From Service to Engagement: Outcomes from the Implementation of Multiyear Human-centered Design Initiatives Across Engineering Courses to Improve Both Community-Partner and Student Outcomes

Adithya Jayakumar; Patrick John Sours; Kristen Conroy; Kadri Akinola Akanni Parris

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Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: July 12, 2024
Conference Session: Community Engagement and Humanitarian Engineering: Creating Inclusive Engineers
Tagged Division: Community Engagement Division (COMMENG)
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/47484

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Paper Authors

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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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Patrick John Sours The Ohio State University

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Dr. Patrick Sours is an Assistant Professor of Professional Practice in Engineering for Sustainable Development and serves as the Faculty Lead of the Humanitarian Engineering Program at The Ohio State University. In this role, he leads high-impact experiential learning programs, conducts engineering education research, and instructs courses related to Engineering for Sustainable Development. He is passionate about developing engineers' sociotechnical competency to prepare them to address complex global sustainability challenges

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Kristen 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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Kadri Akinola Akanni Parris The Ohio State University

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Dr. Kadri A.A. Parris is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Engineering Education at The Ohio State University (OSU). He is the holder of a Masterâ€™s Degree in Transportation Engineering and received his Doctorate in Civil Engineering (Geotechnical)

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Abstract

Programs aimed at community engagement efforts at X University have been offered since the early 2000’s, which aimed at providing engineering students opportunities to use their technical skills with international engagement. While immensely popular with students and marketing pamphlets, a recent concentrated effort within the community-engaged engineering courses has been undertaken to shift away from models that solely focus on delivery of technological solutions. Which often failed to integrate complex contextual elements into the pedagogical course design and resultant student centric design process.

Our course design shifted towards holistic and ethical engagement highlighting the programmatic shift from “service learning” to “community engaged learning” and challenging students to reflect on their motivations and positionality as individuals and engineers. This shift aimed to forge international and local partnerships that focus on community engagement and student learning through intensive planning, the establishment of trust, and values-centered relationships. Through utilization of human centered design theory and establishment of long-term partnerships that reposition student centric engagement courses have shifted to partnership structure that acknowledges strengths and limitations and centered value to each stakeholder. While models like this exist across the community development landscape there are challenges on how to integrate this into engineering course dynamics. Numerous researchers and academic folks have identified these challenges, but a critical gap still exists with the application of said “best practices”. This paper aims to highlights the success and challenges seen throughout this transition when these concepts are put into practice to build effective partnerships at the local and international level. The overarching aim of this work is to share a proposed process of engagement for others interested in offering community engaged learning opportunities.

Citation
Format

Jayakumar, A., & Sours, P. J., & Conroy, K., & Parris, K. A. A. (2024, June), From Service to Engagement: Outcomes from the Implementation of Multiyear Human-centered Design Initiatives Across Engineering Courses to Improve Both Community-Partner and Student Outcomes Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/47484

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Programs aimed at community engagement efforts at X University have been offered since the early 2000’s, which aimed at providing engineering students opportunities to use their technical skills with international engagement. While immensely popular with students and marketing pamphlets, a recent concentrated effort within the community-engaged engineering courses has been undertaken to shift away from models that solely focus on delivery of technological solutions. Which often failed to integrate complex contextual elements into the pedagogical course design and resultant student centric design process.

Our course design shifted towards holistic and ethical engagement highlighting the programmatic shift from “service learning” to “community engaged learning” and challenging students to reflect on their motivations and positionality as individuals and engineers.  This shift aimed to forge international and local partnerships that focus on community engagement and student learning through intensive planning, the establishment of trust, and values-centered relationships. Through utilization of human centered design theory and establishment of long-term partnerships that reposition student centric engagement courses have shifted to partnership structure that acknowledges strengths and limitations and centered value to each stakeholder.    While models like this exist across the community development landscape there are challenges on how to integrate this into engineering course dynamics. Numerous researchers and academic folks have identified these challenges, but a critical gap still exists with the application of said “best practices”. This paper aims to highlights the success and challenges seen throughout this transition  when these concepts are put into practice to build effective partnerships at the local and international level.  The overarching aim of this work is to share a proposed process of engagement for others interested in offering community engaged learning opportunities.

AU  - Adithya Jayakumar
AU  - Patrick John  Sours
AU  - Kristen Conroy
AU  - Kadri Akinola Akanni Parris
CY  - Portland, Oregon
DA  - 2024/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - From Service to Engagement: Outcomes from the Implementation of Multiyear Human-centered Design Initiatives Across Engineering Courses to Improve Both Community-Partner and Student Outcomes
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/47484
ER  -