Paper# 1570632050
Abstract
Organizations are increasingly relying on intercultural competencies of employees and skills of virtual teams. While on-the-job training can support employees adapting and adoption of these competencies, organizations look to higher education institutions to ensure that the next generation of engineers joining the workforce are prepared in advance. Engineers like other members of the workforce face the same opportunities and challenges that result from globalization, the need for intercultural knowledge and skills [1] [2]. These skills however are not explicitly offered or honed in most post-secondary educational institutions. While many educational institutions offer traditional exchange and travel abroad opportunities to students [5][6], these programs are limited by constraints including time, finances, and other resources [3]. In response, engineering programs are exploring how to harness various technologies to satisfy academic and labor market needs in a scalable manner. The International Virtual Engineering Student Teams (InVEST) initiative supports students in honing their intercultural, global, and virtual team skills. Students working on Research and Capstone projects can enhance their learning by taking the add-on module-based course. The InVEST course is developed using the Knowledge, Community, and Inquiry (KCI) pedagogical model [5] in which students experience the course through a blend of online, social and collaborative experiential learning and synchronous video meetings. The InVEST initiative is designed to address this gap in engineering education, by facilitating development of intercultural skills for future engineers and ensuring that as they enter the global workforce they are better able to tackle challenges both through how they work in virtual teams and what they do as engineers.
Author(s)
Anuli Ndubuisi, Ph.D. Candidate
Anuli Ndubuisi is a PhD student with University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) with a digital technologies program emphasis and a specialization in engineering education from Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering. Anuli holds a B.Eng. in civil engineering and an MBA for Engineering Business Managers from Manchester University, UK. Anuli began her career with Royal Dutch Shell where she worked for the next 16 years in various capacities. Prior to her studies at OISE, Anuli delivered global technology consulting and both on-site and virtual trainings to engineering projects across multiple countries in the energy industry – from United States, Canada, UK, Nigeria, Netherland, UAE to India. She also led the design and implementation of several knowledge and collaboration systems for production and project engineering communities. Anuli is passionate about learning, research and is interested in the effective use of innovative learning technology and strategies to support virtual teams and engineering education.
Rubaina Khan, Ph.D. Candidate
Rubaina Khan is a current PhD student within the Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. She is also pursuing a collaborative specialization in Engineering Education. She received a M. Sc. Degree in Computer Control and Automation from the Nanyang Technology University in Singapore in 2008. She went on to work for an MIT research institute in Singapore right after. She spent the next four years in developing navigation technologies for underwater robotics that were used to model and predict environmental issues in the coastal regions of Singapore. As always being interested in the education aspect of engineering, this led her to take up a position as a lecturer in Singapore Polytechnic. She spent the next five years in developing interdisciplinary engineering courses, designing activities to promote engagement and motivation in the classroom and supervise students in their final year projects mainly in robotics. Her current research interest lies at the intersection of engineering education, learning communities, and identity formation.
Elham Marzi Ph.D.
Elham Marzi Ph.D., is a Teaching Stream faculty member in the Institute for Studies in Transdisciplinary Engineering Education & Practice at the University of Toronto and Principle Investigator for V-GET under the Dean’s Strategic Fund. She teaches in the Engineering Business Program in areas inclusive of Organizational Behaviour, Human Resource Management, Strategy, and Negotiations. She is highly interested in developing innovative teaching techniques and strategies that can contribute to the students learning and experiences both inside and beyond the classroom.
Oluwatobi Edun, M.Eng.
Oluwatobi Edun M.Eng is a BASc ChemE 1T7 + PEY and M.Eng ChemE 1T9 graduate from the University of Toronto with specializations in sustainable energy, engineering business, leadership and entrepreneurship. Edun is presently working towards advancement of student experiential learning as it relates to collaborative engineering in a global context through the InVEST initiative. His passion for community building is embodied in his recognition as one of U of T Engineering’s Grads to Watch 2018 and a Gordon Cressy Student Leadership Award recipient.
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