Educational Comics: A novel pedagogy for teaching transferable and humanistic skills in Engineering
- Conference
- Location
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Syracuse University, New York
- Publication Date
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March 25, 2022
- Start Date
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March 25, 2022
- End Date
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February 26, 2024
- Page Count
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14
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--45410
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/45410
- Download Count
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104
Paper Authors
Kai Hua Zhuang Brave49
Kai is a polymathic engineer turned educator and educational developer. Drawing on his eclectic experience in engineering, ecology, leadership development, and the creative and martial arts, Kai accompanies young changemakers on their growth journeys and contributes to the development of education for sustainability, equity, and human thriving.
Mojgan A Jadidi P.Eng.
York University
orcid.org/0000-0002-2692-6157
Dr Mojgan Jadidi is an assistant professor at Lassonde school of Engineering, Geomatics engineering program who embraces the power of location turn to knowledge discovery for better and informed decision making in the context of smart buildings, infrastructures and cities. Dr Jadidi’s research interest include Building Information Model (BIM) and 3D GIS Data Integration, Geo Visual Analytics for Smart Environmental/Building/Cities and Intelligent Transportation applications. Also, she has passion for engineering education using augmented and virtual reality and gamification technologies. Her research has been funded by multiple grants from NSERC, Mitacs, COMREN, York University Academic Innovation Fund (AIF), and internal York University funds. She is currently associate Director of ESRI Center of Excellence at York University.
Dimpho Radebe University of Toronto
Dimpho Radebe is a PhD student in Engineering Education at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include engineering culture, engineering careers in the public sector, and ethics and equity in STEM. Dimpho has several years of experience in th
Evan Hu Brave49
A successful entrepreneur in the Canadian technology industry providing vision, leadership and experience to organizations ranging from start-ups to the Fortune 500. Presently a startup mentor and community volunteer sitting on the board of directors/advisors for several companies and organizations including Calgary Co-op, Creative Destruction Labs, and Mount Rundle Fund. With more than thirty years of experience in the creation and management of successful businesses, has a proven track record in growing and mentoring successful professionals. Has worked with and consulted to many leading Canadian, American and European companies; guiding them in the best practices for technology-enabled business cutting across numerous industries, including telecommunications, high technology, entertainment, utilities and oil & gas.
Abstract
Educational Comics: A novel pedagogy for teaching transferable and humanistic skills in Engineering
Kai Zhuang (1, 2), Dimpho Radebe (3), Mojgan Jadidi Mardkheh (1), and Evan Hu (2)
1: Lassonde School of Engineering, York University, Canada 2: Brave49, Canada 3: University of Toronto, Canada
Transferable, humanistic, and future-ready skills, such as emotional intelligence and ethical leadership, are essential for students’ success, thriving, and contribution, particularly in technical fields such as engineering. However, many engineering students, being technically-focused, find these topics difficult to engage with and may lose interest and motivation along the way.
We have been developing and piloting a novel method for teaching complex subject matter centered on educational comics. Educational comics combine the engagingness of visual storytelling with the searchability and indexability of text narratives. They can be exceedingly effective for communicating complex ideas and promoting creative and associative thinking, making them an ideal medium for teaching transferable and humanistic skills to engineering students. Once developed, base-comics can be converted to different learning formats and experiential education activities, including self-directed workbooks, standalone workshops, and facilitated online courses. By replacing unfamiliar and hard-to-understand language with intentionally designed comics, we were able to make the learning experience more inclusive, accessible, and approachable. Graphic representations, more so than rational words, facilitate emotional connections to the subject matter, keeping more students engaged and contributing to more meaningful learning.
Over the past two years, we have applied this pedagogy to the teaching of visual thinking, storytelling, ethics, teamwork, motivation, and other humanistic topics in various curricular and co-curricular settings in two Universities, including two courses taken by all engineering students, a peer mentorship program attended by all first-year engineering students, two bridge-programs for students entering university, a workshop for graduate researchers, and a STEAM program for female high school students.
Our initial experience applying this pedagogy supports our hypothesis that educational comics are a highly effective pedagogical strategy for teaching complex non-technical subject matter to engineering students. We are beginning to develop a formal research program to assess the efficacy and impact of this pedagogy.
Zhuang, K. H., & Jadidi, M. A., & Radebe, D., & Hu, E. (2022, March), Educational Comics: A novel pedagogy for teaching transferable and humanistic skills in Engineering Paper presented at 2022 ASEE St. Lawrence Section Annual Conference, Syracuse University, New York. 10.18260/1-2--45410
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