Photonic Network Communications (PNET) journal.

His research areas include optical and wireless networks, peer-to-peer networks for multimedia streaming, network security and telecommunications. His research work is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Agriculture, NASA, AT&T Corporation, Agilent Tech., Ciena, HP and OPNET Inc.

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Prasad Edamana

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Dr. Prasad Edamana is an Assistant Professor working at Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT M) since 2006. He did doctoral study at NIIST, Trivandrum, India during 1995-2000. Subsequent to his Ph. D. program, Dr. Prasad had

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Abstract

In this paper we present an experience report on enhancing learning in engineering education in India through a workshop conducted on active learning pedagogies. This experience report describes a 4-day, collaborative international workshop on active learning pedagogies, conducted at a large University in India, conceptualized and conducted by three faculty members (two from USA and one from India) with extensive research-based practice experience in evidence-based active learning pedagogies for engineering education. We chose two pedagogical approaches that have shown to improve student learning in engineering classrooms in the United States – Peer Instruction (PI), and Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Based Learning-Like (POGIL-Like). In PI, students actively participate in their learning through small group discussions and real-time answering of conceptual questions posed by the instructor. POGIL-Like utilizes a structured student group model with well-defined student roles, where students co-construct knowledge through one or more Explore-Invent-Apply (E-I-A) cycles in learning during the class session. While PI and POGIL-Like have been shown to improve student learning outcomes in engineering disciplines in America, they are yet to be adopted in a widespread fashion in India. This workshop was specifically aimed at introducing these pedagogies to engineering educators across India. The primary goals of this 4 day workshop were: 1) to introduce PI and POGIL-Like to engineering and science educators in India, specifically to University faculty members, 2) to help them identify sections of courses they teach at their Universities that could be taught using PI and POGIL-Like, and 3) assist them in developing classroom materials for both pedagogies in their respective disciplines, that they could take back with them and implement in their courses. During the workshop we conducted several sessions on active learning using PI and POGIL-Like including small-group and individual activities for participants in the PI and POGIL-Like formats, to develop PI and POGIL-Like course materials for the courses that they teach. In this paper, we discuss the workshop in detail and report on the results of the activities that our participants undertook, including their pre- and post- workshop survey responses, and potential challenges for adoption of these pedagogies in the Indian context.

Citation
Format

Gopal, B., & Ramamurthy, B., & Edamana, P. (2025, June), A Collaborative International Active Learning Workshop for Engineering Education in India – An Experience Report Paper presented at 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Montreal, Quebec, Canada . https://peer.asee.org/55343

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - In this paper we present an experience report on enhancing learning in engineering education in India through a workshop conducted on active learning pedagogies. This experience report describes a 4-day, collaborative international workshop on active learning pedagogies, conducted at a large University in India, conceptualized and conducted by three faculty members (two from USA and one from India) with extensive research-based practice experience in evidence-based active learning pedagogies for engineering education. We chose two pedagogical approaches that have shown to improve student learning in engineering classrooms in the United States – Peer Instruction (PI), and Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Based Learning-Like (POGIL-Like). In PI, students actively participate in their learning through small group discussions and real-time answering of conceptual questions posed by the instructor. POGIL-Like utilizes a structured student group model with well-defined student roles, where students co-construct knowledge through one or more Explore-Invent-Apply (E-I-A) cycles in learning during the class session. While PI and POGIL-Like have been shown to improve student learning outcomes in engineering disciplines in America, they are yet to be adopted in a widespread fashion in India. This workshop was specifically aimed at introducing these pedagogies to engineering educators across India. The primary goals of this 4 day workshop were: 1) to introduce PI and POGIL-Like to engineering and science educators in India, specifically to University faculty members, 2) to help them identify sections of courses they teach at their Universities that could be taught using PI and POGIL-Like, and 3) assist them in developing classroom materials for both pedagogies in their respective disciplines, that they could take back with them and implement in their courses. During the workshop we conducted several sessions on active learning using PI and POGIL-Like including small-group and individual activities for participants in the PI and POGIL-Like formats, to develop PI and POGIL-Like course materials for the courses that they teach. In this paper, we discuss the workshop in detail and report on the results of the activities that our participants undertook, including their pre- and post- workshop survey responses, and potential challenges for adoption of these pedagogies in the Indian context. 
AU  - Bhuvaneswari Gopal
AU  - Byrav Ramamurthy
AU  - Prasad Edamana
CY  - Montreal, Quebec, Canada 
DA  - 2025/06/22
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - A Collaborative International Active Learning Workshop for Engineering Education in India – An Experience Report
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/55343
ER  -