The impact of role-playing simulations on global competency in an online transnational engineering course

Abstract

Successfully interacting with those from different cultures is essential to excel in any field. However, higher education engineering students are not explicitly taught to do so, which limits their professional opportunities. This is in part because current coursework in engineering does not emphasize the importance of displaying global competency skills by successfully interacting with those from different cultures. Further, many institutions struggle with determining which strategies and activities are universally effective and allow students to practice the global competency skills now crucial for success. Students have an increasing number of opportunities to learn to display global competency due to the prevalence of transnational education methods where students learn online alongside students located in different countries. Future engineers will spend substantial amounts of time in these environments, and learning to work with those from other cultures using transnational platforms is essential. Current coursework must now employ strategies, such as embedding interactive role-playing simulations, in order to encourage students to develop and illustrate global competency skills in transnational settings. These role-playing simulations provide environments where students adopt roles, interact with other students, and explore and address realistic global problems. However, no studies have addressed whether or how role-playing simulations can help students display global competency skills in a transnational engineering course, nor have they measured students' perceptions regarding the effectiveness of using role-playing simulations for this purpose. To address this gap, this study assess the use of role-playing simulations in a transnational course involving students from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, and from Technische Universität in Dortmund, Germany. It does so by focusing on tone U.S. student and one German student, Ben and Manuela, and using survey information, observations of class sessions, analysis of student projects, and interviews with them to illustrate their experiences. Data indicate the U.S. student, Ben, adjusted the methods he used to communicate with German students and expressed an increasing awareness of the connection between engineering solutions and cultural differences. The German student, Manuela, increased her participation levels throughout the simulations as well as increasingly expressed her curiosity to know more about other cultural engineering practices. It is hoped the findings from this study informs future courses on how to instruct students in how to display the global competency skills that will help them succeed in the world that awaits them. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2013.