Engagement in Practice: Better Preparing Students for Community-Engaged Engineering by Restructuring an Academic Program, Minor, and Curriculum

Kristen M. Conroy; Patrick Sours; Adithya Jayakumar; Rachel Marie Tuttle

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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: Community Engagement Division 3 - Engagement in Practice Lightning Round: Fostering Reciprocal Partnerships and Empowering Change
Tagged Division: Community Engagement Division (COMMENG)
Page Count: 7
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--43283
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/43283
Download Count: 132

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Paper Authors

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Kristen M. Conroy The Ohio State University

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Dr. Kristen Conroy has a PhD in Biological Engineering from Ohio State University. Her main area of focus is sanitation. She has worked with partner organization, UNiTED, to teach courses where engineering students focus on collaborative projects in Kpando, Ghana. She also teaches the Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering Capstone, Energy in Biological Systems, and the Introduction to Humanitarian Engineering course.

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Patrick Sours The Ohio State University

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Patrick is a lecturer and PhD candidate in Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering. Patrick received a B.S. in Civil Engineering from The Ohio State University with a minor in Humanitarian Engineering. Patrickâ€™s graduate research focus is internat

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Adithya Jayakumar The Ohio State University orcid.org/0000-0002-3074-2182

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Dr. Adithya Jayakumar is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Engineering Education at The Ohio State University (OSU). He received his Masters and PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from OSU.

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Rachel Marie Tuttle

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Rachel serves as the Humanitarian Engineering Scholars Program Manager and an Engineering Undeclared Academic Advisor at The Ohio State University. Prior to working at Ohio State, Rachel worked in Residence Life at both Case Western Reserve University an

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Abstract

Students being un-or under-prepared with the sociotechnical skillsets to approach community-engaged engineering courses can be detrimental to both student motivation and community outcomes. At X University (X), community-engaged engineering courses have been offered as stand-alones, leading several instructors to identify student lack of preparedness as a concern for relationships with community partners and effective course design. Although X had offered a Humanitarian Engineering (HE) Minor for a decade, there appeared to be a critical knowledge gap and instructors across multiple departments gathered to address this concern. Students seeking the HE minor are required to participate in at least one community-engaged engineering course. Therefore, the initial step towards providing the structure for students gain relevant community-engagement skills and knowledge was to reassess the learning objectives of the HE Minor. The resulting list was edited and refined through discussion amongst faculty teaching HE courses and was then reviewed by additional faculty and staff at X and external collaborators within the HE landscape. The resultant learning objectives served as the basis for collaboratively identifying the mission, vision, and student outcomes that would guide the restructuring of the HE minor. An introductory Humanitarian Engineering course was developed and incorporated focusing on sociotechnical skills and fostering student self-awareness regarding their positionality in colonial contexts and power dynamics as it related to community-engaged design work. Transferable learnings from this experience are how to a) collectively identify the vision and student outcomes for a program that spans departments and institutions and b) structure a scaffolded minor program to support student development as community-engaged practitioners. The next steps are to assess student outcomes using the intercultural development inventory (IDI) as students progress through the HE minor and to continue to create opportunities aligned with the program mission, vision, and student outcomes identified through this process.

Citation
Format

Conroy, K. M., & Sours, P., & Jayakumar, A., & Tuttle, R. M. (2023, June), Engagement in Practice: Better Preparing Students for Community-Engaged Engineering by Restructuring an Academic Program, Minor, and Curriculum Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--43283

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Students being un-or under-prepared with the sociotechnical skillsets to approach community-engaged engineering courses can be detrimental to both student motivation and community outcomes. At X University (X), community-engaged engineering courses have been offered as stand-alones, leading several instructors to identify student lack of preparedness as a concern for relationships with community partners and effective course design. Although X had offered a Humanitarian Engineering (HE) Minor for a decade, there appeared to be a critical knowledge gap and instructors across multiple departments gathered to address this concern. 
Students seeking the HE minor are required to participate in at least one community-engaged engineering course. Therefore, the initial step towards providing the structure for students gain relevant community-engagement skills and knowledge was to reassess the learning objectives of the HE Minor. The resulting list was edited and refined through discussion amongst faculty teaching HE courses and was then reviewed by additional faculty and staff at X and external collaborators within the HE landscape. The resultant learning objectives served as the basis for collaboratively identifying the mission, vision, and student outcomes that would guide the restructuring of the HE minor. An introductory Humanitarian Engineering course was developed and incorporated focusing on sociotechnical skills and fostering student self-awareness regarding their positionality in colonial contexts and power dynamics as it related to community-engaged design work. 
Transferable learnings from this experience are how to a) collectively identify the vision and student outcomes for a program that spans departments and institutions and b) structure a scaffolded minor program to support student development as community-engaged practitioners. The next steps are to assess student outcomes using the intercultural development inventory (IDI) as students progress through the HE minor and to continue to create opportunities aligned with the program mission, vision, and student outcomes identified through this process.
AU  - Kristen M.  Conroy
AU  - Patrick Sours
AU  - Adithya Jayakumar
AU  - Rachel Marie Tuttle
CY  - Baltimore , Maryland
DA  - 2023/06/25
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Engagement in Practice: Better Preparing Students for Community-Engaged Engineering by Restructuring an Academic Program, Minor, and Curriculum
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/43283
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--43283
ER  -