International community-based projects and engineering education: The advisor's viewpoint

Abstract

There has been tremendous growth in the interest of engineering students to perform community service projects on an international scale. National organizations, such as Engineers Without Borders and Engineers for a Sustainable World, have provided a mechanism for students to do such works and further develop both their technical and non-technical skills. Over the last few years, student teams from Tufts University, many times teaming engineering with non-engineering students, have undertaken projects in Ecuador, El Salvador, Ghana, and Tibet. Each project presents unique issues, but there are also elements common to all. This paper describes three projects and presents some of the lessons learned in forming, orchestrating, and delivering meaningful learning experiences for students from the viewpoint of the faculty advisor. Both positive and negative lessons can be found in areas such as project organization, management, and ultimately in delivery; proper reconnaissance and trip planning; advisor attitude and expectations and how they may differ from those of the students; and assessment of real-versus-perceived benefits from the perspective of educational benefit to the student. We conclude that international, service-learning projects are a valuable pedagogical tool for educating engineering students when expectations are fully communicated and transparent. Proper assessment of these efforts would more strongly validate the use of such projects. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2007.