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Bringing in the World: Internationalizing the Curriculum of a First-Year Introduction to Engineering Course at a Large Public American University

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Conference

2015 ASEE International Forum

Location

Seattle, Washington

Publication Date

June 14, 2015

Start Date

June 14, 2015

End Date

June 14, 2015

Conference Session

Concurrent Paper Tracks - Session II

Tagged Topic

International Forum

Page Count

9

Page Numbers

19.4.1 - 19.4.9

DOI

10.18260/1-2--17127

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/17127

Download Count

767

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Paper Authors

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Jennifer Deboer Purdue University, West Lafayette

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Jennifer DeBoer is currently Assistant Professor of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Her research focuses on international education systems, individual and social development, technology use and STEM learning, and educational environments for diverse learners.

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Shreyas Vathul Subramanian Purdue University

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Shreyas Vathul Subramanian is a PhD candidate in the school of Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering at Purdue University. His research involves studying the impact of multi-disciplinary collaboration in the design, analysis and optimization of engineering products. He also has a keen interest in incorporating topics such as global education, effective collaboration, and the use of open source tools into basic, introductory engineering courses.

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Mushtak Al-Atabi Taylor's University

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Professor Mushtak Al-Atabi is currently the Dean of School of Engineering at Taylor’s University, Malaysia. His research interests include engineering, entrepreneurship, education and leadership. He is an Honorary Chair at the School of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Birmingham (UK) and the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Engineering Science & Technology. Professor Al-Atabi published two books, “Think Like an Engineer” and “Driving Performance” and he has numerous research publications, awards and honours. He is a Co-Founder of the Global Challenges Alliance, Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (FIMechE) and a member of the Global Engineering Deans Council.
Professor Al-Atabi is an innovative educator; he pioneered the CDIO (Conceive, Design, Implement, Operate) and delivered the first MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) in Malaysia. He trains executives from Multinational Corporations including banks and energy companies.

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David A. Delaine Universidade de São Paulo and IFEES

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David A. Delaine has a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Drexel University, in Philadelphia, USA. He currently serves as an executive member of the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES), as Vice President for Student Engagement, Diversity, and Inclusion. IFEES aims to strengthen engineering education practices around the world. He has recently completed his tenure as a Fulbright Scholar and is currently performing research as a FAPESP postdoctoral researcher with Prof. Dr. Jose Roberto Cardoso at the Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo for his project titled ”Assessing the Impact of One Boundary Spanner on University-wide STEM Educational engagement” where he will attempt to optimize community/university relations for broadening participation in the STEM fields.” He has ambitions to significantly diversify and broaden the global pipeline of STEM talent and help guide the evolution of the methods used to develop engineers.

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josé aquiles grimoni jabg P.E. polythecnic schoool university of são paulo

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Abstract

Bringing in the World: Internationalizing the Curriculum of a First-Year Introduction to Engineering Course at a Large Public American UniversityEngineers must work within multinational and multicultural environments, which requires globalcompetency and ongoing, lifelong learning to better understanding engineering cultures aroundthe world (Ater Kranov et al., 2011; Autor, Levy, & Murnane, 2003). Accreditation bodies anduniversities recognize that the preparation of lifelong globally competent engineers begins duringthe undergraduate degree (National Academy of Engineering, 2005). However, incorporatinginternational experiences into a packed undergraduate curriculum in a meaningful but affordablemanner is difficult for course administrators and instructors, and little is known about theeffectiveness of existing efforts. This paper addresses the need to better understand how courseinstructors can effectively internationalize their learning materials in an engineering classroom.The course used as a qualitative case study in this paper is an Introduction to Engineering courseat a large public university in the United States, which includes 30% international students, andstudents in this first-year course will go into all of the engineering disciplines at the university.This unique course section included assignments contextualized for international clients as wellas interactions directly with international stakeholders via email or Skype.This study fits into the paradigm of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, as it includesjournals and reflections from the instructor and course team as well as information on studentlearning and performance on assignments tailored to international and multinational “clients”. Inaddition, groups’ design reviews were conducted by international collaborators, providingexternal validity checks as to the demonstration of global competence in students’ learning. Weutilize these data within a qualitative case study investigation to better understand the following:(a) what was the nature of the additional changes to the curriculum from the perspective of theinstructor, the instructional team, and the students?, (b) what levels of global competence andperceptions of global engineering were demonstrated in student assignments, and (c) whatchallenges arose in implementation of curricular changes?We find that student engagement with internationally contextualized activities generallyincreases, although students also note significant difficulties with logistics (e.g., coordinatingtheir discussions with international evaluators across time zones) that mirror real-worldmultinational industry practices and complexities. We further find that the instructional team andinstructor do not experience significant increases in their perception of the course load whenactivities are closely aligned with the overall learning outcomes and assessments (Biggs, 1996).International students have different perceptions of the experience from their domestic peers, andthese experiences could be more integrally leveraged into classroom activities and reflections.These findings have implications for course instructors and administrators, as they strive toinclude opportunities to acquire global competence in residential universities. It is challengingfor all engineering undergraduates to access extensive international experiences such asexchange programs, but thoughtful teaching and learning activities could provide internationalinteractions that mirror real-world business activities. These interactions prepare students froman early stage for lifelong engagement with international colleagues.

Deboer, J., & Subramanian, S. V., & Al-Atabi, M., & Delaine, D. A., & grimoni, J. A. (2015, June), Bringing in the World: Internationalizing the Curriculum of a First-Year Introduction to Engineering Course at a Large Public American University Paper presented at 2015 ASEE International Forum, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/1-2--17127

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2015 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015