Stepping out of the comfort zone - and the country: Facilitating in-depth student learning through nontraditional communication assignments

Abstract

Traditional engineering education methods often are driven by the need to cover large amounts of important material in the short time allowed by the semester or quarter system. However, teaching methods that are primarily concerned with the coverage of multiple topics can sometimes cause students to remain on a lower level of Bloom's Taxonomy. This paper will discuss a series of non-traditional engineering assignments that were given as part of a studyabroad program. The instructors of this course intentionally employed unconventional assignments in order to affect students on a higher cognitive level. Students worked in nontraditional modes and genres about familiar topics in engineering education. Students visited manufacturing centers, historical sites, and universities to see facets of engineering in another culture; however, the assignments associated with these visits were well outside the comfort zone of most engineering educators and students.