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Creating Innovation for Interdisciplinary Robotics Workshops: Solving Issues in the Online Project-Based Learnings in Engineering Education

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Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Engineering Division (MULTI) Technical Session 2

Tagged Division

Multidisciplinary Engineering Division (MULTI)

Page Count

21

DOI

10.18260/1-2--42815

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/42815

Download Count

101

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Paper Authors

biography

Hatsuko Yoshikubo Shibaura Institute Of Technology, Japan

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Dr. Hatsuko Yoshikubo is currently an Associate Professor and a deputy director of the Innovative Global Program, a research-based full English degree engineering program at the College of Engineering at Shibaura Institute of Technology (SIT), Tokyo, Japan. She is a Principal Investigator of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Research Grants 20K02943 and the AY 2022 SIT Grants for Educational Reform and Research Activity. She obtained a Ph.D. in English Literature from Chiba University in 2002. Her current main research interests are: 1) how including humanities courses in an engineering education curriculum can help students to gain flexibility, and an appreciation of equity, and a greater richness of ideas; 2) finding and solving the systematic issues impacting the effectiveness of engineering education, specifically in the context of project-based learnings; and 3) assessing the impact of interdisciplinary engineering project-based learnings. Below are her recent presentations at international conferences: WERA 2022, APAIE 2022, IIAI DSIR 2021, IIAI DSIR 2020, WERA 2019. She obtained the Outstanding Paper Award in DSIR 2021.

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biography

Sumito Nagasawa Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan

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Dr. Sumito Nagasawa received Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Tokyo in 2001. He is a Professor in Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics at SIT. His research interests include miniaturized robots using Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems technologies and robot education for STEM.

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biography

Hiroyuki Ishizaki Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0009-0008-7482-2038

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Hiroyuki Ishizaki is a Visiting Professor at Shibaura Institute of Technology (SIT), a leading Japanese engineering school. His research interests include multidisciplinary teaching and learning, cross-cultural competence, collaborative online international (COIL), technopreneurship, and project/problem-based learning methods. As a Director of the Malaysia Office, he has been expatriated in Malaysia since 2014 and leading the internationalization of SIT and its partner universities throughout the Southeast Asian region. Under his initiatives, various short-term mobility programs and student exchanges have been started. He is also Chair of the Mobility Special Interest Group of Asia Technological University Network (ATU-Net) and initiated a COIL program called Virtual Asia Exploration (VAx) by orchestrating the collaboration of six Asian universities.
He is also an entrepreneur through his consulting company established in 2004, and has been rendering management consultation services to both small-medium size companies and multi-national enterprises such as global strategy planning, cross-border business entry, middle manager training, and partner development. These business achievements are reflected in his academic activities through the designing of lectures and mobility programs with practical implementation perspectives.
Ishizaki has been actively presenting and publishing his academic achievements at international conferences in the Asia Pacific region and North America such as APAIE, WERA, and NAFSA.
He earned a Master of Business Administration majoring in international business at the University of Southern California in the United States of America, and a Bachelor in Law at Hitotsubashi University in Japan.

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Abstract

Many researchers define global project-based learnings (gPBLs) to be effective for engineering education from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives. However, this preliminary research focused on the systematic issues that all gPBLs may potentially have. Below are the major issues observed in our previous interdisciplinary robotics workshop: 1) Lack of previous subject knowledge, especially in the fields of robotics and computer programming. 2) English language skills for Japanese participants. 3) Lacking understanding of different cultures for both Japanese and Malaysian students. Factoring this in, several innovations have been applied to raise the level of their fundamental knowledge and communication skills as well as to reduce their confusion and uneasiness towards working with those of other cultural backgrounds. Looking at the first year of the workshop after these changes were introduced, students total global competence scores obtained from the Miville-Guzman Universality-Diversity Scale-Short form (MGUDS-S) showed an increase from 67.15 in the pre-survey to 68.38 in the post-survey (on a total scale of 90.00). Among the three MGUDS-S subscales, the biggest increase was for ‘Diversity of Contact’, from 25.23 to 28.00, with an observable increase also occurring in scores for 'Relativistic Appreciation', from 26.46 to 28.00 (on a scale of 30.00). However, the post-survey scores for 'Comfort with Difference' were lower than that of pre-survey – this was a common tendency observed in our institutional data analysis on the survey data from all AY2021 online gPBLs at our university.

This robotics workshop is a continued interdisciplinary project-based learning, run in collaboration with University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia. It plays an important role with respect to equity and opportunity in engineering education at our institution. Within the context of this robotics workshop, an 'Interdisciplinary program' is defined as an equitable learning experience for which participation is not limited to the field of robotics. It offers content that stimulates intellectual interest in both the sciences and the humanities. It is also interdisciplinary and equitable in terms of its expected outcomes of promoting understanding of cultural and ethnic diversity and promoting participants' acquisition of collaboration skills across their racial boundaries. The workshop size is approximately twenty-five students every year. Below are the expected learning outcomes for this robotics workshop: 1) To provide participants with an education in robotics and engineering, using Arduino and Tinkercad toolkits. 2) For Malaysian participants to receive an introduction to the one-semester study abroad programs and laboratory internship options at our institution. 3) For Malaysian participants to understand Japanese culture and its unique impact on the field of robotics. 4) For Japanese students to learn more about their own culture and history, in English.

The aforementioned systematic issues recognized in our robotics workshop may also be causing the same issues in other online/face-to-face gPBLs. This could be impacting the effectiveness of this type of engineering program. The research mainly includes: 1) Qualitative analyses obtained from students’ feedback. 2) Quantitative analyses regarding students' global competency scores measured by MGUDS-S. 3) Demonstration of common obstacles in gPBLs and innovations applied to this interdisciplinary workshop.

Yoshikubo, H., & Nagasawa, S., & Ishizaki, H. (2023, June), Creating Innovation for Interdisciplinary Robotics Workshops: Solving Issues in the Online Project-Based Learnings in Engineering Education Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--42815

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