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Document Type

Practice

Abstract

As globalization accelerates and engineering careers increasingly require international collaboration, engineering education programs must design courses and curricula to adequately prepare students for careers as engineers in modern industry. Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) is a model of teaching and learning that supports the development of intercultural competence through a joint online learning environment. This paper presents a systems engineering approach of module development for an integrated COIL undergraduate course between a university in the United States and a university in Nigeria. The key objectives of this course are to increase students’ intercultural competence and to simulate global engineering management in the classroom. Using a jointly developed course outline for Industrial Engineering and Human Factors, the Instructors with the support of IT personnel were able to utilize technologies to conduct synchronous classes. An online learning management system (Isidore), video meetings (Zoom), presentations (MS PowerPoint), etc. were used to support total class integration. With cross-institutional grouping for assignments, the students were able to interact, as did the instructors who managed the venture. This fully integrated course uses the Intercultural Effectiveness Scale (IES) and a project-based deliverable to assess student outcomes. This case study utilizes the Design-Evaluate-Justify-Integrate (DEJI) systems engineering model to elaborate on the development of the COIL course. The pre- and post-COIL assessment results indicate that the program was a success, and the project goals were realized. Although the measures indicate the objectives were met, there were some challenges in the course development; these challenges are reviewed, and suggestions for mitigating such in the future are proposed.

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