Project Based Learning (PBL) - Across Disciplines and Across Cultures 14-Jun-2014

Project Based Learning (PBL) - Across Disciplines and Across Cultures

14-Jun-2014

Authors: Pradeep Waychal, Ayano Ohsaki, Katsuyuki Ohsawa

Acknowledgments: Ashok Saraf, Anil Sahasrabudhe, Masashi Miura, Manoj Rathod, Subhash Karmarkar

ASEE (American Society of Engineering

Education) International Forum –

2014

2

Outline

• Background– Requirements of Graduates– Project and Team Based Learning (PBL-TBL)

• Experiment– Team– Schedule– Project

• Feedback• Conclusion

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Requirements of Graduates

• Multi-disciplinary, multi cultural teams– Leader / Manager as well as Team Member

• Communicating effectively – across the disciplines

• Understanding the impact of engineering solutions in a global, environmental and societal context

• Source: Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), 'Engineering Criteria 2000,, 3rd Edition,' ( December 1997)., The Royal Academy of Engineering, 'Educating Engineers for the 21st Century', (2007)., Elaine Chapman Sally Male, 'Assessing the Generic Competencies of Engineering Graduates: Preliminary Report from an Ongoing Research Program', in Proceedings of the 2005 ASEE/AaeE 4th Global Colloquium on Engineering Education (Australasian Association for Engineering Education” 2005).

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Project and Team Based Learning (PBL-TBL)

• Panacea to develop those skills– Easy to learn higher level cognitive

processes Bunting

– Inductive methods like PBL are more effective for many learning outcomes Prince and Felder

– Innovation and entrepreneurial competencies can be reinforced through TBL Michaelsen,

– Self-efficacy due to Cross Disciplinary Team Learning (CDTL) increases Schaffer, et al.

– Cultural intelligence and global identity increased with virtual multicultural team projects Erez, et al

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Experiment

• To provide multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary project-based experience

• An element of in-person interaction between the teams was planned.

• Development of multi-cultural portal – To facilitate visits of individuals from a

culture to another • Work divided between two teams

– Japanese team to build and test requirements

– Indian team to design and develop portal.

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Teams• Japanese Faculty - Information and

Learning Technology• Japanese Students

• Indian Faculty - Information Technology and Innovation

• Indian Students – Four final year Comp Engg.

Major Engineering

Politics

Environment

Nursing

1st Grade

ー ー １ １

2nd Grade

ー ２ ー ー

3rd Grade

１ ー １ ー

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Schedule Activity Members and

interactionStart Date

End Date

Discussion of the requirements for

portal

Japanese team and Indian Faculty -

colocated27-Nov-13 3-Dec-13

Discussion of the Portal

Requirements

Both the teams interacting over

skype7-Dec-13

13-Feb-14

Portal Development

Indian team 15-Dec-1325-Feb-

14

First Version released

Indian team 13-Feb-1413-Feb-

14

Evaluate the First Version Japanese team 13 Feb 14 25-Feb-

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Develop and evaluate the

second version

Both the teams were co-located.

27-Feb-144-Mar-

14

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Project: Multi Cultural Portal

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Feedback from Participants

1. Would you recommend such experience to your colleagues?

2. What were your top 3 expectations from this project before you started?

3. What are your top 3 takeaways from this project? 

4. Would you be willing to self-finance (for travel and logistics) your participation in such projects?

5. What are your top 3 suggestions to improve upon such multi cultural and multidisciplinary projects?

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Recommending such experience to colleagues

0

2

4

6

8

IndiaJapan

11

Expectations before starting the project

0

2

4

6

IndiaJapan

12

Takeaways from the Experience

Inte

rnat

iona

l Exp

erie

nce

Under

stan

ding

Req

uire

men

ts

Camar

ader

ie

Cross

Discipl

inar

y

Proj

ect

0

2

4

6

IndiaJapan

13

Willingness to self-finance

India Japan0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Willing to Self FinanceNot willing to Self Finance

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Suggestions for Improvement of such program

0

1

2

3

4

IndiaJapan

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Concluding Remarks• Team and Project-based learning are essential

in engineering education– Cultural diversity and interdisciplinary nature of the

teams accentuates learning. • The experiment was immensely successful

– The first of its kind and on a smaller scale.– Highly valued the cross-cultural (international) and

cross-disciplinary experience. – Suggested more preparation for the visits - learning

other languages and more pre-visit communication.– Cross-cultural experience more prominent than the

cross-disciplinary. – Inadequate engagement in the remote phase, shorter

visits and higher syntactical divergence and semantic convergence

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Concluding Remarks• Sustain this initiative and increase scale

– The overwhelmingly positive feedback can help us enroll more number of students and faculty

• The interaction can be longer than a semester and visits can be longer than a week. – The plan could start with a visit by students from a

culture, followed by project work and could end with a reverse visit i.e. by students from the other culture.

• Experience of individuals in such cross -disciplinary, cross-cultural situations depends on many factors such as, prior experience, team composition, and task complexity, and requires to be analyzed leading to maximized learning for each individual.

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Project Based Learning (PBL) - Across Disciplines and Across

Cultures

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Thank You!