(233b) Implementing a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) Project in a Chemical Engineering Fluid Flow Course
AIChE Annual Meeting
2023
2023 AIChE Annual Meeting
Education Division
Teaching Transport Phenomena
Wednesday, November 8, 2023 - 8:18am to 8:36am
Video conferencing tools allow collaborative opportunities among students and faculty in Chemical Engineering worldwide. A well-established approach to engaging students from different institutions or countries in a remote setting is known as collaborative online international learning (COIL). An attractive feature of COIL is the low-cost and travel-free opportunity for students to engage with a different culture directly. Different levels of interactions are possible with this type of pedagogy and can vary from a few weeks to an entire semester. The unique interactions can also provide cross-cultural learning experiences under the right conditions.
This work discusses several aspects of a COIL project involving student participants from the University of Dayton (Dayton, OH) and Universidad Centroamericana, UCA (El Salvador). Students were placed in teams of four and had approximately three weeks to work on the theoretical design of a viscometer with certain limitations. Before working on the theoretical viscometer design, students recorded short introductory videos (~ 2 – 3 mins) including name, location, birthplace, hobbies, the reason(s) for choosing chemical engineering as a major, or any other information that the student wished to disclose and the expectations for this COIL activity. Students, for example, were also tasked to describe their favorite place on their campuses by sending pictures to the online forum. Students in both countries had complete access to the University of Dayton Learning Management System (UD LMS).
Discussion forums were also available online for each participating team. First, to initiate the conversation, students brainstorm ideas individually and then share them with their teams. Flexibility was a vital aspect of this COIL activity. Differences in student enrollment, time zone, languages, and semester duration were determined initially to establish the project's timeline. Next, most students decided on the communication level via video conference or texting. Next, the instructors requested meeting notes or screenshots to confirm that the teams interacted throughout the project, and both instructors provided continuous feedback to all the teams. Lastly, students had to record a technical video presentation about the design of the viscometer following a Pechakucha video-style presentation. This presentation format has 20 slides with 20 seconds for each slide (automatically timed), totaling 6 minutes and 40 seconds. Slides should be primarily pictures, figures, tables, or drawings, which could include equations.
Most of the COIL teams performing the viscometer design had positive interactions and enjoyed the activity as they learned about students studying chemical engineering in another country. However, miscommunication among team members occurred in a few cases, leading to frustration. Lastly, we discuss potential aspects to improve for future COIL implementations.
This work discusses several aspects of a COIL project involving student participants from the University of Dayton (Dayton, OH) and Universidad Centroamericana, UCA (El Salvador). Students were placed in teams of four and had approximately three weeks to work on the theoretical design of a viscometer with certain limitations. Before working on the theoretical viscometer design, students recorded short introductory videos (~ 2 – 3 mins) including name, location, birthplace, hobbies, the reason(s) for choosing chemical engineering as a major, or any other information that the student wished to disclose and the expectations for this COIL activity. Students, for example, were also tasked to describe their favorite place on their campuses by sending pictures to the online forum. Students in both countries had complete access to the University of Dayton Learning Management System (UD LMS).
Discussion forums were also available online for each participating team. First, to initiate the conversation, students brainstorm ideas individually and then share them with their teams. Flexibility was a vital aspect of this COIL activity. Differences in student enrollment, time zone, languages, and semester duration were determined initially to establish the project's timeline. Next, most students decided on the communication level via video conference or texting. Next, the instructors requested meeting notes or screenshots to confirm that the teams interacted throughout the project, and both instructors provided continuous feedback to all the teams. Lastly, students had to record a technical video presentation about the design of the viscometer following a Pechakucha video-style presentation. This presentation format has 20 slides with 20 seconds for each slide (automatically timed), totaling 6 minutes and 40 seconds. Slides should be primarily pictures, figures, tables, or drawings, which could include equations.
Most of the COIL teams performing the viscometer design had positive interactions and enjoyed the activity as they learned about students studying chemical engineering in another country. However, miscommunication among team members occurred in a few cases, leading to frustration. Lastly, we discuss potential aspects to improve for future COIL implementations.